[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 89 (Monday, June 23, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H4216-H4217]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        URGING PASSAGE OF THE NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Fox] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to urge the 
adoption and final form of the National Defense Authorization Act for 
fiscal year 1998. The challenge we have is to protect U.S. interests in 
an uncertain world, Mr. Speaker. The continued decline in defense 
spending and ongoing reductions in the size of U.S. armed forces 
combine that increasing pace of operations especially in peacekeeping 
and humanitarian relief missions are compelling the U.S. military to do 
more with less. Managing budgetary military and strategic risks in this 
environment requires the defense program that balances the imperatives 
to maintain forces ready to deploy and fight today to sustain a decent 
quality of military life and to prepare now for these certain 
challenges of the future.
  H.R. 1119 helps restore a measure of balance to the Nation's defense 
program by doing the following: Sustain the readiness of U.S. combat 
forces safeguarding the resources and the training required for victory 
in high intensity combat which is what makes U.S. troops the best in 
the world, providing a decent quality of life to service members and 
their families to ease the men and problems associated with the high 
level of activity and numerous operations for an all-volunteer military 
that is 65 percent married, striving for adequate modernization to 
insure today's technological edge for the U.S. troops on tomorrow's 
battlefields and implementing real defense reform by downsizing 
unnecessary defense bureaucracy and making defense business practices 
more efficient.

[[Page H4217]]

  I believe this legislation, Mr. Speaker, helps to restore balance to 
America's defense program essential for managing the risks to U.S. 
national security in an uncertain world. I am especially pleased that 
certain amendments have been included within this bill not least of 
which is the veterans preference which was adopted earlier in a voice 
vote that I offered and as well the recognition, remembrance to the 
POW/MIA's from the Vietnam war, as well as the resolution and amendment 
from the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Buyer] and the gentleman from 
Rhode Island [Mr. Kennedy] to improve the Department of Defense and 
Department of Veterans Affairs' investigation of Persian Gulf illnesses 
and the treatment of ill gulf war veterans. Specifically, the amendment 
will authorize $4.5 million to establish a cooperative DOD-VA program 
of clinical trials to evaluate treatments which might relieve the 
symptoms of gulf war illnesses, require the Secretaries of both 
departments to develop a comprehensive plan for providing health care 
to all veterans, active duty members and reservists who suffer from the 
symptoms of the gulf war illnesses.
  And finally, Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. Bachus] and 
I worked together on an amendment to deny military benefits to any 
person who has been convicted of a State or Federal crime where death 
is a possible punishment or sentenced to imprisonment without parole, 
and this of course is in the case of Timothy McVeigh, where you have 
seen someone who caused the tragic deaths of so many people in 
Oklahoma, over 168, and this is certainly not someone who is fitting to 
have a military funeral and a military burial befitting a hero, and 
this legislation will certainly address that particular oversight.
  I submit to you this legislation to help our defense is appropriate, 
it will keep U.S. at the cutting edge of technology and will correctly 
and properly make sure that we care for and attend to the needs of our 
servicemen and women who are doing so much in the defense of this 
country.

                          ____________________