[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 70 (Tuesday, May 18, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H3171-H3176]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CARING FOR OUR VETERANS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for
60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight with my two friends,
the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) from Niles in northeast Ohio and the
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland) from a district that runs from
Portsmouth, along south from the Ohio River, up east including parts of
Mahoning County near Youngstown. We will talk about the treatment of
veterans in this country and the problems that we have seen, and the
strength of the veterans administration, the good things it has done
but how it really has fallen short, a Federal agency that has done
remarkably good work for so many, but fallen woefully short in the last
couple of years.
I want to continue the theme that the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr.
Pallone) mentioned, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott),
others, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) earlier this week,
Are you better off today than you were 4 years ago? And I think this
theme particularly is reinforced when asking about veterans. Are
veterans in this country today better off today than they were 4 years
ago?
And I think we will see as the evening goes on in the next 30, 40, 50
minutes or an hour, how the veterans really have been shortchanged by
this administration, how the Veterans Administration does not work as
well as it did. Our benefits to veterans are not nearly as adequate,
never really generous, as they used to be. I want to talk about that,
whether veterans are better off today than they were 4 years ago.
As I said, I am joined by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) and the
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland). Last week Secretary Principi and
President Bush announced that they would close three Veterans
Administration hospitals in the United States: one in Mississippi; one
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area; and one in Brecksville, Ohio in
northeast Ohio. The Ohio facility serves 48,000 veterans in our region
of northeast Ohio.
I find it ironic and a little sorrowful that as we head into Memorial
Day next week, as we prepare to dedicate the World War II memorial,
that the President and Secretary Principi and his administration
announce plans to close VA hospitals. Prior to Secretary Principi's
announcement, I, along with the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland)
and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) sent a letter to the Secretary
asking him not to close the Brecksville hospital.
Our letter echoed the sentiment of more than 5,000 veterans who
signed petitions; it echoed the sentiment of several thousand more who
came to rallies and meetings and wrote us letters and made phone calls
to us saying this VA hospital in Brecksville, one of the best in the
country, treating homeless veterans, a model for the country in
treating veterans with mental illness, protesting that this hospital be
closed.
I met with hundreds of local veterans who voiced their opposition, as
has the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland) and as has the gentleman
from Ohio (Mr. Ryan). Instead of listening to the men and women who
served this Nation, the administration is foisting upon American
veterans a plan that will force them to travel further and wait longer
for health services they depend on.
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In the case of Brecksville, they are closing a facility with a
leading reputation for mental health services, and for the last 43
years Brecksville has pioneered innovative, nationally recognized
programs and services for homeless vets and veterans with mental
illnesses.
Since 1971, Brecksville has offered inpatient mental health services,
including acute substance abuse treatment and acute and long-term
psychiatric care, to veterans from all 50 States.
We are creating new veterans. The irony of closing these three
hospitals, the irony of cutting veterans benefits, health and education
benefits, which has happened in this House of Representatives on this
floor and with this President, the irony of doing that, the irony of
closing these hospitals that lead up to Memorial Day is every day we
are creating more veterans in this country as soldiers return from
Iraq, sometimes with scars, emotional scars, physical scars, mental
scars, where they really do need treatment.
Approximately one-third of the adult homeless population served their
country in the armed services. On any given day, as many as a quarter
million male and female veterans are living on the streets or in
shelters, and perhaps twice as many experience homelessness at some
point during the course of the year.
For many homeless and mentally ill veterans who struggle with local
public transportation, closing Brecksville will double, even triple,
the number of miles they will be forced to travel.
The administration made big promises to American veterans. George
Bush can hardly go anywhere without singing the praises of our men and
women in uniform, even though, as the gentleman from Ohio (Mr.
Strickland) has pointed out many times on the floor, they sing their
praises but do not provide them with safe drinking water, did not
provide our soldiers with body armor, do not outfit our Humvees with
metal plate armor underneath the Humvees and on the door of the
Humvees, so that they are much more dangerous.
