On the recordOctober 3, 2013
I have the privilege of representing one of the most military-friendly and veteran-friendly areas of the country, North Carolina. So I'm glad our Republican colleagues are concerned with maintaining funding for our Nation's veterans. But it's too bad they didn't think a little more about the VA before forcing this government shutdown on us Monday night. And now it's too bad they're not showing equal concern for the more than half a million veterans who now serve their country as Federal employees, many of whom have been sent home on furlough and now have bills piling up, or the veteran small business owners whose SBA loans are on hold, or the veteran parents whose kids have been turned away from Head Start, or the veterans earning their graduate degrees whose research labs have been closed. Madam Speaker, of course we need to restore full funding for the VA so it can resume its full array of services to our Nation's veterans, to whom we owe a special debt of gratitude and support. But veterans want the same thing all Americans want: for us to reopen the entire government so they can get on with their lives as parents and workers and members of their communities. You don't have to take my word for it.…





