North Shore Louisiana News

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On July 27, 2023, House Majority Leader Scalise (R-La.) joined House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Congressman Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas), Congressman Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.), Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa), and House Republicans to celebrate the passage of H.R. 4366, the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations (MilCon/VA) Act, 2024, which funds America’s men and women in uniform and rebuffs the leftist agenda being pushed by House Democrats and the Biden Administration within our armed forces. Leader Scalise also emphasized that during the first seven months of their Majority, House Republicans continue to deliver on key pillars of their important Commitment to America, including legislation to defend parental rights and secure our southern border. 

Leader Scalise’s remarks:

"Thank you Mr. Speaker and, as they keep doubting Mr. Speaker, you and our conference will keep delivering. It’s great to be back in this room where – earlier today – we welcomed Italian Prime Minister [Giorgia] Meloni. She's a real up-and-coming and very charismatic new leader of the country of my great-great-grandparents and so many of ours. The Speaker, our Conference Chair all have descendants that come from Italy. And we talked about our shared values. We talked about a number of things our two countries are working on together with our allies, especially in Europe, and so it was great to have her here. I know she's meeting with the President later today. 

“If you look over these last seven months, this has been an incredibly busy – but productive – Congress. You know, we ran on our Commitment to America, and when we ran we said, ‘If we get the majority we will actually deliver those commitments to the American people.’ And one-by-one-by-one, we continued to do that. We passed the Lower Energy Costs Act, we passed the [Secure the Border Act]. We've worked on bills to lower inflation, to push back on the radical far-left extreme agenda of the Biden Administration, to give a Parents Bill of Rights, to focus our military again on our enemies – and especially on the threat that China poses – instead of the attacks they're making, from within the problems they're creating, that have caused a dramatic drop in recruiting.

“We have continued to deliver and today is no different having this important bill. The [MilCon/VA] bill passing is very important because the committees have been doing their work. The  Appropriations Committee has passed almost every bill out of committee, the Senate committee has finally taken up work, too. This goes back to the beginning of the Congress, when the Speaker made it clear we're not going to do omnibus appropriations bills, and you had seen a pattern for years where the Senate just wouldn't take up appropriations bills. Well, that's changed because we made it clear we were not going to continue those kinds of irresponsible actions in the House, and so it's pushed the Senate to work. But they still haven't passed any appropriations bills out of the Senate and this bill is incredibly important because it funds veterans’ health benefits. 

“It funds better housing for our military veterans. I was incredibly disappointed that a bill that's that important to the men and women – who sacrificed so much for our nation to give us the freedoms that we have today – that every single Democrat voted against veterans’ health care. Against the new housing for so many of our men and women in uniform who need and deserve it. But we still moved forward. We still said we're going get the job done because it's that important, and as Democrats have walked away on so many important votes, Republicans have still stood up and fought for the American people to try to get this country back on track, to push against the extremist agenda, and it's not going to slow down. 

“I do think it was important that – if you go back and look a few months ago – President Biden's [Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs] was spreading false information. They actually said that Republicans would cut health care benefits to veterans. It was a lie. We pointed it out at the time and they continued to spread that lie. That's not the job they're supposed to be doing and if their mission is so focused on lying and hyper partisan politics – not helping our veterans – we actually cut funding out of the public affairs department and put it into increased funding for our men and women in uniform. That was also in this bill. 

“So, we're going to continue to fight for our men and women in uniform. We're going to continue to fight to get our job done.” 

Original source can be found here.