There is hardly a day goes by that the President does not in one of
his fund-raising speeches around the country, which are almost daily,
that he does not, the President, sing the praises of our veterans.
At the same time, this administration has cut veterans benefits, cut
education and health care benefits, raised the price of prescription
drugs, and now, strike three, is closing these three hospitals which
are serving hundreds of thousands of veterans.
When I think about a veteran in my district who originally was paying
a relatively small copayment per drug per month, that copayment has
tripled, and now the administration wants to double that copayment
again. It is just amazing to me the President of the United States
would do that in a time of war.
It is especially amazing when you look at the price of drugs in
Canada,
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the price of drugs in France, in Germany and around the world, how much
less drugs cost in those countries. In fact, every once in a while I
have taken, over the last 6 years, busloads of seniors to Canada to buy
less expensive drugs, but how can you look a veteran in the eye and
say, Hey, you ought to go to Canada and buy your prescription drugs?
How can you tell a veteran he or she should go to Canada and buy their
prescription drugs because they are cheap?
Under this administration, a third of America's veterans have
unprocessed claims, and 130,000 veterans are waiting for appeals
decisions.
New enrollment fees and increased costs of prescription drugs will
cost veterans $2 billion over the next 5 years.
This administration is opposed to the renewal of imminent danger pay
for families of active duty soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Think of
that. The administration and the Secretary of the VA sing the praise of
American soldiers, and then oppose giving those soldiers a little extra
money when they are in the face of danger in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We are spending $1.5 billion a week in Iraq turning our young men and
women into veterans. We ought to be able to ensure when they come home
that they receive the best health care. Our veterans deserve better.
It begs the question earlier, are veterans better off than they were
4 years ago? I think when you look at what this administration has done
with soldiers and with veterans, it is a decided no.
I yield to my friend from Ohio (Mr. Strickland).
Mr. STRICKLAND. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend, the gentleman
from Ohio (Mr. Brown), and I look forward to hearing in a moment from
another gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan), but the gentleman from Ohio
(Mr. Brown) said something that triggered a recollection that I want to
share with him.
I had said earlier here on the floor that this administration
apparently wants to compensate Iraqi prisoners who were abused in the
prison in Baghdad, and I understand why Secretary Rumsfeld has reached
that conclusion, but I also pointed out that I was puzzled that the
administration, on the other hand, was opposing American ex-POWs who
had been held in captivity in Iraq during the first Gulf War getting
compensation from the Iraqi Government. So there seems to be a double
standard.
On the one hand, the administration is willing to compensate the
Iraqi prisoners who were abused and opposes the American prisoners who
were abused from getting compensation. But there is a second
contradiction, a second example of where this administration seems to
favor people in Iraq versus the good old, homegrown American.
An example is the fact that just last week it was reported that, back
in December, Paul Bremer, who is our point man in Iraq, had gone to the
Department of Labor and secured $5 million, and this was $5 million
that the Congress had no awareness of, in order to pay unemployment
compensation to former Iraqi soldiers. These were Iraqi soldiers who
were no longer working as soldiers.
And so this administration got $5 million in order to pay them
unemployment compensation at the very same time that the
administration, for months now, has been fighting extending
unemployment compensation to unemployed Americans.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I would add that
there are 50,000 Ohioans alone who have seen their unemployment
benefits expire in the last 6 months, 1 million Americans. These are
people looking for a job, playing by the rules, but cannot find a job.
The President said the economy is growing. We heard our friend from
Iowa and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Portman) saying things are great,
jobs are coming back, the economy is great. Well, 50,000 Ohioans cannot
get their unemployment benefits.
Mr. STRICKLAND. Mr. Speaker, one other point I pointed to throughout
was a discrepancy between the administration's wanting to compensate
abused Iraqi prisoners and not compensate America's abused prisoners;
and then I pointed out that it sought money to pay unemployment
compensation to unemployed Iraqis while fighting extending unemployment
benefits to Americans.
