Chairman Bost: “It's not a game. This shutdown affects real people – veterans and servicemembers – lives.”

Chairman Bost: "It's not a game. This shutdown affects real people - veterans and servicemembers - lives."

Today, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.) joined Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), and Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), to discuss the need for Democrats to end the pain they've inflicted on the American people - and America's veterans - by shutting down the government. Chairman Bost underscored how mental health programs, nursing home care for disabled veterans, and active-duty servicemembers paychecks are placed in limbo until Senate Democrats vote with Senate Republicans and end the chaos.

Click here to view Chairman Bost's full remarks.

Excerpts from Chairman Bost's remarks:

On the Secretary Collins and the Trump administration's work to keep VA healthcare and benefits running:

"First of all, I honestly thank the Speaker and let me tell you this, I believe Secretary Collins and the administration is trying to do everything they possibly can with the money that we actually provided for them through advance [appropriations] for our veterans. And thank heaven we did that. So the health care side and the appointments and everything through our VA from that side is not in jeopardy yet.

On the government shutdown impacting VA's extended services:

"But let me tell you, the areas that are of concern that we have in the C.R. that we pushed over three weeks ago now, we actually had extenders for certain VA programs that are really important, like the Fox Grant Program, which provides mental health. Through contracts for mental health for many of our veterans - where the suicide rate is still 17 veterans a day.

"Another program that's out there that is concerning is those [veterans] that might be needing home health care. Those are private providers. Now, like I said, Secretary Collins is trying to shift things around. But the authorization language expired on the 1st of October. Folks, this is not a game. It's very, very serious.

On the government shutdown impacting veterans' education benefits:

"We have concerns we're dealing with with continuing education [benefits], continuing education is starting to fall by the wayside. The concerns that we have with other programs like this, there's about seven of those programs, but those are going to start falling by the wayside. Now, one of the concerns that we're already hearing is the GI Bill.

"Right now, we're hearing rumors that as many of half of the people that [were surveyed and] have a GI Bill, they're not receiving GI Bill payments to their universities. And therefore, when they get on the line to try to call, to make sure that their education will continue and will be paid for, to try and straighten it out [with VA], there's no one there to answer the phones.

"That is a concern day to day. Our veterans are trying to make ends meet day to day. They're trying to hold on to their benefits and day to day they keep hearing these concerns and they're going to continue to get worse. As a veteran and as someone who tries to provide for them, the fear that I have for them is as this goes on, it will only get worse. It's not a game. This [shutdown] affects real people's lives.

On the government shutdown impacting active-duty servicemembers and military families:

"And let me tell you this as well, as I watch us coming up on a deadline on [October] 15th, that the first time that our, not only our veterans who are dealing with this, but our military personnel, our young enlisted, young enlisted that may have spouses and children that are making it payday to payday, then payday [comes and] all of a sudden they are trying to figure out, while living payday to payday, but they are going to get no pay.

"Let me tell you, that's personal to me. That's who I was when I joined the United States Marine Corps. I was 18 years old and 19 in boot camp got married, got to boot camp, had a child, and for a short period of time, it was during the Carter administration and we were living from payday to payday.

"And when you saw 'no pay do' not everybody's got a parent that they can call and you don't have a credit rating where you can actually call a banker. And you know what? Rents still due. Food still has to be put on the table. And for someone [Chuck Schumer] to say, hey, you know what? "It's getting better for us every day."

"It's not getting better for them every day for the people that are standing on the front line to keep this freedom of this nation in place. We are going to continue to do our job. We did our job. We sent it to the Senate. All of these things that I talked about were in that continuing resolution, and we made sure from our point part at the VA committee that they were - it is time for the Democrats to quit playing games with those people who they claim that they're for our veterans and those who serve this nation. Thank you."