[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 74 (Thursday, May 23, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E893-E894]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  MEMORIAL DAY 1996--ANOTHER VIEWPOINT

                                 ______


                            HON. BOB FILNER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 23, 1996

  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to place into the Congressional 
Record the following thoughts by Robert Sniffen, a U.S. Navy veteran 
who has served as a veteran's advocate for the past 27 years. He has 
held veteran-related positions in the U.S. Department of Labor and in 
the Center administration. He has also served as the national service 
and legislative director of AMVETS. Currently, Mr. Sniffen is chairman 
of the board for San Diego Veterans' Service, a southern California 
nonprofit organization dedicated to the needs and concerns of 
California's veterans.
       Memorial Day will soon signal the traditional salute to pay 
     homage, tribute, and honor to our nation's men and women who 
     have made the ultimate sacrifices on behalf of the freedoms 
     we all enjoy. Beautiful, emotion charged ceremonies, largely 
     attended by veterans and their families, will be encapsulated 
     into micro-second broadcast news clips and short print 
     articles including photos for public consumption.
       For those who deal daily with the survivors of military 
     service, Memorial Day is also an appropriate date on which to 
     inform and educate the public as to the status of the needs, 
     issues, and concerns of veterans who have survived military 
     service.
       To date, potential legislation is floating upward in 
     Congress to establish a Commission to evaluate programs of 
     the federal government that assist members of the armed 
     forces and veterans in readjusting to civilian life. It will 
     be known as the ``Commission on Service Members and Veterans 
     Transition Assistance''. Of the hundreds of pages of veteran 
     legislation introduced before Congress, this ``Commission on 
     Veterans'' is the most vital. Veteran organizations and 
     veteran advocates must hold both presidential candidates 
     responsible for obtaining such a commitment, before the 
     November elections. Veterans must demand action now, or this 
     landmark legislation will never see the light of day.
       If fully enacted, the Commission will conduct a bottom-up 
     review of programs intended to assist veterans. Veteran 
     advocates view this potential landmark legislation as a G.I. 
     Bill of Rights review, as well as the reading of the fine 
     print that violates the Sacred Government Contract made with 
     each military inductee. Those who support veteran 
     entitlements should contact their Congressional 
     representatives and seek their support in creating this new 
     Commission, which will evaluate and upgrade the earned 
     entitlements of our military personnel and our veterans.
       Across America, our military personnel and veterans are 
     disproportionately suffering the ill effects of military 
     down-sizing, base closures, industry collapses in the defense 
     and aerospace industries, and corporate down-sizing to 
     increase profits. Military families and veterans are 
     receiving food stamps; homeless veterans continue to roam the 
     streets they fought to protect; thousands of fully qualified 
     veterans are grossly disadvantaged economically, facing the 
     ravages of unemployment and under-employment. Still others 
     are shut out of the market place due to lack of re-training. 
     There is little call for infantry or weapons skills in the 
     high-tech information era. Training and re-training veterans 
     must be a top priority.
       Meanwhile, only three million of the twenty-eight million 
     living veterans actually access medical treatment from the 
     veterans medical system. Budget and deficit reductions and 
     streamlining of the VA programs through reorganization will 
     adversely impact senior veterans, whose numbers will grow as 
     rapidly as their current and future medical needs explode.
       While most veterans are successful and arise each day to 
     run America, some veterans need help to reintegrate into a 
     civilian society, as well as to overcome adverse economic 
     factors.
       Thousands, currently in the military, are shifted daily 
     from the military pay line, to the unemployment line, 
     becoming a family ``at risk'' who, then, may soon become the 
     ``new'' homeless.
       Veterans are being told by the Washington beancounters and 
     Congress that veterans must sustain their share of budget 
     cuts. It is believed that most Americans would agree that our 
     veterans ``paid in full'' at the entry and exit doors of 
     military service.
       As the American public makes way for the beaches, 
     mountains, and resorts on Memorial Day, veterans and their 
     families will pause to salute our fallen heroes. Veteran 
     organizations and their leaders will ensure that the tributes 
     occur as their solemn duty. It is these Americans who will 
     give appropriate thought to the survivors and non-survivors. 
     All Americans should give greater reflection to questioning 
     our nation's commitment, to those who have contributed most 
     to America's ongoing survival.
       Many this Memorial Day will be asking, ``Why has the 
     contract with America's veterans been broken?'' ``How do we 
     reinstate adequate programs for veterans in a country that 
     now seems to approve the popular notion of budget cuts, even 
     at great expense to those who served, survived, and now, more 
     than ever, need our help?''
       America is Number One, Thanks to Veterans, and other 
     governmental agency slogans, such as Putting Veterans First 
     are again singing, ``When Johnny Comes Marching Home,'' while 
     the budget cut ``ax murderers'' blindly cut veterans' 
     programs.
       Thus, wherever one finds themselves this Memorial Day, 
     these are thoughts worth considering--and acting upon. As 
     Memorial Day proceeds, veterans not active in a veteran's 
     organization may wish to consider membership in a group of 
     their choice, and thought should be given as to methods of 
     citizen support for veteran programs, i.e., through volunteer 
     participation, assistance with monetary needs for local 
     veteran organizations that serve veterans, and letting the 
     appropriate political leaders know that veteran programs 
     should be the first saved--and the last cut--in current and 
     future budget considerations.
       We need to remember those men and women who are in eminent 
     danger in Bosnia, Korea, Liberia and other potential conflict 
     sites for future veterans that will need to be honored at 
     future Memorial Day ceremonies.
       Amidst the flood of broadcast and newspaper media of the 
     business world's ``tribute'' to another holiday sales/
     marketing opportunity, American needs to ``refocus'' its 
     moral compass, directly upon those political leaders and 
     candidates, to determine who will recognize and reverse the 
     governmental failures over the many years before the next 
     veteran-related holiday arrives in November of this year.
       Memorial Day 1996 is, indeed, an excellent occasion to 
     remind ourselves that this year we should salute our fallen 
     dead and also pay a living tribute to those who did survive--
     only to return at a time when most Americans had lost respect 
     and support for those who make democracy possible, worldwide 
     and locally.

[[Page E894]]

       Thoughts, ideas, suggestions, and rejoinders that ``Freedom 
     is not Free'' is designed to  provoke countrymen to take 
     positive addition to reverse the demise of the importance of 
     protecting, rather than slashing costs--that are the 
     aftermath of this Memorial Day * * * and future Memorial Days 
     to come.
       Let us all utilize this sacred, heartfelt day of tribute as 
     the starting point in reinitiating dedication to keeping our 
     commitments to veterans and their families, by insisting that 
     government revitalize, not kill veteran's programs, as 
     Memorial Day 1996 approaches.
       The very future of America may depend upon these veteran-
     related issues.

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