Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2006

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006

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Mr. DURBIN. I say to the Senator from Texas, she will not have to rebut any of these remarks because we agree completely. The good thing is we are talking about money for the Veterans' Administration. This is not a hard call. We have veterans returning who need help. Millions of Americans have been promised they will have a helping hand once they serve our country and need assistance in the VA system, and so we try to guess how many dollars will be needed to meet that obligation. It is a very tough calculation, tougher still because we have soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan and other places who are seriously wounded, as the Senator from Texas has just mentioned, and they, of course, are our high priority.

Senator Murray came to the floor months ago and said the administration is not making an appropriate calculation of how much money this is going to cost. We are going to end up having more veterans needing assistance than money to take care of them. For a long time she was a lonely voice, offering amendments to appropriations bills that were being defeated. It turns out 2 or 3 weeks ago she was proven right and the Veterans' Administration came forward and said, We need more money; we don't have enough.

The most positive thing that occurred was immediately Senator LARRY CRAIG, the Republican chairman of the committee, and Senator Murray came together and said, Now let's deal with this on a bipartisan basis, and the Senate did, putting $1.5 billion in emergency funding for the Veterans' Administration.

That is the good news. The bad news is the message did not get across the Rotunda to the House. They decided they were going to cut that amount to $900 million, almost in half.

You think to yourself: What are they doing here? Aren't they hearing the same things we are hearing? The Veterans' Administration needs the money, the veterans need the money.

So our message is not just to the veterans that we stand behind you. Our message is to the House of Representatives: Stand behind us, join us in the battle for $1.5 billion to make sure we keep our promise to veterans.

What we are doing, when we are not debating this, is the Homeland Security bill in light of terrorism and threats to the United States. As Senator Stabenow of Michigan has said, we need to be prepared and protected both at home and around the world. If we are going to be protected, we need the best military in the world with our support. This money for the Veterans' Administration keeps that promise to our soldiers and to our veterans.

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