[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 18002]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AND VETERANS AFFAIRS APPROPRIATIONS BILL

  Mr. REID. Madam President, as I mentioned yesterday morning, the 
Republican leader is right about a lot of what he talked about 
regarding the Military Construction-VA-HUD legislation, but the one 
thing he just glossed over is that as a result of our holding firm--we 
as a Democratic caucus holding firm--the veterans now have $2 billion 
more than they would have, had we followed the Republicans' lead--$2 
billion more--allowing 70,000 veterans to be treated who wouldn't have 
been otherwise. So we are satisfied that this bill is a good bill, and 
it is a good bill because veterans are getting $2 billion more. There 
are other reasons, of course. I think the bipartisan support we got for 
the bill was important, but for our veterans, the most important part 
was $2 billion extra.

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