[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 120 (Thursday, September 4, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1679]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E1679]]



           CORRECTING AN INJUSTICE TO INJURED SERVICE MEMBERS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. C.W. BILL YOUNG

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, September 3, 2003

  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, my wife Beverly and I spend 
considerable time visiting with injured soldiers, sailors, marines, 
airmen, and coasties at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the 
National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. Our goal is to provide 
comfort and support to the service members and their families.
  This is a project Beverly has led for many years, long before the 
inception of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Throughout 
the years, we have helped solve many problems large and small that 
involved patient care, benefits, and tangled bureaucracy.
  Recently, though, we learned of a problem that I consider a serious 
affront to those injured in battle and training. Upon being discharged 
from the hospital, our enlisted personnel and officers are served with 
a bill to pay for their ``subsistence'' while in the hospital. The 
current daily rate for these charges is $8.10.
  We learned about this from our visits with Staff Sergeant William L. 
Murwin, who spent 26 days in the hospital recovering from injuries 
incurred in Iraq. Sergeant Murwin is a reservist in the Marine Corps 
who was injured when a 10-year-old Iraqi dropped a grenade in the 
HUMVEE he was driving. As a result of the explosion, Sergeant Murwin is 
a partial amputee, having lost a large part of his foot.
  Upon his discharge July 18th to return home to Nevada and his job as 
a sheriff's deputy, Sergeant Murwin was handed a bill from the hospital 
for $210.60 to pay for his food and subsistence. Beverly and I paid 
this bill for Sergeant Murwin because we consider it an injustice to 
ask those who have served us so courageously in Afghanistan and Iraq to 
pay for their food while hospitalized.
  Legislation I am introducing today would amend current law to 
prohibit service members injured in combat or training from being 
billed for the food while hospitalized. Congress initially initiated 
the system of charging for subsistence costs for officers who were 
hospitalized in 1958 under Public Law 85-861. The 97th Congress amended 
this law in 1981 with Public Law 97-22 to include enlisted service 
members.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a long overdue correction to our statutes. No 
one wants to see these men and women have to write a check for their 
hospital stay, least of all the staff of our nation's military 
hospitals. We should be honoring and thanking those in uniform for 
their service to the cause of peace and freedom, not billing them for 
their food. And we should be doing all we can to help them recover from 
their injuries, not ask them to write a check to the U.S. Government.
  It is my hope that my colleagues in the House will join me in 
sponsoring this legislation and in urging the Committees with 
jurisdiction to expedite its enactment as a fitting tribute to all 
those who serve so valiantly and unfortunately have returned home 
injured, missing limbs, and in many cases being permanently disabled. 
It is the least we can do for our nation's keepers of peace and 
defenders of freedom.

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