[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 90 (Thursday, June 30, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H5596]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            PROVIDING FULL FUNDING FOR VETERANS HEALTH CARE

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, for a long time I have shared 
the neighborhood with the Houston Veterans Hospital.
  Today, Mr. Speaker, just a few minutes ago, we rose to the floor of 
the House to cure the unpardonable, and that is, of course, the 
mistaken numbers and the failure to provide the right kind of 
information to be able to provide the right dollars to serve America's 
veterans. $1.5 billion is what the Senate passed.
  Frankly, the need is $1 billion and more, with the number of 
returning Iraqi veterans and Afghanistan veterans, those who have been 
maimed and injured on the fields of battle.
  It certainly is a shame that we came to the last hours and finally 
were able to provide for those veterans who were willing to give the 
ultimate sacrifice. Right now in the Nation's hospitals, veterans are 
languishing all over America. Families of enlisted personnel are 
suffering because of the lack of funds for TRICARE. I even know today a 
young man who is a veteran who is suffering in one of our Nation's 
military hospitals because of insufficiencies in our local hospital in 
Houston.
  Mr. Speaker, they need more resources, they need more staff, they 
need our commitment. I hope the majority will not have us end up in the 
same predicament by allowing this to happen again. I hope we will work 
through and provide full funding for veterans and veterans health care 
in America.

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