[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 22]
[House]
[Pages 30349-30350]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          FUNDING OUR VETERANS

  (Mrs. DRAKE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. DRAKE. Mr. Speaker, this is day 38. That is 38 days so far that 
our veterans have not had the use of the increased funding for their 
benefits and health care. That's $18.5 million a day not able to be 
used.
  In June, this House passed this appropriation bill with a $6 billion 
increase in a bipartisan manner. On September 6, the Senate completed 
their bill. The President has agreed to sign this bill. Instead, the 
Democratic leadership has decided to use funding for our veterans as a 
smokescreen in an effort to pass billions in unrelated domestic 
spending.
  Our veterans are not pawns in a political game. They are heroes. 
These

[[Page 30350]]

funding issues should have been considered separately and on their own 
merits. Please join me in calling upon the Democratic leadership to put 
our veterans first and send a clean Veterans appropriation bill to the 
President now.

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