Tim Walz: “I thank Chairman Skelton and Ranking Member Hunter for bringing this good piece of legislation to the floor. This bill…”

“I thank Chairman Skelton and Ranking Member Hunter for bringing this good piece of legislation to the floor. This bill, H.R. 1585, fulfills our basic duty in this Congress to provide for the national defense. There are several important pieces of this legislation that are particularly meaningful to me as a 24-year veteran of our Army National Guard. There is an amendment in here to address the issue of the Federal tuition assistance program that too many of our returning servicemembers are unable to use. It also includes an important provision that we worked on in the VA Committee on making sure the electronic medical records between DOD and VA truly do become seamless. Finally, there is a very important repeal of changes that were made to a 200-year-old piece of legislation, the Insurrection Act, that Mr. Davis from Virginia and I worked on with our Nation's Governors that will restore individual State control over their National Guard units. These provisions are only a small part of this bill. There's a needed pay raise and expanded care and research into TBI for our returning warriors. This legislation is packed with provisions to make good on this Congress' promise that we will keep every single promise to our veterans and make them a priority. Our most precious resource in our national defense are those service-members who are willing to risk everything to defend this Nation. I urge my colleagues to support this.”