Political Quotes

“As the ranking member of the Disability Assistance Memorial Affairs Subcommittee of the Veterans' Affairs authorizing committee, I rise today in support of this appropriations bill, and I thank the chairman and the ranking member for the hard work that they put into this bill. One of the main reasons that I support it is because it furthers our goal of eliminating the VA benefits backlog, which is an issue our committee has worked on daily for the last year and a half. One of my top priorities is ensuring that our Nation's heroes receive all the benefits they have earned in a timely fashion. While I support this bill, I would like to take just a minute or two to raise an issue that is troubling to me and hope to bring it to the attention of the other Members of the House. I know many of my colleagues will be deeply saddened to learn that some veterans and their families across the country are being denied the benefits that they earned while serving our Nation. A recent example of this discrimination against some of our Nation's veterans was highlighted in a report by CBS News just last week. Seventy-four-year-old Madelynn Taylor of Boise, Idaho, proudly served her country in the United States Navy for 6 years. She lost her spouse in 2012 and soon after began the task of making arrangements to ensure that the two of them would be together in death just as they were in life. Being a veteran, Madelynn had the right to be interred at a State or national veterans cemetery.…”