The House Passes Funding for Military Construction and the VA

Statement

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA-23) released the following statement on House passage of H.R. 4974, the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill for FY 2017:

"We have a duty to care for our veterans, and Republicans in the House have exercised our authority in this appropriations bill to ensure our military personnel and veterans are provided for responsibly.

"The VA continues to be led incompetently as problems with wait times, the disability claims backlog, and a lack of basic services let our veterans down. This legislation includes reforms that House Republicans have long called for, such as a provision to stop bonuses to VA employees who don't do their jobs and increased resources to tackle the disability claims backlog that has been a problem for too many years. We have also worked to keep our homeland safe from terrorism, and this legislation will bar the Obama Administration from closing Guantanamo Bay and building any facility to house terrorists here in the United States.

"I would like to thank Chairman Hal Rogers (KY-05) and Subcommittee Chairman Charlie Dent (PA-15), whose hard work have allowed us to begin the appropriations process with a strong and bipartisan bill."

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