David Obey: “this bill spends a lot of money on foreign aid, but there is a major problem with this bill today. And that problem is…”

“this bill spends a lot of money on foreign aid, but there is a major problem with this bill today. And that problem is not money that the bill contains. It is money that the bill does not contain. Last week we were told by the Veterans Administration that after continually resisting efforts to increase funding for veterans health care, they were finally admitting that there was, in fact, a $1 billion shortfall in veterans health care funding for the present fiscal year. My understanding is that at the hearing of the Subcommittee on Military Construction this morning, the VA amended that number and they are now telling us that in addition to the $1 billion shortfall which they said they had in this fiscal year, they are saying that they are going to need $1.5 billion next year, plus another $1.1 billion if the Congress does not take action with respect to co-payments and enrollment fees that the Congress has already decided that it will not support. So in other words, there is a huge hole in the Veterans Administration health care funding and it is growing. Now, we have had to endure a lot of cynical comments from some Members on the other side over the past 2 years because the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards) and I and several others have tried at every opportunity to get more money into the budget for veterans health care. In fact, I recall at one point the gentleman from Texas (Mr.…”