Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Surface Transportation Act (H.R. 3236) another short-term extension which also contained unrelated provisions involving the Veterans Choice program. Following his vote against the bundled bill, U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce released this statement:
“This short-term Surface Transportation patch will not provide the certainty that the state of New Mexico and businesses need to plan long-term infrastructure projects,” said Pearce. “Not only does this bill fail to address the long-term needs of highways, it uses questionable methods to pay for this patch, which do not meet the standards that Congress is expected to uphold.”
“To make matters worse, the House Leadership rolled the Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act into the Surface Highway Transportation bill in order to increase votes. This language would address additional budget shortfalls brought on by VA mismanagement. Although I was tempted to vote for the legislation because of this fix, I cannot at the expense of yet another short-term highway bill. Even though Congress passed landmark Veterans Choice legislation in 2014, the VA remains broken and is now demanding that Congress authorize the Department to draw funds from beneficial programs to pay for other poorly handled and unaccountable ones.
“While I am discouraged that veterans are once again being used as pawns and are at the losing end of VA mismanagement, I cannot in good faith support another temporary patch on the transportation bill. I look forward to working with my House colleagues on a long-term bill to avoid this dangerous trend of short term measures that fail to provide the necessary certainty that New Mexico needs. And, I would hope that our leadership keeps these issues separate in the future,” Pearce concluded.