Robin Carnahan: “It is good to join you tonight, my fellow Members from the freshman class of 2004. This obviously is something that when…”

“It is good to join you tonight, my fellow Members from the freshman class of 2004. This obviously is something that when I go back home to Missouri, whether I am at a Veterans' Day function or a 4th of July function and I talk to our veterans that have served so well and so ably, this touches their hearts. They are so proud of their service and what they have done to make our country what it is today. But there is a certain element of surprise when they talk about the disappointment that the government is not doing everything it should to take care of our current veterans, but also to take care of this new generation of veterans that we are producing in Iraq and Afghanistan today. We have a VA hospital back home in St. Louis. Like many of our colleagues, we hear continued concerns about the access and the service. I have seen a statistic that more than 60,000 veterans today are waiting more than 6 months for an appointment at a VA hospital. Part of what we have proposed as Democrats in this House is to increase funding by $1 billion to the VA to help address those issues, the resource issues and the priority issues, and also to require the VA to pay veterans $500 a month when their disability claims have been left pending for over 6 months. They should not have to suffer because the government does not have the resources or has not made it a priority to take care of them.…”