Funding for Our Veterans

FUNDING FOR OUR VETERANS -- (House of Representatives - November 06, 2007)

(Mr. SHADEGG asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. SHADEGG. Madam Speaker, I rise today to express my disappointment and sadness at the majority's politicization of funding for our veterans.

This is a sad day. Today, the majority is tying Veterans Affairs funding to outrageous overspending in a completely separate bill to pork. That is a sad day. It's using our veterans for political gain.

America's veterans deserve better than that. They deserve the support of the American people, and they certainly deserve the support of this Congress.

Yet, as you've heard, the Veterans Affairs appropriations act passed this Congress months ago. It should have gone to the President. But here we stand today fighting the leadership of the Democratic Party who has decided to attach that bill to a separate, contentious, already bloated spending measure, essentially to blackmail our veterans.

Madam Speaker, next week is Veterans Day, and this is how we're honoring our veterans who have served our country and fought for our freedom.

Our veterans deserve the money in this legislation. They deserve to have the appropriation passed as a stand-alone. I call on the Congress to do that now, today, and not to punish our Nation's veterans.

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