[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 173 (Thursday, November 8, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H13303-H13304]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         CELEBRATE VETERANS DAY

  (Mr. ISRAEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ISRAEL. Madam Speaker, there is bad news and good news this 
Veterans Day. The bad news is the study by Harvard Medical School that 
there

[[Page H13304]]

are 2 million veterans who don't have health insurance and are not 
eligible for veterans care, 2 million veterans. What makes it worse is 
that President Bush is banning 273,000 veterans from receiving VA care 
because they are not income eligible. So he is balancing the budget on 
the backs of middle-class and working veterans.
  The good news is that this Democratic majority passed the largest 
increase in VA health care in the 77-year history of the VA. We are 
going to add 1,800 new claims processors to make the long lines a 
little shorter and the wait shorter as well.
  Now, we have to go even further. I'm urging my colleagues to sign a 
letter that I've sent to the President demanding that he reverse the 
policy of denying health care to 273,000 veterans and not means-test 
them. We didn't means-test when we asked them to fight our battles. We 
should not means-test them when they have to come home for health care.

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