mr. chairman , i move to strike the last word . 
mr. chairman , all through last year on this side of the aisle , we continually insisted that we needed more money for veterans health care and were consistently told by the administration and the other side that we did not . 
as recently as april 5 , mr. nicholson , the head of the va , told the senate in an effort to defeat a democratic amendment , `` i can assure you that the va does not need emergency supplemental funding in fiscal 2005 to continue to provide timely , quality service that is always our goal. '' we were again told this year when we tried to add money to the va for veterans health care that it was not needed , that we were simply pandering to veterans . 
well , now the facts are out . 
today 's washington post : `` funds for health care of veterans short $ 1 billion. '' what we find out is that now the bush administration is belatedly admitting to the congress what we have been trying to tell people for months , namely , that the va budget is inadequate and their accountants indicate that they are going to need more than $ 1 billion . 
the gentleman from texas ( mr. edwards ) xz4001180 is going to shortly be asking unanimous consent to consider an amendment which would , on an emergency basis , add the $ 1 billion which the administration is saying is necessary to pay the bills at the va . 
i would hope that the congress could find a way to accomplish this . 
at a time when we are having trouble with recruiting , it makes no sense to be sending messages to our veterans that , okay , you can go over and fight in iraq , but we are not so sure about what services you are going to get when you get home . 
mr. chairman , i yield to the gentleman from texas ( mr. edwards ) xz4001180 . 
