[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 14]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 19875-19876]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      THE REAL MEANING OF RESPECT

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 25, 2003

  Mr. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my opposition 
and my outrage over the rule designed to govern the debate over the 
FY04 VA-HUD Appropriations bill. This rule, by not allowing two 
amendments to be made in order, severely restricts the ability of this 
body to take care of its obligations. These two amendments, one by 
Representative Smith of New Jersey and Representative Evans of Illinois 
would have increased the funding for veterans' health care to the level 
that we promised in the budget resolution passed earlier this year. The 
other, by Representative Edwards of Texas, would have provided an 
additional $2.2 billion for VA medical care by reducing the recently-
passed tax cuts for taxpayers with yearly incomes in excess of a 
million dollars. Both amendments were shut-down by the Rules Committee 
on a party line vote. I am shocked that the House Republican leadership 
would make such a choice, but I am not surprised.
  Repeatedly, we have seen the Republicans in this body choose to break 
their promises to millions of Americans so that they can give tax cuts 
to the already wealthy. They passed a Labor, Health and Human Services 
and Education Appropriations bill that left millions of children behind 
by failing to live up to their promise to provide enough funding to 
ensure that every child would receive a decent education. And now my 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle have turned their backs on 
veterans so that they can give their rich friends a slap on the back. I 
have heard my colleagues from the other side of the aisle speak at 
length about their deep respect for the service our veterans have 
performed for our country. But, I must ask if breaking promises to our 
veterans is the Republican way of showing them that respect. Is it 
respectful to mouth the words of respect while allowing our veterans to 
wait months for doctors' appointments and pay more for services?
  These amendments offered a very clear choice: would you rather 
provide enough money to ensure that veterans receive decent healthcare 
services or would you rather provide massive tax cuts that benefit 
millionaires?

[[Page 19876]]

Who really cares about our nation's veterans? Who is really concerned 
about the people who have honorably served our country? Our veterans 
can not afford any more empty respect. I ask my colleagues to put the 
money where their mouths are and make the financial commitment to get 
veterans and their families the benefits they deserve.
  I urge my colleagues to vote against this rule, to work to fulfill 
our obligations to our veterans and to show them our real respect.

                          ____________________