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




      OUR COMMITMENT TO THE BRAVE MEN AND WOMEN WHO SERVE OVERSEAS

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, war has changed, but our commitment to 
the brave men and women who serve overseas remains the same. This 
Democratic Congress today is passing a veterans bill prioritizing 
veterans by fully funding the Veterans Administration. We recognize the 
changing needs of our new veterans by allocating funding to address 
conditions like PTSD, and we supported a pay raise for military 
families that this President, who has no trouble sending our troops and 
billions of dollars into Iraq, called unnecessary.
  Now, today, we are going to finally pass this Veterans appropriations 
bill. We are going to keep the promise we made to service men and women 
when they volunteered to serve our Nation overseas by taking care of 
them when they come home. This is the largest veterans increase for 
health care in history. This is the commitment of the Democratic prompt 
of the Democratic Congress, and we are going to make sure it happens 
today, regardless of what the President decides to do, if he vetoes it 
or not.
  We will just come back again and again and again regardless of his 
veto. We are tired of the fact that this President gets up and says 
that he supports these initiatives but then vetoes them.

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