[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 95 (Monday, July 15, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H4657-H4658]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 DEMOCRACY AT WORK: MILITARY RETIREE GRASSROOTS SET AN EXAMPLE FOR ALL 
                               AMERICANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Shows) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SHOWS. Mr. Speaker, today through access to advanced technical 
means of communication, Americans are able to unite their individual 
voices and present a message, loud and clear, that makes Congress pay 
heed to what they have to say. This is truly democracy in action.
  July 16 is the sixth anniversary of the beginning of a grassroots 
movement that exemplifies the spirit of democracy our Founding Fathers 
envisioned and represents the power of many individual voices uniting 
as one. On July 16, 1996, Colonel George ``Bud'' Day, a Congressional 
Medal of Honor recipient who was Senator John McCain's cellmate in 
North Vietnam for many years, filed a class action lawsuit against the 
government of the United States for breaking promises of lifetime 
health care. Specifically, since the founding of the Republic, the U.S. 
Government routinely promised military recruits if they served a career 
in uniformed service for 20 years, they and their dependents would 
receive health care for life. Indeed, that is what they received.
  But beginning with laws enacted in 1956, lifetime health care 
benefits were chipped away. Personnel who joined the service before 
1956, with the promise of lifetime care, later retired from the service 
to find the government had gone back on its promise. When laws passed 
in the mid 1990s finally kicked military retirees over the age of 65 
out of the military health care system, that is when Colonel Day filed 
his suit on behalf of two Florida military retirees. Today, Colonel 
Day's class act group, CAG, represents thousands of military retirees 
and families across the country in a case that is pending in a Federal 
appeals court in Washington. Last year a three-judge panel of that 
court ruled in Colonel Day's favor that the United States did break a 
contract with its career uniformed personnel. The full 11-judge panel 
has reheard the case and a ruling will be forthcoming.
  The government attorneys put themselves in a position of claiming 
essentially the military recruiters made promises on behalf of the 
United States Government that they never intended to keep because, in 
these attorneys' opinion, the law did not require them to keep their 
promise. The attorneys should just have said, ``They make promises but 
had their fingers crossed behind their backs.'' Most observers believe 
the court will again side with Colonel Day. The question will be 
whether the United States attorneys will appeal the ruling to the 
Supreme Court.
  Colonel Day forged a coalition of Americans who had a shared 
grievance against their own government. Colonel Day and the class act 
group's historic lawsuit and the power of the thousands of retirees who 
are members of CAG represent the best of what our Founding Fathers 
envisioned. There are other

[[Page H4658]]

issues relating to the broken promise and the military grassroots 
continues to make its collective voice heard. In 1999, thousands of 
retirees across the country came together when I introduced the Keep 
Our Promise to America's Military Retirees Act. This was the first 
legislation in Congress that addressed the broken promise head-on. By 
writing letters and e-mails to newspapers and Congress and by posting 
billboards across the country, military retirees made their voices 
heard. In just one year, the voice of the military retirees grassroots, 
united loud and clear around the legislation, forced Congress to act. 
Congress enacted TRICARE for Life, which restored much of the promises 
of lifetime health care for retirees over the age of 65.
  TFL, as it is known, was a significant achievement for many military 
retirees over 65, but much more needs to be done to restore the promise 
of military health care to many more of our retired uniformed 
personnel. For too many retired military personnel, the military health 
care system currently in place does not provide the level of quality 
care they have been promised, earned and deserve. A new coalition 
representing military retirees has emerged to challenge the government 
to provide that health care. They call themselves the MRGRG, the 
Military Retiree Grassroots Group. These retirees do not have a formal 
organization or membership but are all over the country wired together 
via the Internet. The MRGRG's goal is to achieve full restoration of 
the broken promise now and have it done this year.
  Recently, nine MRGRG members, recognized as leaders in the retiree 
movement, drafted a white paper on military health care. The 200-page 
white paper spells out the retirees' case clearly and in great detail. 
At their own expense, MRGRG members have reproduced and hand-delivered 
white paper binders and CDs to every member of the House and Senate. 
Like Colonel Day's group, the MRGRG represents exactly what our 
Founding Fathers intended, American citizens acting freely and of their 
own will, telling their elected representatives what they ought to do.
  The good people of CAG and MRGRG are already heroes--they fought to 
defend the freedoms we all enjoy, and they made a career doing it. And 
now they are heroes all over again, setting an example for all of us by 
showing how democracy is supposed to work and by making it work exactly 
the way our Founding Fathers intended.
  Our Founding Fathers would be proud of today's military retirees' 
faith in our democratic institution. I know I am. God bless them, and 
God Bless America.

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