Blunt: Majority Fails to Pass Veterans' Funding Bill in Time for Veterans Day

A full 146 days removed from initial House passage, and Democrats still

can't find a way to complete their work

    WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- House Republican Whip Roy
 Blunt (Mo.) issued the following statement today after Democrats once again
 turned aside a Republican effort to complete work on a veterans' housing,
 health care and benefits bill before Veterans Day. The vote represented the
 10th time Democrats have rejected such a proposal:
 
     "When the House first took up and overwhelmingly passed the veterans'
 appropriations bill 146 days ago, none of us could've anticipated we'd be
 standing here today - the last legislative day before Veterans Day -
 without a final bill. But maybe we should have. After all, Democrats have
 used seemingly every measure concerning our Armed Forces as an opportunity
 to induce surrender in Iraq and pass billions of dollars in unrelated
 pork-barrel spending. This is just the latest example of it.
 
     "But even with all that, many of us thought they'd treat the veterans'
 funding bill differently. This is, after all, a piece of legislation that
 honors and serves the men and women who have done so much to protect the
 country in which we have the privilege to live today. These are the men and
 women we will honor on Monday - Veterans Day - with parades and accolades.
 But thanks to Democrats in Congress, we won't be honoring them with the
 spending bill they deserve. And the reason? The politics of the moment won
 out over the needs and priorities of our men and women in uniform."
 
     NOTE: House Republican leaders sent the speaker a letter more than a
 month ago urging her to appoint conferees to complete work on the veterans'
 and military construction appropriations bill. That letter has not produced
 a response - but Democrats have made sure to marshal their resources to
 turn aside 10 separate Republican attempts to finish work on the measure.
 
     Last month, Marty Conatser, national commander of the 2.7
 million-member American Legion, suggested in a news release that "Sen. Reid
 personally assured me that the MilCon-VA appropriations bill would be
 passed by Veterans Day," adding "this appropriations bill has been held up
 far too long."
 
 
 

SOURCE House Republican Whip Roy Blunt