Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I thank Senator Feinstein. It is clear we worked very well to address the needs of veterans in our country and the…”

“I thank Senator Feinstein. It is clear we worked very well to address the needs of veterans in our country and the military construction needs of all the services in our country. I, too, thank her staff and my staff, Tammy Cameron, Dennis Balkam, and Sean Knowles, for working together to make sure we do the very best job possible and that we work together. I also add that I appreciate what Senator Feinstein said about amendments to the bill. We are going to shortly propose a unanimous consent that gives a deadline for Members who may want to do an amendment, but I hope no one will try for amendments related to Katrina or Rita because we will have another supplemental for those purposes and we would like to keep this bill in our 302(b) allocation. Speaking of Katrina and Rita, I commend the Department, especially, for the way they have handled the emergencies that have faced them. When Katrina was threatening the New Orleans and Mississippi areas, they moved the patients out of harm's way before they were threatened. Before anyone said they had to, they were calling the families of patients, explaining the options and telling the families where the patients were being moved. Records were moved to safe locations. Emergency stockpiles of prescription drugs were routed to the areas where the patients were going. It was truly a phenomenal success.…”