Ranking Member Roe Statement on House Passage of Nine Veterans' Bills

Statement

This evening, Rep. Phil Roe, M.D. (R-Tenn.), the Ranking Member of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, issued the following statement after the House passed nine veteran bills:

"Tonight, the House passed nine bills to improve healthcare, compensation, memorial, and education benefits for our nation's veterans. Our work this evening was a fitting tribute to them, the day after our country paused in recognition of and gratitude for their brave service. One of the bills that we passed tonight by a bipartisan vote of 399 to 11 was the Deborah Sampson Act, which is legislation to honor our country's two million women veterans. As a doctor who spent three decades caring for women in private practice, I was proud to join my colleagues from both sides of the aisle in supporting this bill today. However, I continue to be troubled by the partisan manner in which Chairman Takano brought it to the House Floor and by the egregious claims he has made, even tonight about my and my fellow Republicans support for this bill and for the women it would serve. Cutting off debate during Committee meetings and making baseless claims about the intentions of Committee Members is not business-as-usual for what has been, under the previous eight years of Republican leadership, the most bipartisan Committee in Congress. I look forward to working with Chairman Takano, who I am glad to call a friend, to move forward in a manner more befitting of the men and women we are here to serve."

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