Ranking Member Wasserman Schultz Floor Remarks on House Republicans 2024 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Bill

"I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 4366. The fiscal year 2024 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies bill is sadly not one that I can support.

Back in May, the subcommittee mark of the MilCon-VA bill cut the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund by $14.7 billion in 2024 and completely eliminated the Toxic Exposures Fund in 2025, less than a year after we passed the bipartisan PACT Act that promises dedicated funding for veterans of all wars exposed to Agent Orange, burn pits, and other toxic substances.

This was in addition to the Default on America Act introduced in April by Republicans which included a $2 billion rescission to immediately cut critical funding for VA and included no protections for veterans funding.

We pushed back hard on these cuts as Democrats, and we were successful.

Thankfully, as part of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, President Biden was able to undo that grievous harm by delivering the promise we all collectively made to our veterans by fully funding the Toxic Exposures Fund.

However, the problems did not stop there, and Democrats made significant efforts to right the other major wrongs in this bill, but unfortunately, to no avail.

The MilCon-VA bill is traditionally one of the more bipartisan bills, but this year it is riddled with partisan riders, coming out of Full Committee on a party line vote, significantly worse off than when it started.

Riders that include preventing VA from implementing its interim final rule that provides access to abortions for the life or health of the mother and in the cases of rape or incest, as well as abortion counseling -- to provide healthcare services for women who desperately need it and importantly, to ensure that veterans have equal access to healthcare regardless of what state they live in.

It includes riders that do everything from prohibiting VA from implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives as well as training, prohibiting VA from flying the Pride Flag over VA facilities, creating a license for people and organizations to discriminate against LGBTQI+ people under the guise of religious liberty and prevents the federal government from adequately responding, and prohibiting access to gender-affirming care, further disenfranchising veterans from VA.

VA is a place where all veterans should feel welcome, included, and cared for. All veterans means ALL veterans, and what this bill does is shameful.

On the MilCon side, this bill cuts funding for servicemembers and their families by $1.5 billion compared to the enacted level -- compared to CURRENT services. In fact, this bill is $200 million lower after the Full Committee markup than when it was first introduced in Subcommittee. Even after the agreement with President Biden was signed into law, this bill cuts even more.

We have a recruitment and retention problem, and this bill cuts funding for military construction.

We have major quality of life issues for our servicemembers, and this bill cuts funding for military construction.

This bill cuts dedicated funding for PFAS forever chemicals remediation and cleanup, which is a cut of $200 million from the current level, and dedicated funding for military installation climate change and resilience projects, which is a cut of $90 million from the current level.

There is an enormous need for funds to clean up PFAS forever chemicals contamination at BRAC sites as the Services are still in the early stages of dealing with PFAS forever chemicals contamination.

Dedicated PFAS forever chemicals funding has previously been provided in this bill to ensure continued progress in remediating contamination at closed bases, and to minimize the impact for those surrounding communities. This is critical funding needed to fulfill our commitment to ensure those pieces of land are safe for future use and for people who live nearby.

Furthermore, neglecting to continue investing in protecting our installations from climate change is a national security risk. We all know how extremely costly disaster assistance funding is. Last year we provided DOD with $90 million, a comparatively small sum of funding now, which will pay huge dividends in the future and ensure our national security in the face of our changing climate. By eliminating the dedicated resilience funding this year, this bill would threaten future military readiness.

Cutting military construction by $1.5 billion slows our historically bipartisan efforts to reduce the infrastructure backlog to strengthen our national security and to improve the quality of life of our servicemembers and their families. We are backtracking on our commitment to our servicemembers and their families.

To make matters worse, veterans rely on programs throughout the federal government, not just programs in this bill.

Instead of honoring the bipartisan budget agreement that this chamber voted into law just last month, the FY24 House appropriations bills collectively break the commitment that was negotiated, agreed to, passed by a majority of Congress, and signed into law by President Biden to adequately fund critical domestic investments, and instead these bills are written to the same exact number used before negotiations even began.

These drastic cuts diminish access to education, transportation, job opportunities, and food assistance that veterans and their families rely on.

Is there no line that won't be crossed? Is there no population that is off limits?

The MilCon-VA bill is just one piece of the puzzle, and gutting all the other programs that veterans and their families rely on throughout the federal government breaks our promises to veterans, pulling the rug out from under those who served our country and whom we promised to take care of upon their return home. I cannot and will not support it.

The House MilCon-VA bill, as well as all eleven other appropriations bills, are headed for a collision course with the Senate, who got to work in a bipartisan manner to complete appropriations bills on time, consistent with the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

These appropriations bills renege on the agreement and risk an automatic, across the board cut with a CR, towards which we are clearly headed, or worse, a government shutdown.

I will follow one of the first tenets I learned as a legislator -- your word is your bond. And I will stand by our veterans and our servicemembers by opposing this bill that deprives them of the services, care, and quality of life they have earned and deserve.

I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time."

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