Political Quotes

“I thank the ranking member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee and Mr. Bost for their leadership and support in trying to fix a wrong. Mr. Bost, I think, perfectly described the intent of this bill and what the problem is, and I think Mr. Takano did a great job in helping us understand what pain is incurred when veterans in a fiduciary status experience fraud and cannot get reimbursed in a timely manner for their benefits. As both gentlemen indicated, we have examples of veterans who have died before this issue is adjudicated. That is wrong. No veteran and no family of a veteran should have to go through that once the determination has been made that fraud has occurred. More than 50 percent of the people in this fiduciary category are pensioners. As Mr. Takano said, this is among the most vulnerable population of veterans, so they are easy to defraud, easy to exploit and take advantage of, and the government must stand by those men and women who served in uniform, served bravely, and deserve the best treatment from their government, not negligent treatment. Today, this bill, H.R. 4016, the Veterans Fraud Reimbursement Act, grew out of actually an encounter I had with veterans in my district who were describing this very problem. We can't solve every problem, but this one we can. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for making this a bipartisan effort.…”