[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 40 (Monday, March 15, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E427]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E427]]



   COMMEMORATING THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS 
                                AFFAIRS

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. LANE EVANS

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 15, 1999

  Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, ten years ago, on March 15, 1989, President 
Bush hailed the creation of the new Department of Veterans Affairs by 
saying, ``There is only one place for the veterans of America, in the 
Cabinet Room, at the table with the President of the United States of 
America.'' Ten years ago today, veterans took their rightful place at 
the highest executive level of Federal Government. The Department of 
Veterans Affairs Act, passed the previous October by the 100th 
Congress, was implemented and the new Department of Veterans Affairs 
became a reality. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs became the 14th 
member of the President's cabinet.
  While the United States has the most comprehensive system of 
assistance for veterans of any nation in the world, it was not until 10 
years ago that our Nation's veterans received the hard earned 
recognition provided them by the creation of a cabinet level 
department. It is also somewhat ironic that veterans waited so long for 
the establishment of a cabinet level department as the foundation for 
the Department of Veterans Affairs was established some 350 years 
earlier in 1636, when the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony, who were at war 
with the Pequot Indians, approved a measure stating that disabled 
soldiers would be supported by the colony.
  The establishment of the Department of Veterans Affairs fulfilled 
this Nation's promise to those who had risked it all to preserve, 
protect and defend by giving them direct representation before the 
Nation's chief executive. As Rep. G.V. ``Sonny'' Montgomery, Chairman 
of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee at the time the legislation 
passed, said, ``We didn't make the government bigger, we gave our 
veterans a bigger voice in government.''
  Rep. Gerald Solomon, ranking minority member of the House Committee 
on Veterans' Affairs at the time, said, ``The change directly supported 
Congress's and the President's effort to rebuild the military. A strong 
VA and strong veterans' benefits programs are the underpinning of a 
viable all-volunteer military force. We understood that then, and we 
understand it now.''
  After becoming a cabinet level department in 1989, VA began to grow, 
not in size, but in importance, operating as an equal to other 
departments. As a department, VA has played a major, if not the lead, 
role in issues that have dominated our national agenda--homelessness, 
health care management, government reinvention and reengineering, AIDS, 
workplace diversity and medical research to name a few.
  As a cabinet department, VA has successfully embarked on bold 
initiatives to reinvent the veterans' benefits delivery process and 
reengineer the nation's largest hospital-based health care system into 
a patient-focused health network delivering a uniform package of health 
maintenance services to more veterans in more locations than ever 
before. VA is today undergoing an evolution like never before in its 
history with the goal of continuing to provide better service to our 
Nation's veterans, their survivors and dependents.
  As a cabinet level department of federal government, VA is well 
positioned to fulfill the Nation's promise to its veterans well into 
the 21st century and to give renewed meaning to Lincoln's call for this 
nation ``to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his 
widow, and his orphan.'' We expect and will accept no less.

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