[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 136 (Wednesday, October 16, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S10484]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION CONFERENCE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, there are a number of issues I want to speak 
about briefly this morning. First of all, there is a conference report 
that has not yet been completed--there are many, but I will talk about 
the defense authorization conference today. There is one issue holding 
that up.
  I have had the good fortune of having the acting chairman of the 
House Armed Services Committee come and speak to me on this issue. 
There is an amendment I offered with a number of other Senators that 
would allow our veterans who are disabled and who have retirement 
benefits from the U.S. military to draw both of their benefits. Right 
now, they cannot; they have to make a choice. I have explained this to 
people at home, and they are dumbfounded that people who have been 
declared to have a disability in the military, and following the 
declaration and retirement, they cannot draw both pensions. That is 
holding up a $400 billion conference because the President of the 
United States--I used to say people around him, but that is clearly 
gone now; the President makes the decision--has said he will veto the 
$400 billion bill. He is going to veto it because of veterans who are 
disabled and drawing unemployment. He has said it would be something 
that is not good for the country. I don't think that is true.
  I will talk about that more throughout the day. I see my friend from 
Minnesota. The conference is not closed. I dare the President to veto 
the bill. The conference should get that report out here. We should 
pass it and send it to the President and let him veto that. There isn't 
a veteran in the United States who would not be dumbfounded that the 
Commander in Chief would veto a bill that gives benefits to somebody 
who is disabled and retired from the military. It is unfair, 
inequitable, and wrong. I dare the President to veto that. If there 
were ever an opportunity to override a veto, this is it. I think the 
President would make a mistake doing this.
  The second thing I want to talk about is, I wrote a letter to Mitch 
Daniels. I said--generalizing--reading all the press accounts, the 
President is campaigning more than he is working on policy for this 
country. He is trying to show the trips he takes, where he makes 
campaign stops, are really trips where he is doing something of a 
policy nature, so that trip will be paid for by the taxpayers. I have 
asked Mitch Daniels, how do you justify that? No response.
  Well, I think we have to do something to make the taxpayers free of 
the obligation of paying for campaign expenses. When we campaign, we 
have to pay those expenses out of our campaign funds. The President 
should do that. The Republican National Committee should pay for those 
trips, and taxpayers should not. I will have more to say about that 
later in the day.
  I see my friend from Minnesota. His plane was a little late, and this 
is his assigned time.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.

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