[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 94 (Wednesday, July 13, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H5748]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


.


                          FUNDING FOR VETERANS

  (Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, the cornerstone at the Department of 
Veterans Affairs from the time of Abraham Lincoln has read: ``To care 
for them who shall have borne the battle, their widows, and their 
orphans.'' Why can this administration not keep that promise?
  Veterans who have served our country and are now coming home, and the 
World War II, Korean, Vietnam and Persian Gulf War vets who are aging, 
are lined up, over 50,000 currently waiting to get into the system. Our 
doctors and nurses are stressed out.
  We know we need $1 billion additional funds for veterans health care. 
We seem to be able to find money for everything else in the world, but 
the administration cannot get it right, or does not want to get it 
right on veterans care. A couple of weeks ago they said they did not 
need any more money. Then, yesterday, they said, oh, wait, maybe we 
need $300 million, when their own chairman that they took off the 
committee 2 years ago, robbing him of his distinguished career here in 
public service to veterans, told us we needed $1 billion, and they 
ripped him off the committee.
  That is really wrong. It is not meeting our commitments to those on 
whom our freedom rests. And do my colleagues know what? It is having a 
major impact on our ability to recruit in our Guard, Reserve and Army, 
because they do not believe that this country will keep the promise 
that we have had enshrined since Lincoln . . . to care for those who 
have borne the battle.

                          ____________________