There is a third example of how the administration is favoring the
Iraqis over Americans, and that is the fact that in Iraq we have
promised Iraqi citizens health care. We have said that we are going to
provide universal health care to the Iraqi citizens, while we have got
millions, some 44 million Americans, with no health coverage, and we
have got Americans who are losing their health coverage on a daily
basis, and yet this administration seems to not care about that at all.
So here are three clear-cut examples of where this administration has
a double standard and where this administration is willing to put
resources into Iraqis and into Iraq, while refusing to help the people
right here at home who are in desperate need of help.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. I thank my friend, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr.
Strickland), for his comments, and I yield to the gentleman from Ohio
(Mr. Ryan).
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, if people were just watching this and
just tuned in and they hear us talk about some of these issues, I mean
we go back to our districts every week and we talk to people who are
not engaged in the day-to-day debates that we have here.
You would think we are making this up, because it goes on and on and
on and on, and you would think that the Democrats are just playing
partisan politics. But if you just clearly look at the facts, you will
find that we are not making this up, and you may come to understand as
you listen to a lot of the special orders, you listen to the 1-minute
speeches, you listen to the debate on the House floor, why some of us
are so outraged at what is happening here.
With the veterans' issues that we are talking about and closing down
of the facility in Brecksville, Ohio, which many of the veterans in my
district go to for service; and they are moving it into downtown
Cleveland into Wade Park. We are asked to support this move because the
administration has told us that there will be no decline in the
service, there will be more services. There will be more services; it
will be better for everybody.
I hate to be the guy to spoil the party, but this administration does
not have a very good track record on keeping their promises, and
whether you go to Iraq, whether you go to their economic policy, the
domestic policy, No Child Left Behind, promises to veterans, promises
for Pell Grants, whatever it has been, they have not lived up to the
promises they have made.
So why should the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown), the gentleman from
Ohio (Mr. Ryan), the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland), the
Congressman down in Mississippi, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr.
Doyle), why should we take this administration at their word that they
are going to take care of our veterans? Because they have not; they
have not with our soldiers, they have not with our Reservists. And so
we are here tonight, I think in part, to hold their feet to the fire
and to question the kind of leadership that they are getting.
One or two points that I just want to make: The Secretary of Veterans
Affairs has said that the budget that is coming out of this, that the
budget, not that the President recommended, is $1.5 billion short,
billion with a ``B'', short of what is needed. The veterans
organizations have said that the President's request is $3 billion
short of what they need.
Now, is the veterans organization too high and the Democrats too
high? I do not think so, but at the very least, the administration
should at least follow the lead of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs,
who says $1.5 billion more to meet the needs.
For this administration to continue its shortsighted approach, along
with all of its domestic policies, this one is what kills me, and
especially because the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) has spent so
much in the health care field in understanding the needs for
investment.
There is a $50 million cut in the award-winning VA medical prosthetic
research and development program. Now, here is an award-winning program
that is developing prosthetics for amputees, the best around; and we
[[Page H3173]]
have soldiers in Iraq right now that are losing arms and legs as we
speak, and we are cutting funding for the research and development of
better prosthetics.
It continues, it continues, it continues; and it is just the
shortsightedness that this administration has. To do it for young kids,
to do it for the poor, to do it for the uninsured is shameful, but to
do it to the veterans who have given us this system that we have here
today, I think it is especially shameful.
I am glad to join you here tonight to continue this conversation.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan), my friend, was
mentioning that people watching this at home just sometimes might think
it is almost like we are making this up, this could not be like this.
Why would people do these kinds of things?
Why would President Bush talk such a good game about the military? He
was in the military, and remember when he landed on the ship and was in
his flight suit, and he certainly showed the American people that he
was one of the military, but why would he then turn around and make
these cuts? But these are political choices.
I mean, we sit in this body, the 435 of us, we come down to the House
floor with this little plastic card and we vote ``yes'' or ``no'' on
issues. This is a question. Government is about making choices. We
decide. What do we do about prescription drugs, what do we do about
Medicare, and what do we do about the environment?
