[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 156 (Tuesday, November 13, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11725-S11726]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. WELLSTONE:
  S. 1680. A bill to amend the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act 
of 1940 to provide that duty of the National Guard mobilized by a State 
in support of Operation Enduring Freedom or otherwise at the request of 
the President shall qualify as military service under that Act; to the 
Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Madam President, I rise today to urge your support for 
amending the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act, SSCRA, to expand 
the protections of that Act to National Guard personnel protecting our 
Nation's airports and nuclear facilities. Specifically, this bill will 
provide civil relief to National Guard personnel mobilized by State 
governors in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, or who are 
otherwise called up at the request of the President.
  The SSCRA is an important Act that provides help to people who have 
taken on financial burdens without knowing they would be called up to 
serve in the military. Today those people are the men and women of our 
National Guard called-up to protect our nation's airports. Men and 
women of the National Guard serve the Nation and our States as a unique 
organization among all branches of the United States armed forces, the 
Guard is America's community based defense force, located in more than 
2,700 cities and towns throughout the Nation. Some 60 of these units 
are in my home state of Minnesota. National Guard members are integral 
members of their communities, they and their families live, shop, work, 
worship and go to schools in our cities and towns. It is this link 
between the community and its citizen-soldiers that makes the National 
Guard unique and so vital to our homeland security. It is imperative we 
give them the protections of the SSCRA they rightly deserve.
  I would like to take a moment to explain the protections offered by 
the SSCRA. Most people have debts or financial obligations of one kind 
or another, mortgages on family homes, debts related to buying cars, 
charge account debts from buying things with credit cards, or child-
support payments. The SSCRA does not wipe out any debts or other 
financial obligations of people who have been called up for active 
duty. But it does give them certain protections. A few of these are 
especially important because they affect a large number of people: 
Section 526 states that interest of no more than 6 percent a year can 
be charged by a lender on a debt which a person on active duty in 
military service incurred before he or she went on active duty. This is 
very important. The men and women of our National Guard are people like 
you and me, they've bought things on credit and have jobs that allow 
them to pay off that debt. But now, many have taken pay cuts to protect 
our airports. Capping interest on their debt is important to ensuring 
their financial security.
  Other sections of the SSCRA protect people from being evicted from 
rental property or from mortgaged property, against cancellation of 
life insurance, from having their property sold to pay taxes that are 
due; and from getting stuck in a lease, some Guardsmen may have 
recently rented a new apartment only to find their duty is going to 
send them far from their new property.
  Unfortunately, the SSCRA only applies to National Guard personnel 
mobilized directly by the President of the United States, and does not 
protect those mobilized by state governors at the request of the 
President, as is the case with those National Guard now protecting our 
airports. This distinction is inequitable and actually, makes no sense. 
Service performed by those mobilized by a governor at the request of 
the President face the same problems as those mobilized by the 
President directly. It is only right that they receive the same 
protections.
  Although the President is clearly authorized to mobilize the National 
Guard himself, on September 27 he instead requested State governors to 
mobilize their own National Guard personnel. He did so again last 
Friday. Under this type of mobilization the National Guard remains 
under the full operational control of the State, providing the 
necessary flexibility to deal

[[Page S11726]]

with security issues that are better handled at the State and local 
level. While National Guard mobilized in this manner receive the 
general benefits of active duty military personnel, such as VA Veterans 
status and Tricare family health insurance, they do not receive the 
additional benefit of civil relief under the SSCRA.
  In Minnesota, soldiers have received orders to provide protection at 
airports until as late as March 28, 2002. These soldiers are serving in 
a full-time status, six to seven days per week. While the Minnesota 
National Guard initially began providing security at the Minneapolis/
St. Paul, Duluth and Rochester airports, they were recently informed 
that they will provide security at five additional Minnesota airports. 
This means they will spend less time with their families and employers. 
Some of them face the real possibility of financial ruin due to their 
time away from work. They have mortgages and car payments, things they 
may have easily expected to be able to pay. Some have college debt and 
others child support payments. Many have taken pay cuts to leave their 
professions to come out and protect our airports, to protect us. We 
must act now to provide them the civil relief they rightly deserve. And 
we must be aware that National Guard units may soon be asked to secure 
other facilities such as power plants and water treatment facilities in 
the near future. Addressing these issues now will ease the burden 
placed upon these soldiers now and in the future.
  It is my belief that the SSCRA was never meant to purposely exclude 
National Guard mobilized in the manner they have been today, we simply 
could never have imagined the need for round-the-clock security at our 
airports when this Act was written. September 11 changed so many things 
for us. And it is time we change the SSCRA to ensure we provide 
benefits to protect those who are protecting us.

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