Rep. Bilirakis Urges Immediate Completion of Veterans Spending Measure |
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WASHINGTON (23 Oct.) -- U.S.
Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis (R-Fla.), member of the House Committee on
Veterans' Affairs, today called on congressional Democrats to complete
the necessary work on a veterans and military construction spending
measure.
More than one hundred and thirty days have passed
since the House of Representatives approved by a nearly unanimous vote
of 409-2, its version of the FY 2008 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act (H.R. 2642).
The Senate passed its own version of the bill on Sept. 6, yet there
remains inaction by Democrat congressional leadership to appoint their
conferees needed to hash out differences between the two versions of
the bill.
"I urge the Democrat majority to move forward with
their selection of the conferees so that the differences in this bill
can be worked out and brought before the House and Senate for final
passage and presented to the President," said Bilirakis. "America's
veterans deserve our prompt and full attention. It is beyond me why it
has taken the Democrats so long to get their act together on what seems
to be a simple matter of picking the folks they want to sit down with
us to discuss the differences in the two versions of this bill."
For
weeks, Congressman Bilirakis has been pressing Democrat House and
Senate leaders for action on the veterans and military construction
spending bill to no avail. On September 17, Bilirakis signed a letter
to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging her "in the strongest possible
terms to reach a prompt agreement on the conference report."
In
a similar letter on Oct. 4 to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid,
Bilirakis joined his colleagues in imploring the Senate to also act.
"It is unfortunate the Senate has been unable to act upon many of its
constitutionally mandated appropriations bills," the letter said.
"While the House continues to wait upon the Senate to complete its
work, we call upon you to quickly move veterans appropriations through
conference."
Increasing funding by $6 billion, if accepted, H.R.
2642 would constitute the largest funding boost in the 77 year history
of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
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