Time to Pass Veterans Funding Bill

Back in June, the House of Representatives passed an appropriations bill that significantly increases funding for veterans health care and other programs at the Department of Veterans Affairs.  The Senate passed its own version of this bill in September, and the House and Senate have even agreed on final language.  Furthermore, President Bush has announced that he is ready to sign the bill into law.  Yet leaders in Congress have refused to bring the House-Senate agreement on this vitally important bill to the floor so it can be passed and sent to the President's desk. 

Instead, the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives attempted to attach the veterans funding bill to an unrelated, pork-laden bill that did not have enough support to become law on its own.  This move violated Senate rules and was consequently defeated in the Senate.  As a result, Congress failed to send the veterans funding bill to the President by Veterans Day.  I believe it is time to put a stop to the political games and pass this funding for our veterans.

On November 7, 2007, I joined Congressman Roger Wicker, the lead Republican on the Military Construction-Veterans Administration Appropriations Subcommittee, and nearly 200 other Republicans in introducing the House-Senate agreement on veterans funding as a stand-alone bill (H.R. 4104).  I also joined a number of other members of Congress in writing to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and asking her to bring this bill to a vote.  Funding for the needs of our veterans has so much support that this bill could be on the President's desk tomorrow.  There is no excuse for further delay.