Political Quotes

“I rise today to emphasize the importance of the MILCON-VA and Zika conference bill. As a member of the conference committee that crafted this report and a member of the subcommittee that drafted the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill, I cannot overstate the significance of this legislation. Sadly, we have watched the Senate Democrats play politics with critical funding for our military, our veterans, and funding to combat Zika. In my view, this stunt--and I call it a stunt because that is what it is--is both dangerous and disheartening. It is an insult to the men and women who sacrifice so much to keep us safe. It is a reckless game to play with our veterans and public health across this country. The conference report includes record-level funding for America's veterans. It fully funds the VA's request for veterans' medical services and provides an overall increase of nearly 9 percent for our veterans programs. It includes measures for the Department of Veterans Affairs to improve access and efficiency for military services. We certainly know we have a long way to go before we get satisfaction there. We have a long way to go to reduce the backlogs in claims processing, strengthen our whistleblower protections, and improve information technology in medical research. The drug epidemic plaguing our Nation has unfortunately hit our veterans community particularly hard, especially in my home State of West Virginia.…”