Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009

DUNCAN HUNTER NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2009 -- (House of Representatives - May 22, 2008)

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Mr. EDWARDS. Well, Mr. Speaker, I think this could be called the fig leaf motion to recommit because it will allow a number of Members on one side of the aisle in this House who voted against the GI Bill in the supplemental appropriation bill just a few days ago to now say they voted for the GI Bill after they voted against the GI Bill.

For the record, the Senate has passed the GI Bill, and I ask my colleagues who voted against it the other day to join with us in a bipartisan effort to pass the new 21st century GI Bill.

In regard to sending this back to committee, I would like to send a clear message as someone who's represented over 40,000 soldiers who fought in Iraq during my time in Congress, I would like to send them a message before Memorial Day that this House is together on sending them a 3.9 percent pay raise.

I respect my friend, my colleague from Texas, Mr. Conaway, on energy issues. We work together on many of them. But this is a defense authorization bill. And at the last moment with no notice, I would love to test every Member of the House on how much you know about section 526 of the Energy Security Act that Mr. Conaway went through very quickly. Nobody has seen this. We don't know what the implications are of putting oil refineries on military bases.

So that's the reason to vote ``no'' on this. Let's say ``no'' to the fig leaf and ``yes'' to helping veterans in a real way with the real GI Bill.

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