[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 15]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 21416]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




DEPARTMENTS OF VETERANS AFFAIRS AND HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, AND 
             INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2004

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                             HON. TOM UDALL

                             of new mexico

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 25, 2003

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2861) making 
     appropriations for the Departments of Veterans' Affairs and 
     Housing and Urban Development, and for sundry independent 
     agencies, boards, commissions, corporations, and offices for 
     the fiscal year ending September 30, 2004, and for other 
     purposes:

  Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. Mr. Chairman, I rise today with great 
disappointment in what occurred in the House today with regard to the 
veterans' budget.
  Last spring, the original budget resolution passed in the House by a 
narrow vote reduced funding for veterans medical care by a total of $28 
billion over ten years, a far cry from what is needed for the health of 
our veterans today. After much debate about the veterans' budget, many 
members of this body--including every member of the House Veterans' 
Affairs Committee--fought to increase the amount of funding for 
veterans in the budget resolution to at least the amount promised by 
the Senate. Thankfully, after a hard fight, the budget resolution that 
eventually came out of conference increased mandatory funding, but left 
discretionary programs, such as medical care, subject to cuts in future 
years.
  When the joint budget resolution came out of conference, those of us 
in the House who had been fighting against cuts for veterans health 
care were encouraged that by engaging in constructive dialogue with 
leaders of the House, we could come to a resolution that would not 
leave veterans out in the cold. Today, that sense of encouragement is 
gone.
  Today, the House Rules Committee refused to even consider amendments 
that would have added veterans' health care funding to a seriously 
deficient VA-HUD Appropriations bill. I am baffled as to why the 
Committee would not even allow consideration of an amendment that would 
have brought funding to the previously promised amount. The amendment, 
offered by the Chairman and Ranking Democratic Member of the Veterans' 
Affairs Committee with the support of the Chairman and Ranking Member 
of the Committee's Health Subcommittee, was clearly bipartisan and 
would have added $1.8 billion to veterans health care--the amount 
agreed to in our final budget resolution.
  The President and some of the leaders of this House defend their poor 
records of veterans health care by claiming that they increased the 
funding, so that should be good enough. It doesn't take a professional 
policy degree to figure out that our veterans who served, and continue 
to serve our country so honorably, are aging. They need clinics. They 
need doctors. They need appointments to see those doctors soon, not in 
six months. The need is increasing, but the funding is not keeping up 
with it. We promised we would help them, and today, this grossly 
inadequate appropriations bill breaks that promise.
  My vote against the VA-HUD Appropriations bill is not only a protest 
against this harmful cut in health care for our nation's bravest, but 
also a statement against the promises broken by this body. As my 
colleague, Representative Robert Simmons, on the House Veterans' 
Affairs Committee stated earlier, ``an officer's word is his bond.'' It 
is a meaningful phrase to many veterans, and one that I hope the House 
of Representatives can live up to in the future when considering 
funding for the well being of our veterans.

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