[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 97 (Friday, June 27, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1400-E1401]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         MILITARY CONSTRUCTION

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                         HON. CIRO D. RODRIGUEZ

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 26, 2003

  Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, it is an outrage that we are today 
considering a military

[[Page E1401]]

construction bill that cuts funding for desperately needed facilities 
by $1.5 billion from last year's bill.
  It is an outrage that, as young men and women in uniform are fighting 
and dying every day in Iraq, we are voting on a bill that will not 
provide needed funds for housing for their families; for dormitories or 
young airmen, sailors, soldiers, and marines; and for safe facilities 
in which to work.
  The bill we are voting on today represents a sad example of a policy 
that the majority seems to be pursuing of paying lip-service to the men 
and women who risk their lives in defense of our country--while cutting 
funds for family housing, for needed pay raises, for health care for 
veterans.
  The young people who are fighting for us now in Iraq and around the 
world have been shut out of the child tax credit, and now it seems that 
we are yet again going after programs that help these brave men and 
women and the families they have left behind.
  Mr. Speaker, this is wrong, and I urge my colleagues to vote against 
this rule.

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