Unanimous Consent Request--Calendar No. 153

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, you know, it is truly an honor to work with the veterans in Tennessee, and we have hundreds of thousands of veterans in our State.

I know that the chairman says he prides himself in working with the veterans. I will tell you, quite frankly, I consider it a humbling experience to work with these veterans. Whether they are from World War II or Korea or Vietnam or whether they are from any of our recent wars--the Mideast--whether we are dealing with Agent Orange or burn pits, to me it is heart-wrenching to hear their stories.

And the VA has not done their job. So what we are doing is standing up for these veterans and saying to the VA: Get your act together. Provide this information. How do you deal with this backlog? Do you have the capability to deal with what we are discussing? Do you have that capability? What is your capacity? How do we best handle these issues?

The VA, for years--decades, decades, decades--has not done their job in a timely manner, in a responsive manner to our Nation's veterans. Therefore, let's say: Let's get this right. Let's get it right.

Excuse me. There is a fly in this Chamber.

Let's get it right now.

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