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Floor Speech

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Mr. OSSOFF. Mr. President, as the Senate turns now to debate the bipartisan appropriations bill to resource military construction and the VA that Senator Boozman and I have assembled, along with all of our colleagues on the Appropriations Committee, I would like to highlight what is included in this legislation.

This bill represents bipartisan support for our military servicemembers and veterans and their families. It enhances our military readiness and the quality of life for servicemembers while funding the delivery of care and benefits for our Nation's veterans.

Military construction funds are included for infrastructure that supports our servicemembers' quality of life at home and abroad and for the construction of facilities vital to our national security.

In the State of Georgia, for example, this bill includes resources to build a brandnew elementary school at Fort Benning, where there is currently a wait-list of more than 200 families trying to get into school on the base; resources to construct a new barracks at Fort Stewart, where housing has desperately needed upgrades following alarming reports of mold and pest infestation; resources to bring the F-35A flight simulators to Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta and accelerate the arrival of those aircraft to South Georgia; resources to replace the control tower at Robins Air Force Base, where our servicemembers are currently working in a tower with a leaking roof, no air-conditioning, and a broken elevator; resources for major upgrades at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, where they are continuing to prepare for the arrival of Columbia-class submarines.

Across the country, family housing for servicemembers operated by private companies has long been a disaster, as evidenced by my investigation of conditions for families living on post at Fort Gordon.

That is why this bill rejects the administration's proposed cuts to oversight of privatized family housing and provides additional resources for construction of new family housing. These are young men and women, as you well know through your service, Mr. President--many of them 19, 21, 23 years old--who signed up to serve not for money or for glory but out of their love for our country. Their entire families make sacrifices on behalf of our Nation, and they should not have to sacrifice safe, clean housing, and high-quality schools.

For years, the Department has neglected quality of life, health, and safety for enlisted servicemembers, and that neglect extends to those servicemembers' families. But this bill provides necessary and overdue investments in military quality of life.

Now to the VA. Let's be clear that these programs, services, and benefits are not a giveaway; they are the Nation's obligation to those who have put their lives and health on the line and made tremendous sacrifices and family sacrifices in defense of the United States.

For the VA, this bill provides resources to support healthcare for more than 9.2 million veterans and disability benefits to nearly 7 million veterans, survivors, and their families.

Instead of continuing senseless mass firings of VA personnel, this bill provides funding so that the VA can recruit and hire to fill long- term clinical vacancies that are contributing to long wait times for care in Georgia and across the country.

Asserting our constitutional power of the purse, this bill mandates specific funding levels for rural health, women's health, caregivers, research, and veteran homelessness prevention programs, in some cases, including required spending levels for those programs for the first time in legislative history.

It also provides funding for the VA to address the claims backlog related to toxic exposures and the implementation of the PACT Act, to continue providing education benefits to veterans, and to help secure VA home loans. All of these critical resources will better ensure that our Nation's veterans receive the care and benefits they have earned through their service.

This bill also provides necessary funding for the American Battle Monuments Commission, the U.S. Court of Veterans Appeals, and the Armed Forces Retirement Homes, as well as Arlington National Cemetery.

As ranking member of the subcommittee, I was pleased to work closely with Chairman Boozman to build a strong bipartisan bill that reflects input from colleagues on both sides of the aisle, not just on the Appropriations Committee but across the entire Senate. And I thank Senator Boozman for his collaboration and for his bipartisan work in good faith, and I extend that gratitude to Senators Collins and Murray.

Every Senator, in both parties, has had the opportunity to advocate for their State's interests and priorities, and Chairman Boozman and I have worked together to address, to the best of our ability, every Senator's needs and concerns.

Now, this bill earned bipartisan support in the Appropriations Committee because it equips the VA to make good on America's sacred promise that our servicemembers and veterans will have the resources and support they have earned through their service to our country. I encourage colleagues to come and speak with me directly about any questions or concerns with this legislation so that we can set up votes and get this bill passed in the Senate as swiftly as possible and ultimately enacted into law.

This is a bipartisan bill that was built through thoughtful deliberation, hard work, and compromise. That is how the appropriations process should work, not on the basis of party line but in the spirit of bipartisan collaboration and the national interest.

So let's deliver for the American people, the people of Georgia, our servicemembers, military families, and veterans, with the resources they need, on time, responsibly, and on a bipartisan basis.

I urge a ``yes'' vote to proceed to the bill.

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