Well, the Congress has made a series of choices about tax cuts and
the budget and expenditure of money, and this Congress and this
President who has pushed this Congress, and the Congress pretty much
rubber-stamps, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay) pretty much rubber-
stamps what the President wants. This Congress made a choice.
If you make $1 million a year, you get a $123,000 tax cut. If you are
worth $100 million and you pass away, rather than $30 or $40 million of
that going to the government, now, under Republican plans, even though
that is only one-half of 1 percent of the public that would pay this
tax, that has been eliminated.
So when somebody that makes $1 million pays a tax of $123,000 and no
longer pays it, then that money has got to come from somewhere. So what
happens is Congress makes a choice. Do you give that millionaire, the
guy making a million, do you give them the $123,000 tax cut, and when
you do it, it means you have got to cut veterans benefit? Or do you not
give him the tax cut and fund these veterans' programs?
Clearly, my Republican friends have made the decision, as has
President Bush, to give the millionaire the $123,000 tax cut and to
deny veterans health care benefits, education benefits, raised their
prescription drug costs, closed the Brecksville Hospital and Pittsburgh
Hospital and Mississippi Hospital.
These are choices that people make. That is why we hold elections.
The voters will say, Yeah, we like it that George Bush gives a
millionaire a $123,000 tax cut and cuts veterans benefits; or they will
say, We should not give these tax cuts to the superwealthy. Instead we
should meet our commitments on health care and education.
I had a group of people come into my office today, and it is a little
off the subject, not much, a group of people with Lou Gehrig's disease,
ALS, and this government has refused to fund research the way we have
been funding it the last 4 or 5 years.
{time} 2130
And the question, again, is: Do you give a millionaire a tax cut of
$123,000 or do you fund programs in research and development that
really are going to make wonderful scientific discoveries and save
lives?
To me, the answer is pretty clear. To my friends on the other side of
the aisle it is equally clear, but they have a different viewpoint. I
am not saying they are immoral or sleazy. I am just saying they made
the choice that they would rather give a millionaire a tax cut than to
fund veterans benefits, than to keep Brecksville open. They would
rather give a tax cut to the wealthiest 5 percent. Not somebody making
$50,000 or $100,000. I am talking about people making $1 million a
year, to give tax cuts to them; and when they do, we end up closing VA
hospitals, we end up cutting veterans health care benefits, we end up
cutting veterans education programs, and we end up with State
university tuitions going up through the roof, at Ohio State, at Kent
State, and Akron U and all over.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio.
Mr. STRICKLAND. I thank my friend for yielding, Mr. Speaker, and I
think the most important thing we do is to make choices. That is the
most important function of a legislator is to make choices, to decide
how we are going to use the people's resources, what is going to get
supported and what will not get supported.
The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) said earlier that folks watching
may think we are making this up because it sounds so outlandish, why
would an administration favor Iraqi prisoners over American prisoners,
and why would some of these terrible decisions be made. And it is
almost as if it is so bad it must not be true.
But I want to share a letter here which each Member of this Chamber
received from four veteran service organizations. I am talking about
the AMVETS, the Paralyzed Veterans of America, the National Legislative
Director for the Disabled American Veterans, and the Veterans of
Foreign Wars. They sent to us this letter. Every Member in this Chamber
got this letter as we were considering the budget resolution, which
laid out how much we were going to be willing to spend for our
veterans. I just want to read a passage from that letter, which we all
received:
``On behalf of the coauthors of the independent budget,'' and the
independent budget was created by these veteran organizations, so, ``On
behalf of the coauthors of the independent budget, the AMVETS, the
Disabled American Veterans, the Paralyzed Veterans of America, and the
Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, we are writing to urge
you to oppose and vote against H. Con. Res. 393, the House budget
resolution for fiscal year 2005.''
