Tit for Tat in the House

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) are trading written barbs over Buyer’s change this year to the timing of veteran service organization budget testimony. Veterans groups have been up in arms since the new schedule has them testifying before the Administration issues its new budget. Pelosi on May 12 wrote to several VSOs to thank them for their efforts to reinstate the “long-standing joint hearings” that Buyer “unilaterally and misguidedly terminated.” Buyer replied the same day that it was “unfortunate” that Pelosi “chose to play politics on the day of Sonny Montgomery’s death,” adding that returning to the former schedule would “relegate veterans to the back seat.” Buyer also says he did consult with VSOs: He held a veterans summit last year in Pennsylvania at which he discussed the change. Ah hah!