Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies - Member Day
House Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies
2025-05-20
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Source: Congress.gov
Participants
Transcript
People standing at the door saying you're not supposed to leave. But I did leave. Unfortunately, I had a hat on, the only person in the room. So the president is definitely going to know who left, OK? But that's all right. I'll get over that. Thank you for coming here today. We like to hear from our colleagues, hear their testimony. Look forward to hearing about the projects and programs and issues in military construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Bill that are important to your district and to the communities across the country. Your input is critical as we work to fund agencies under this committee's jurisdiction. I look forward to working with the ranking member, Ms. Wasserman-Schultz, and our subcommittee colleagues to accommodate these priorities as best we can as the fiscal year 2026 appropriations process moves forward. Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today and bringing these important issues that you have about your community to our attention. And I thank Ms. Wasserman-Schultz for forgiving me for being late. I yield to Ms. Wasserman-Schultz. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and no problem.
Totally understand we all have delays for various reasons. And thank you for the opportunity for us to hear from our fellow colleagues this morning. This is always a good opportunity to make sure, especially from members who are not members of the Appropriations Committee, to hear from them about their priorities. And I look forward to our colleagues' input and feedback so it can help us develop our bill for the FY26 fiscal year.
To this committee staff, thank you all for the really important work that you're doing and for the opportunity to share with you the military construction and Veterans Affairs priorities for my home state, New Hampshire, and my district, the 2nd District. I want to start with Veterans Affairs priorities. and say at the outset that I was very encouraged that President Trump issued an executive order earlier this month highlighting a really important issue for New Hampshire, which is that we are the only state in the continental United States without a full service medical center. And that's For my district, which is for a small state a very big district, it's presented some very real problems. There are significant gaps in care. I have constituents who are driving hours to clinics which provide really good care, but often not the right kind of care that our veterans in New Hampshire need. And New Hampshire is home to more than 88,000 veterans. So I was very encouraged by the President's executive order identifying this problem and calling for a feasibility study by June 8th and a full-on action plan by September 6th to support a full-service medical center in New Hampshire and to make it so that New Hampshire is not the only state in the contiguous United States without such a center. So I want to encourage this committee to support and I want to encourage the administration to fully fund this effort. It's long past time that New Hampshire join the rest of the continental United States in having such a center. I also want to urge this committee to support the veterans, the state veterans home program. I visited New Hampshire's veterans home. It's an extraordinary facility providing really important services from skilled nursing to adult daycare healthcare. And I want to urge this committee to continue the support for that program. I also want to urge this committee to protect and prioritize the Veterans Affairs Service Purchasing Program, which was terminated by the Trump administration on May 1st.
This is a lifeline program that has helped veteran borrowers avoid foreclosure. At a moment when my state and states across the nation are in the midst of a genuine housing crisis, In the end, this is not a handout program. This is a hand up for our veterans. And I hope this committee will continue to support and protect that program. The same is true for the Veterans Crisis Line program, which there have been many reports from my district and around the country about the continued functionality, accessibility, and performance of this important lifeline. It's a genuine lifeline.
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