[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15756]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          VETERANS HEALTH CARE

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, talk is cheap, but health care is very 
expensive; and for the last 5 years, the Bush administration has 
offered our veterans empty rhetoric while denying them access to needed 
health care.
  As veterans groups and Democrats fought to increase the veterans 
budget for the last 3 years, the Republican majority and the White 
House have been in deep denial. But I get weekly reports, and I bet you 
do too, from my veterans rep who tells me that people's treatment has 
been delayed, denied, people who cannot even get in the door for 6 
months.
  Now, 2 weeks ago, the administration admitted, well, I guess we need 
another $1 billion for health care for veterans this year. Today they 
said it is $3 billion more; but they say, oh, you know, we just could 
not have known, we could not have anticipated there would be veterans 
coming home from Iraq or Afghanistan who are wounded and injured and 
need services. They did not know there was a war going on. And they 
also said they could not anticipate the aging of the World War II and 
Korean veterans. They did not build that into the budget. They just did 
not know.
  But they had a chairman on that side for a couple of years who told 
us he did know. He told us we needed more money, and they fired him 
from that job. At least a few Republicans are standing up for what is 
right.

                          ____________________