Norman D. Dicks: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Bishop, I want to congratulate you on being the new ranking member on MilCon-VA.…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Bishop, I want to congratulate you on being the new ranking member on MilCon-VA. I also congratulate Chairman Culberson, who has, I think, done an outstanding job, and of course my good friend and colleague, Hal Rogers, the chairman of our committee. I want to also congratulate the staff. The staff has done an amazing job considering we had to go through the 2011 episode and then come right back and get the 2012 bill out. The MilCon-VA Subcommittee has always had a strong reputation for common ground and bipartisanship as members traditionally work together to fund the construction of military facilities and strive to improve the quality of life and care afforded to our veterans and military families. Many years ago, during the Reagan administration, we got David Stockman to allow us and Cap Weinberger to do incremental funding on military hospitals, and I'm glad the committee has gone back to an incremental funding approach. I think it's the only way we can do these major projects. We all acknowledge the challenges facing the Nation today with respect to the debt and deficit, and I believe this bill has done a commendable job in addressing these fiscal challenges while ensuring that we are not impacting the level of care and benefits that our servicemembers have so rightfully earned. Military construction is funded at $14 billion, which is $2.6 billion below the FY11 enacted amount and $752 million below the President's request.…”