[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 21]
[House]
[Page 29777]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      OUR VETERANS DESERVE BETTER

  (Ms. GRANGER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. GRANGER. Madam Speaker, it's been over 140 days since the House 
passed the MilCon-VA appropriations bill. Already a month into the new 
fiscal year and we have yet to send a single appropriations bill to the 
President, including the bill that funds our veterans.
  We should have sent the President the MilCon-VA appropriations bill 
weeks ago when the Senate appointed their conferees, but the Democrat 
House leadership consistently refused to do so. Our veterans deserve 
better, and the actions of the majority are completely unacceptable.
  House Republicans have been asking for weeks, and we're standing 
united today, asking the MilCon-VA appropriations bill be sent to the 
President, standing alone, and not attached to the expensive Labor-HHS 
appropriations bill. The Labor-HHS bill is $9.8 billion over the 
President's request, and the President's been waiting to veto it since 
it passed the House.
  Our veterans deserve better. They shouldn't be used as a political 
tool for the majority.
  Those who have sacrificed so much for their country deserve to be 
Congress' first priority.

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