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Nearly three dozen House Republicans sided with Democrats on Thursday on a bill that would expand benefits for sick veterans, showing a glimmer of bipartisan cooperation that campaign-minded members of both parties did their best to obscure by calling public attention to their internal and interparty disputes.
President Biden gave a shoutout to the effort during the State of the Union address, weeks after a more targeted Senate bill passed by voice vote. But before Biden called on Congress to “pass a law to make sure veterans devastated by toxic exposures in Iraq and Afghanistan finally get the benefits and comprehensive health care they deserve,” Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert tried to steal the spotlight, loudly blaming Biden for the deaths of 13 servicemembers last year in the final days of the military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
