Flores Votes to Honor Commitments to our Military and Veterans

Statement

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2216, the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2014. This appropriations bill provides our nation's military with the funding needed to remain strong and vigilant in the War on Terror and provides funds to maintain our promises to our nation's veterans. Following passage of H.R. 2216, Congressman Bill Flores (R-Texas) issued the following statement:

"We must ensure that we honor our commitments to our brave military men and women who defend the founding ideals of our democracy. Our troops and veterans deserve the best from the government they fought to protect. Through smart savings, we have been be able to boost funding for veterans and maintain military infrastructure. Even though our country faces acute fiscal challenges, these difficulties should not cause us to avoid fulfilling our commitments to our military and to our veterans

"The Veterans Administration has been overwhelmed with disability claims and more of our soldiers are returning home from service each day. This appropriations bill makes certain the resources are made available to help alleviate the claims backlog and provide our returning servicemembers with quality care. It will also help create a single, integrated electronic health records system between the Department of Defense and VA to create seamless, quality health care access. This integrated system will streamline the disability claims process and provide a more detailed, comprehensive medical report that will help provide better care for our veterans. This legislation holds the line on spending without compromising the quality of services provided to our troops, our veterans and their families."

H.R. 2216, provides for $73.3 billion in funding. Funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs is $2.1 billion more than FY 2013 levels, which includes funds for a paperless claims system and coordinated DoD-VA electronic health record system. Military Construction was reduced $646 million from FY 2013 levels through the trimming of spending and elimination of waste.

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