John Culberson: “Our subcommittee, Sanford Bishop, your colleague from Georgia, our entire subcommittee has worked arm in arm since early…”

“Our subcommittee, Sanford Bishop, your colleague from Georgia, our entire subcommittee has worked arm in arm since early this year, held numerous hearings, sought testimony from every organization, from the Veterans Administration--from any veterans organization. We have all worked arm in arm in producing a piece of legislation tonight that fully funds every need of every veteran and every active-duty military member of the United States anywhere in the world. We've funded every request. We've met every need. We've left no gap unfilled. In fact, not only during the committee process, but also tonight. We've been on the floor from 4:30 until 8 o'clock. Anyone could have come to the floor and offered an amendment. Frankly, you could have walked down and drafted it right here on a yellow notepad and given it to the Clerk and offered an amendment at any time. So this is not an amendment. This is a procedural stunt. It's disappointing and disheartening to see it offered at the last minute when we, on this subcommittee, more than any other subcommittee, have worked arm in arm in an absolutely bipartisan way in support of our troops. It is important for the Members to know that our committee has fully funded the request of the Veterans Administration. We've given them everything that they needed, that they asked for--$583 million for medical and prosthetic research. We've increased funding for the VA by $2.3 billion to make sure that the needs of our veterans are met.…”