[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 128 (Tuesday, July 25, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H3904]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1245
                           POWER OF THE PURSE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Houchin). The Chair recognizes the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Collins) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COLLINS. Madam Speaker, I am reminded of the old hymn, ``There Is 
Power in the Blood,'' ``power in the blood, wonder working power.'' It 
also reminds me of something else, that Congress has the power of the 
purse.
  Madam Speaker, yesterday, before I returned to D.C., I had a meeting 
with a local county official. I thought we were going to discuss 
infrastructure and workforce problems. He wanted to talk to me about 
veterans, homeless veterans, how it was increasing so much in his 
county, and the fact that we have borders that are just porous, with 
record numbers of people crossing those borders. Here we are, setting 
them up in rooms and with food, yet we have veterans all across this 
country living under bridges.
  Madam Speaker, when I got to the world's busiest airport, I ran into 
a dear friend, a marine, on his way to his next assignment. I thought 
it was very ironic because here we are this week, discussing the 
Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies 
Appropriations Act. That is right, the power of the purse.
  We owe our veterans a debt of gratitude that we can't ever repay. We 
also owe our military, our current members of the military, all the 
tools that they can get in their toolbox.
  That is why, this week, we are going to be discussing things. We are 
fully funding the health program for our veterans and fully funding the 
veterans benefits in all the VA programs. We are also focusing on 
infrastructure investments for our current military.
  There is another thing we have with that power of the purse--not just 
funding, but cutting. See, we are going to cut out of our military DEI 
and CRT, which are hurting recruitment and killing morale.
  Madam Speaker, as we go throughout this week and have this debate, 
for their salvation, I encourage my colleagues to focus on that power 
of the blood, but I also encourage them to focus on the power of the 
purse for these appropriations bills.

                          ____________________