On the recordJuly 7, 2016
Mr. President, I thank my colleague for once again reinforcing why it is so important for us to get this compromise bill-- this bipartisan bill on agriculture biotech--to the President's desk so we can move on to take on other matters, and that is one of the matters I want to talk about now. Again, I know that when we come into this Chamber and are on C-SPAN, sometimes for people who are watching or may be in the gallery, it is hard to understand some of what we are talking about. What I am talking about is a bill that I hope we vote on next week. It is a bill that in two separate measures went to the House with strong bipartisan support. Now it is coming back in what we call a conference report, and we are one vote away from potentially sending this bill to the President's desk. It has two parts. I am going to speak predominantly on the second part, but the first part has to do with funding our veterans. I come from the State of North Carolina. We have a population of 10 million. Ten percent of our State--nearly 1 million of our citizens-- are veterans. We are very proud of our military tradition, and we are certainly proud of those who have decided to call North Carolina their home after their military service. As a matter of fact, I think everybody in the Senate--Democrats and Republicans--has veterans as a priority. I firmly believe that.…





