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DEMOCRATIC PRESS RELEASE
June 15, 2007
House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Applauds House Passage of
Veterans Spending Bill
Democrats Craft Largest Annual Increase in VA
Health Care Spending in 77 Years
House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner (D-CA) released
the following statement regarding the House passage of H.R. 2642, the
Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act:
Washington, D.C. – “I applaud my colleagues for passing the largest
increase for VA health care in 77 years. H.R. 2642 sends a clear message
to America’s servicemembers that this Congress recognizes that taking
care of veterans is an ongoing cost of war, and an ongoing cost of our
national defense. It represents an unprecedented increase that comes at
a time when we are faced with unprecedented needs.
“This bill provides the resources necessary to improve health care
services, to meet the needs of our servicemembers returning from Iraq
and Afghanistan, especially in the areas of mental health and PTSD
services and traumatic brain injury (TBI) care. This bill invests in the
hiring and training of new claims processors to begin to reduce the VA
claims backlog, and provides much needed resources for medical
facilities, maintenance, and VA research.
“I want to thank Chairman Edwards for crafting this bipartisan
legislation and Chairman Obey for his leadership, as well as their
Republican counterparts. We have all worked together to make great
strides in meeting the needs of our veterans, and we shall continue to
work tirelessly and boldly in the months ahead to care for our veterans.
There is no higher responsibility of our government than to keep the
promises made to the men and women who defended our nation.”
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Larry Scott
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