WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate Floor regarding the need to take up bipartisan legislation designed to help our nation’s veterans:

“I’ve been calling on the Majority Leader to press pause on his party’s nonstop campaign so we can take up bipartisan legislation for a change.

“Because there’s a real crisis in this country. It’s a scandal that demands the Senate’s full attention.

“According to the Obama Administration’s own internal audit, its veterans scandal has now spread to more than three-quarters of V.A. facilities surveyed. Nearly 100,000 veterans continue to wait for care at V.A. centers, and many of our veterans have been forced to wait three months or longer.

“Eighteen veterans have already died in Phoenix alone – waiting for care that would never come.

“This is a national disgrace.

“The President needs to nominate a capable leader and manager who possesses the skills, leadership ability, and determination to correct the failings of the V.A., support the thousands of V.A. workers who are committed to serving our veterans, and provide all of those who have served bravely with the timely care they earned. He also needs to use the tools he already has to address the systemic failures of management in his Administration – and he needs to use the new tools we can provide him with legislation, too.

“That’s why we in this body have a responsibility to act, and to do so with a sense of urgency. 

“Yesterday, the House passed bipartisan legislation – unanimously – to help deal with this crisis. It’s similar to the bipartisan Sanders-McCain bill here in the Senate.

“It would increase patient choice. It would introduce some much-needed accountability into the V.A. system. And it’s past time to take up that kind of legislation here.

“Veterans have been made to wait long enough. Senate Democrats shouldn’t be keeping them in the waiting room even longer.

“Now I know the Majority Leader and his Senate Democrats would rather stick to their campaign playbook. We know they’d rather talk about a bill they claim is about student loans.

“But the Senate Democrats’ bill isn’t really about students at all. It’s really all about Senate Democrats.

“Because Senate Democrats don’t actually want a solution for students. They want an issue to campaign on – to save their own hides in November.

“Recall that around this same time last year, Republicans had to swoop in with bipartisan legislation to save students from a rate increase after Senate Democrats blew past the deadline.

“And now, Senate Democrats are pushing yet another ‘student loan’ bill – one they hope will fail.

“Well, I think Senate Democrats are in for a surprise. Americans won’t fall for their spin.

“Because students can understand that this bill won’t make college more affordable.

“They understand it won’t reduce the amount of money they have to borrow.

“And students know it won’t do a thing to fix the economy that’s depriving so many young Americans of jobs.

“Of course, Senate Democrats understand all of these things too.

“Here’s what the Majority Leader’s lieutenant, the Senior Senator from New York, said when he was asked a couple years ago about student loans. He said that if Democrats had ‘wanted to be quote, political, about this’ issue, they ‘would have paid for it with’…the very same gimmick being used to pay for the bill before us today.

“So give the Senior Senator from New York points for honesty. His words show, without equivocation, that Senate Democrats are now playing politics with the futures of young Americans — instead of doing something about the V.A. crisis.

“So let’s just accept the Senator’s admission that his party’s bill is truly about helping Democrats, not students, and let’s move on to fixing the V.A. scandal instead.

“The time is now to turn away from designed-to-fail politicking and toward actual bipartisan solutions.

“Our constituents demand it. Our veterans deserve it.”