And then they continue: ``Passage of the budget resolution as
presented would be a disservice to those men and women who have served
this country and are currently serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around
the world in our fight against terrorism.''
Now, those words did not come from the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan)
or the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown), or the gentleman from Ohio (Mr.
Strickland). Those words came from these veteran service organizations,
these organizations whose sole purpose is to look out for what is right
for the veterans of this country.
And so this administration has a credibility problem. And it is fine
to salute the flag, it is fine to walk around on an aircraft carrier,
it is fine to stand and get your picture made with veterans; but what
really counts here is how we spend our resources. And the fact is that
our veterans are being shortchanged by this President and by this
administration. It is as simple as that. They are not putting resources
into veterans health care, the resources that are needed even to
maintain the current level of services.
I think we should be expanding services. I think we should get rid of
this prohibition on priority 8 veterans being excluded from VA health
care. But that is not what I am talking about here. I am talking about
just having enough money to maintain our current level of services. And
even with the President's budget, he was asking in that budget that
additional financial burdens be placed upon the backs of our veterans.
The President actually sent us a budget that said that veterans should
have to pay $15 a prescription rather than $7 a prescription.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield on that
point, because this is an important point to make.
Mr. STRICKLAND. I certainly will.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Everyone who in some way receives some kind of
public assistance, whether it is the veterans, or No Child Left Behind,
or people going to school, everyone, Medicare, all the social programs
that we have been asked to make some kind of sacrifice. The only people
who have not been asked to make any sacrifice at all are the wealthiest
people in our society.
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Mr. STRICKLAND. Absolutely.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. They have been asked to make no sacrifice at all,
and these gentlemen were talking before we got up here, about an hour
ago, and they said, quote, and I wrote it down, ``Republicans will not
raise taxes.'' And I think there were two words left out of that.
Republicans will not raise taxes, well, maybe three words, on the rich.
Mr. STRICKLAND. On the rich, that is right. Excuse me, but they are
raising taxes or causing taxes to be raised on the working folks of
this country.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Absolutely.
Mr. STRICKLAND. Mr. Speaker, if you go to Ohio, we now pay more taxes
in Ohio in part because of the cuts that have been made at the Federal
Government level. And across this country working people are paying
more in property taxes, they are paying more in excise taxes, they are
just paying more in taxes in general while the folks at the very top,
and as my friend, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown), said, we are
talking about millionaires, we are not talking about the family that
makes a couple hundred thousand dollars a year. We are talking about
the millionaires.
Tonight, in Iraq, we have soldiers sacrificing and their families
back here at home are sacrificing. And I want to tell you, they are
about the only ones sacrificing, because this President is not asking
anything from anybody except our soldiers and their families. In wars
past, we have paid for those wars. What we are doing is passing the
cost of this war on to the next generation. It is a rather shameful set
of circumstances that our country faces today.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. If the gentleman will yield, Mr. Speaker, the
ultimate irony of this whole deal, and this job provides a lot of
opportunities to have some very great moments, very sentimental
moments, and one I remember distinctly is when we walked into the
Cannon caucus room and we were having a veterans' hearing for their
budget. All the veteran organizations were there and filled this huge,
beautiful room. They were in wheelchairs, on crutches, bent, amputees,
just sacrifice written all over their face. Those are the veterans who
have created and protected the system, the democratic and capitalistic
system that we have right now and that allows people to create wealth
for themselves.
The fundamental aspect of this system is to have a strong economic
and democratic system which has been given to us by these veterans. And
these people who are benefiting from this system have not been asked to
sacrifice. I just wanted to make that point.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, I think we have
established pretty well tonight why Republican leaders and George Bush
do this, why they have made these cuts in veterans benefits, why they
made cuts to close the Brecksville Hospital. It is a question of
choices they have made between giving a $123,000 tax cut to a
millionaire or funding these programs.
The second question to ask, as we examine the whole question of are
we better off, are veterans better off today or the American people
better off today than they were 4 years ago, is to the look at how all
this happened.
