Granger Remarks at Military Construction and Veterans Affairs FY22 Full Committee Markup

Jun 30, 2021
Statements

Thank you, Chair DeLauro.

I appreciate the work that Chair Wasserman Schultz and Ranking Member Carter have done this year on the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs bill. Thank you for reaching across the aisle to fund many projects important to our Members.

Unfortunately, this bill is based on a funding framework that the Majority Party developed without Republican support.

This difference of opinion on both funding priorities and policy positions could slow down our appropriations process this year.

There is nothing more important than funding our nation’s military and veterans, and we must try to resolve these disagreements so that important bills like this one can be signed into law.

One area that is particularly concerning in this bill is that it fails to include long-standing language prohibiting the transfer of detainees currently at Guantanamo Bay to the United States.

These detainees are the worst of the worst, and we need assurance that they will not be moved to our soil.  

In addition, the report goes well beyond our committee’s jurisdiction with its language about fertility treatments for veterans.

This is a complicated issue that should be carefully considered by the appropriate authorizing committee – the House Veterans Affairs Committee. 

We must move past these controversial provisions so that we can do the good things proposed in this bill:

  • Fund the many important and needed military construction projects;
  • Improve military family housing and child development centers; and
  • Make certain that our veterans have a dignified final resting place. 

With just less than 100 days left before the end of this fiscal year, we need to get to work now to develop a plan to get appropriations bills enacted that have bipartisan support.

It is our responsibility to provide our military and veterans with the funding they need.

In closing, I would like to thank all of the subcommittee members and the staff for their hard work on this bill, specifically our Minority clerk, Betsy Bina, and the Majority clerk, Lisa Molyneux.

Thank you, Madam Chair, I yield back.