[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 4 (Monday, February 2, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S245-S246]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 BURIALS AT ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

  Mr. HAGEL. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to address what I 
believe is a serious issue. Let me read just the opening paragraph of a 
story that appeared this morning in The Washington Times. The headline 
of the story is ``Koop given waiver for burial at Arlington; former 
Surgeon General helped Hillary.''
  The first paragraph of the story is this:


[[Page S246]]


       President Clinton overrode Army opposition and granted a 
     unique burial waiver at Arlington National Cemetery to C. 
     Everett Koop at a time when First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton 
     had enlisted the former Surgeon General to support her 
     national health care plan, internal documents showed 
     yesterday.

  The story goes on to talk about not just the dynamics of an implied 
deal, but it is far more serious than just an implied deal in my 
opinion, Mr. President, because what we are talking about here is 
giving sacred resting spots of our Nation's veterans away as deals, as 
rewards, as bargaining chips, as thank yous, as awards, as quid pro 
quos.
  Mr. President, this is not only a bad precedent and very dangerous 
for the future of our country, but it flies in the face of the honor 
and the trust that America has always placed in its veterans and their 
service to our country. This is hallowed ground, Mr. President, this is 
sacred ground. Arlington National Cemetery is a national shrine. It 
should be a national shrine. We have very strict regulations and 
limitations as to who is allowed the great and distinct honor to be 
laid to rest at Arlington.
  Mr. President, I have no quarrel with Dr. Koop. He was a very 
successful and important Surgeon General, a renowned doctor, and he has 
done many good things for his profession and our country and our 
Government. But someone has to talk about this because, you see, there 
is a connection; there is a connection between what obviously was done 
and what is not being done today for our active military men and women 
in uniform and for our retirees. I would like to read just two lines 
from one of Rudyard Kipling's finest poems. This poem, Mr. Kipling 
wrote is called ``Tommy.'' Many veterans will know this poem. Two of 
the last lines go like this:

       For it's Tommy this an' Tommy that, an' chuck him out the 
     brute!
       But it's ``savior of 'is country'' when the guns begin to 
     shoot.

  Mr. President, this is a time when this body will debate and vote on 
shortly--in the next few weeks--whether we are going to ask our 
military, our men and women in uniform, who we call on every day to 
protect our liberties around the world, and we are going to commit them 
to more responsibility in Bosnia, NATO expansion, Iraq, maybe, yet we 
are now in a position to be giving away burial spots that were 
originally always intended for the man and the woman who put on 
America's military uniform and serve our country with great honor and 
great distinction. This is also a time, Mr. President, when veterans 
are having difficulty using the veterans' preference in getting jobs in 
the Federal Government. We are asking them constantly, especially over 
the last few years, as we have cut more and more of our defense budget, 
to do more with less. We are asking them to go on longer deployments 
and more deployments.
  The state of our military housing is embarrassing. Yet, the President 
is very proud to submit a military budget that has no increases. I 
watched this morning the President's news conference, bragging about 
this small, limited little Government we have, that we have cut 
Government. Well, again, as I said last week, I don't know how he 
measures the cutting of Government, but the fact is we are going to 
spend $1.7 trillion on this Government this year. The Defense 
Department budget continually gets hammered and hammered. There has 
been no increase, but a 40 percent reduction in the last 10 years.
  Health care. What have we done about health care for our retirees? We 
have done nothing. We have essentially taken away the promise that we 
made to these men and women in uniform, who served our country in time 
of war and peace, and now we are saying you need to get into the 
Medicare queue. I am sorry we cut back on military hospitals and on 
military personnel. Don't we understand that this may well inhibit 
readiness, retention, recruitment, and the best people for the 
military? Of course, it will.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's 5 minutes have expired.
  Mr. HAGEL. I thank the Chair.
  In closing, Mr. President, this is a bad signal and a bad symptom. I 
hope that the Congress of the United States addresses this issue.
  Mr. BYRD addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.

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