House Republicans Walked Out Of A Hearing About How VA Can Better Meet The Needs Of Women Veterans

Another Republican walking out? Why am I not surprised?


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As if House Republicans haven’t made themselves look shitty enough lately, the group of sycophantic Trump minions have now upped their ante after they stormed out of a Veterans’ Affairs Committee meeting in the House when the subject of meeting women veterans’ needs came up.

Democrats and Republicans alike were supposed to be coming together to work on a bipartisan bill named after the historic 1700’s woman veteran, Deborah Sampson. But according to House Democrats, their Republican counterparts walked out of the meeting after Dems say GOP members attempted to hijack the bill, while the GOPers claimed the other side was suppressing any debate on the matter.

Members of the House, Republican and Democratic alike were supposed to be working on the mark-up of the bill that’s meant to improve and remove barriers around care for women veterans, dubbed the Deborah Sampson Act. But according to the Military Times, not much discussion was had, as the House GOPers ultimately got up and stormed out of the meeting.

Mark Takano, Chairman of the House Committee of Veterans’ Affairs stated, “House Republicans just walked out on women veterans by refusing to vote on a historic and monumental bill to extend care and benefits included in the Deborah Sampson Act.”

Despite the fact that the bill was a bipartisan effort, Republican House members were unsurprisingly quick to label the Act a partisan hack and accuse their Democratic colleagues of “attempting to hijack a bipartisan bill backed by 14 Veteran Service Organizations.”

Tennessee Republican Rep. Phil Roe stated, “I’m embarrassed to be on the committee today. Today, we made a partisan committee out of this work.”

Takano further explained in his statement, “My Republican colleagues had a seat at the table every step of the way. Instead of bringing forth meaningful, productive additions to legislation that will improve the lives of women veterans, they added toxic, partisan amendments – none of which worked to address how women veterans receive care.”

Essentially, Republicans continually attempted to add nonsense to the bill, such as VA daycare credentialing issues and firearm possession rights and ended up rather vexed when the Democratic side wouldn’t allow nonsensical debate on the attempted controversial additions.

Rep. Roe fired back at Takano, stating “I’ve been here 11 years in this committee which is the most bipartisan committee in Congress. We took pride in that. I have never seen this type of behavior since I have been here in this committee. We’ve never suppressed the debate. We’ve always allowed the debate. … That’s how our country works … I’m embarrassed by what this committee has become.”

“Republicans chose to walk away from our markup and walk out on the 2 million women veterans whose lives will be enhanced by this legislation,” Takano stated.

It seems the Republicans are taking tips from Daddy Donald — if you don’t like the way things are going, just storm out like a petulant toddler. Especially when there’s even a whisper of powerful women involved.

Featured image via screen capture

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