[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 21]
[House]
[Page 29781]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        FUNDING FOR OUR VETERANS

  (Mr. SHADEGG asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. SHADEGG. Madam Speaker, I rise today to express my disappointment 
and sadness at the majority's politicization of funding for our 
veterans.
  This is a sad day. Today, the majority is tying Veterans Affairs 
funding to outrageous overspending in a completely separate bill to 
pork. That is a sad day. It's using our veterans for political gain.
  America's veterans deserve better than that. They deserve the support 
of the American people, and they certainly deserve the support of this 
Congress.
  Yet, as you've heard, the Veterans Affairs appropriations act passed 
this Congress months ago. It should have gone to the President. But 
here we stand today fighting the leadership of the Democratic Party who 
has decided to attach that bill to a separate, contentious, already 
bloated spending measure, essentially to blackmail our veterans.
  Madam Speaker, next week is Veterans Day, and this is how we're 
honoring our veterans who have served our country and fought for our 
freedom.
  Our veterans deserve the money in this legislation. They deserve to 
have the appropriation passed as a stand-alone. I call on the Congress 
to do that now, today, and not to punish our Nation's veterans.

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