[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 49 (Wednesday, March 26, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S4405]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE GUARD AND RESERVE

  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, in just a few moments as we get underway 
to debate a series of amendments to the budget bill, I am going to be 
offering an amendment. Under the rules, I will have just a minute to 
speak on it, so I thought I would take this time while we are getting 
organized to describe a little more detail about the Landrieu amendment 
regarding the Guard and Reserve.
  There have been any number of articles--I see the chairman of the 
Armed Services Committee here, and he is well aware of this--there have 
been any number of articles written as of late about the tremendous 
weight the National Guard and Reserve are carrying in our current war 
against terror, whether it be the campaign underway in Iraq, the 
supporting of a civilian government in Afghanistan, the carrying out of 
our missions in Bosnia and Kosovo, or guarding the homefront right 
here; whether it is in New Orleans or Baton Rouge or sites in Maryland 
or Virginia or your home State, Mr. President, or overseas.
  The Guard and Reserve are doing a magnificent job. These are men and 
women who maybe served part of their time in the military for a few 
years and then, because of other family commitments or other calls on 
their talents, went into the private sector. Some of them started their 
own businesses. They come from a wide range of backgrounds. You 
yourself, Mr. President, served in the National Guard and Reserve. 
There are several Members of Congress who have not only carried out 
their job here, serving as Member of Congress, but also serve in this 
capacity.
  You are to be commended. I know you have spoken out, Mr. President, 
on many instances about the problems that are arising in the sense that 
we are calling on the National Guard and Reserve over and over again. 
Their deployments are longer and our compensation to them, our benefit 
package to them, the way we supply them equipment, in my opinion--and 
an opinion that I think you share and is shared on both the Republican 
and Democratic sides--is not supportive to the degree that they, 
basically, are supporting us. I guess I could put it that way.
  We ask these men and women to go for longer deployments, more 
frequent deployments, and not only put their life on the line but their 
livelihood on the line. We need to keep up our commitment on the 
benefit compensation end, on the financing side. In a moment--I know I 
only have a minute or so--whenever the leadership feels it appropriate 
for my amendment to be taken up, I am going to suggest we make a very 
modest change in the budget submitted to us by the President. Of 
course, there are parts of that budget I support. There are some parts 
that I think could be improved. That is what the amendment process is 
all about.
  This is one of those areas that I think can be improved, to take $10 
billion out of the tax cut portion that is not the stimulative part but 
the unreconciled portion of the tax cut, and add basically $1 billion a 
year over 10 years to provide critically needed equipment for our Guard 
and Reserve units.
  There are two units now that are being forward deployed to Iraq that, 
under the President's budget as submitted--and I believe one unit is 
from Georgia and one unit, I say to the chairman of the Armed Services 
Committee, is from Virginia--those units will be decommissioned. There 
is not even enough money in the current budget we are debating to keep 
those units fighting and forward.
  That is what my amendment attempts to do. It adds money. I would like 
to get more, but we are trying to be reasonable in this request because 
the Guard is really carrying a tremendous weight. They are happy to do 
it. They are proud to serve. They are not whining and complaining. But 
we should be supporting them. I think that is what we should be about 
today.
  I thank you for letting me explain the Landrieu amendment. At the 
appropriate time, it will come up in the list of amendments. But now, 
more than ever, we are depending on them. Let us let them know they can 
depend on us.

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