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




                     COUPLING APPROPRIATIONS BILLS

  (Mr. GOODLATTE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GOODLATTE. Madam Speaker, I rise today to oppose the majority's 
plan to combine two unrelated appropriations bills, the Department of 
Labor, Health and Human Services and Department of Education and the 
funding for Veterans and Military Construction.
  I oppose this combined approach because, in doing so, the Democrat 
majority is using political maneuvering to avoid tough spending choices 
in the controversial Labor-HHS and Education bill.
  I hope we all agree that we need to keep our commitment to veterans 
by supporting veterans benefits and military construction provisions. 
But the majority should not use the popularity of veterans funding to 
build a legislative Christmas tree by including labor and health 
spending at $10 billion above the President's request.
  No one is fooled by this craven manipulation of benefits for our 
Nation's veterans. Let's debate these bills individually, rather than 
holding funding for veterans military care and military facilities 
hostage with a controversial bill.

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