Political Quotes

“I am pleased and, I must say, relieved to describe for my colleagues the good news in the Military Construction/ VA division in the omnibus. At times, it seemed like we might not ever get here. I regret that our servicemembers and veterans have had to wait almost 6 months for us to complete our jobs, but I think our final bill is worth the wait. I want to certainly congratulate our chairman, Mr. Frelinghuysen, for his incredible patience and deft negotiating skill to bring us to this point. I also want to thank Mrs. Lowey and my comrade-in-arms Ranking Member Debbie Wasserman Schultz for her rock-solid support and keen analytic eye during this process. Thanks to the budget caps agreement, we are able to provide long overdue support to our military and their family members with a $2.4 billion, or 31 percent, increase, for a total of $10.1 billion for military construction. With that funding we are able to provide $708 million for 12 medical facilities, $249 million for DOD schools, and $8.2 billion for military construction projects in the United States. Our Members will appreciate that we were able to provide $585 million in unfunded requirements requested by the services, as well as significant increases in planning and design for Active and Reserve construction and unspecified minor construction. The bill also includes $750 million in OCO funding, more than doubling the 2017 level.…”