Scott Garrett: “first of all, I wish to rise to say that I appreciate the work of both the Chair and ranking member with regard to their…”

“first of all, I wish to rise to say that I appreciate the work of both the Chair and ranking member with regard to their work on behalf of veterans of this country. The amendment that is before us is an amendment to seek increase in funds for the State veterans homes. It does so in the amount of $10 million. There are 126 facilities, veterans homes, across the 50 States and Puerto Rico. These are State veterans homes and they care for nearly 30,000 of our Nation's heroes. The number of veterans that are going to be requiring care is large and is going to continue to grow through the year 2020. And the conflict today is leading to more veterans that will need special care throughout the rest of their lives. As many of our veterans move into these extended care facilities, we must continue here in this House to ensure that the facilities are both safe and comfortable for the residents. As you may know, there is an extensive list of backlogged projects just waiting for the funds, many of them in the area of critical health and safety needs. Of the $500 million of projects waiting for Federal funds, nearly half are classified as priority one. We must also see that these facilities are able to provide for high quality of life as well for those individuals who have made great sacrifices in the past years for our Nation. These are homes, as I said before, for our heroes. They are not simply institutions that we are funding.”