Pete Sessions: “I just want to say how much I appreciate the work by all the Members who worked on the veterans bill. We had some…”

“I just want to say how much I appreciate the work by all the Members who worked on the veterans bill. We had some difficulties of a very serious nature, and all of us wanted to fix that. I was not able to support the bill that came out of the Senate. We learned minutes before the vote that the average cost in the out years would be $50 billion a year if the program was funded, and there was no money to pay for that. It would really just be adding to the debt. It was sort of avoided by saying it would be a 3-year bill, but once you start these kinds of motions rolling, they never seem to end, and in the end we would be faced with a difficult situation financially. The conference committee went to work, and I salute all the people who worked on this legislation. It has some good policy issues in it. Senator Tom Coburn, who spoke earlier, was engaged in that conference. He is a doctor. He understands these matters, he cares about them, and he was actively engaged, as we all know. In Tom Coburn we have one of the Senate's finest, most committed Senators. He loves this country. Every day he tries to save us money and make us more productive. There is nobody here who works harder or is more effective in addressing that issue than he is, and he says we need to do better. He is not able to support the conference report because it will add at least $10 billion to the debt in 3 years. I will acknowledge that it is better than before.…”