Veterans Benefits Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. NUNNELEE. I want to thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding time, but I also thank him for his leadership on behalf of veterans.

Mr. Speaker, the House and the Senate have already passed a measure that would pay for our troops in the middle of this government shutdown, and it's proper that we do this.

This morning, I had the privilege of meeting with 91 veterans from all over the State of Mississippi, who were in our Nation's Capital as part of an Honor Flight. When we arrived at the World War II Memorial, we found the entrance was blocked because of the government shutdown. Now, for these heroes of the Greatest Generation--those men who stormed the beaches of Normandy while facing German machine gun nests, those men who saw their friends die on Iwo Jima--even though these heroes may now be confined to wheelchairs, a few Park Service barricades were no obstacle.

It was my privilege to meet with them at the memorial that has been built in their honor. But the real way that our Nation pays tribute and thanks them for their service is for us to keep our commitment to them, our commitment in the form of VA benefits, of health care benefits, of disability benefits. Let us not fail those who have sacrificed so much for our Nation by failing to ensure that our veterans are provided the benefits and the services that they have earned. That's why I rise in support of this bill.

Our obligation to our troops does not end when a war is over, and we must ensure that our military men and women are provided with the care and the benefits they deserve both during and after their service. We have all agreed to unanimously fund this generation's military. Let us also agree to fund that of the previous generation's.

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