Henry Cuellar: “I want to thank Ranking Member Lowey for yielding, and I want to thank her for her leadership that she provides in the…”

“I want to thank Ranking Member Lowey for yielding, and I want to thank her for her leadership that she provides in the Appropriations Committee. I also want to thank Chairman Frelinghuysen. As Ms. Wasserman Schultz said, we are going to miss you. We appreciate your leadership, and we thank you. You are a decent human being, and we really appreciate your friendship. I also want to thank the staff and the Members on both sides of the aisle who have worked in a very bipartisan way to address these issues that are important. Every year, we have to pass the appropriations bill. It is the train that has to pass every year. And I certainly want to thank Mrs. Lowey, the chairman, and the folks responsible for making this happen. First of all, let me talk about defense. I certainly agree with the Members that this provides billions of dollars to make sure that we restore critical military readiness programs. We have to make sure we have a strong military, and with this funding, we will. I certainly appreciate the sacrifice that the men and women make to protect our country, and this is what this appropriation bill does. We also fully fund the 2.6 percent pay raise for our military families because, again, we have to make sure that we support them because they are under very difficult times.…”