[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 21]
[House]
[Page 29779]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               CONCERN OVER DELAY IN FUNDING FOR VETERANS

  (Mr. KLINE of Minnesota asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KLINE of Minnesota. Madam Speaker, I rise today to join my 
colleagues in asking the leadership of this House to bring the Military 
Construction and VA funding bill to the floor for a stand-alone vote.
  Earlier this year, many of us felt the pain when a young marine in my 
district committed suicide after honorably serving in Iraq after he 
visited 2 VA hospitals. We recognize, as a body here, that we need to 
provide the funding for our VA. We passed the bill in this House, 409-
2. This is a bill with bipartisan support.
  We have heard rhetoric from the other side of the floor that says 
this is so important that we should pass this legislation no matter 
what pork-laden legislation it's tied to. That's what is the trouble 
here, my colleagues, is that the leadership of this House has taken a 
cynical action to attach an important bill that has strong bipartisan 
support to a piece of legislation they know that many of us did not 
support and the President has promised a veto.
  I ask the leadership to reach out, as one of my colleagues said, and 
work in a bipartisan way, which is easily done by separating this 
legislation. Let's get it done today.

                          ____________________