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Three amendments to last year’s Military Construction bill were voted on in the House of Representatives today in an effort to prevent Republicans from offering their own alternatives for troop funding and veterans’ education benefits. This is the latest example of the Democrats subverting democracy by distorting parliamentary procedure.

The amendments are as follows:

"In my 35 years in Congress, I have never seen such underhanded tactics used to prevent debate as I’ve observed in this Congress" said Rep. Young. "What we are witnessing, under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi, is an absolute disgrace. Not only did they prevent the minority party from having any say in this bill as it came to the floor, but the Majority Leadership forced the defeat of an amendment to provide funding for the incredibly brave men and women fighting for our freedom in the War on Terror.

"The only part of this onslaught of amendments that I felt I could vote for was amendment three. Three bills that I cosponsored, H.R. 5740, the Post 9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act, H.R. 5749 the Emergency Extended Unemployment Compensation Act and H.R. 5613, the Protecting the Medicaid Safety Net Act are included in this bill. These three sections are too important to Alaskans for me to not support them. I am confident that any negative provisions included in this amendment will be removed in Conference.

"The majority is playing political games with the lives of our troops. This is disgraceful. Our brave men and women of the armed services deserve the proper funding, they deserve our support, and most importantly they deserve our respect. The Majority decided to strip them of that, with no reservations. They should be ashamed of themselves."

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