The three of us, joined by 400 of our colleagues, sat in this Chamber
in the middle of the night, month after month after month, passing some
of the worst legislation, legislation that my friends in the Republican
leadership do not want people to see, so we passed these bills
literally in the middle of the night, after midnight; and I want to
talk about a couple of them.
Starting a year ago, starting literally 14 months ago, at 2:54 a.m.
on a Friday in March, the House cut veterans benefits by three votes.
At 2:39 a.m. on a Friday in April the House slashed education and
welfare by five votes. At 1:56 a.m. on a Friday in May, the House
passed the leave-no-millionaire-behind tax cut by a handful of votes.
At 2:33 on a Friday in June, Republicans boarded the midnight express
and passed the Medicare privatization prescription drug bill by one
vote. At 12:57 a.m. on a Friday in July, the Republicans again boarded
the midnight express and eviscerated Head Start by one vote. Then,
after returning from summer recess, after the August recess, at 12:12
a.m. on a Friday in October, the GOP again boarded the midnight express
and voted $87 billion for Iraq. Two months later, again in the middle
of the night, the Medicare bill passed. The debate started at midnight,
the vote started at 3 a.m. Normally, the vote takes 20 or 30 minutes.
The roll call stayed open until 6 a.m. It was a 3-hour vote.
In every single case, these bills were passed after the press had
gone home and people had turned their television sets off, those
watching C-SPAN, and the country had gone to bed. So not only are they
passing legislation that cuts veterans benefits, legislation that
discriminates against veterans, proposals that shut down hospitals and
cut back drug benefits and reduce education benefits for veterans, they
are doing it, and again this is not made up, it is documented in the
Congressional Record, they are doing this in the middle of the night,
under the cover of darkness, as they board the midnight express.
So the public does not see this. By the time it gets in the paper on
Saturday, it is old news. It is a couple of days later. It is never on
the front page, and the public only learns about it when they realize
their veterans' benefits have been cut again by the Bush
administration.
Mr. STRICKLAND. If my friend will yield, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. I yield to my friend from Ohio.
Mr. STRICKLAND. The gentleman is absolutely correct that much of this
is being done in this Chamber well after midnight, when most Americans
are asleep and the press is not here, with the hope that the American
people will not really fully understand what has been done.
But I am encouraged, because as I go back to my district and I talk
to my veterans, as I travel across Ohio and I talk to veterans, I think
the veterans get it. They understand. They understand their efforts to
raise the cost of their prescription drugs; they understand that the
President wants to impose a user fee, an annual user fee of $250 on
many of our veterans; they understand that if they are a priority 8
veteran, they may even be a combat-decorated veteran, but if they are a
priority 8 veteran and this administration thinks they receive a high
income, of course that could be about $24,000. You know, we make about
$155,000 in this Chamber and the American people need to know that,
when this administration is trying to imply that if you make about
$24,000 or $25,000 and you are a veteran, you are high income and so
you are no longer able to participate in the VA health care. I want to
tell you that is quite shameful, and the veterans know it.
They also know that this disabled veterans tax, which basically says
that if you retire from the military and you have earned your pension
and you are disabled as a result of your military service and you are
entitled to disability compensation, you cannot get both. For every
dollar of disability pay you get, $1 is deducted from your military
pension. We have been trying to get rid of that discrimination against
veterans. And, guess what? The President has said if we do it, he will
veto the bill. He will veto the bill.
Here is a letter from Secretary Rumsfeld to the gentleman from
California (Mr. Hunter) indicating that if the bill authorizes
concurrent receipt of military retirement pay and veterans disability
compensation benefits, then he would advise the President to veto the
bill. So what did we do? We half fixed it. We took a baby step, and
there are veterans in this country tonight who deserve their pensions
and they deserve their disability compensation, and we are nickel and
diming them, depriving them, discriminating against them. It is
absolutely wrong, and I believe the veterans are coming to understand
what is being done to them.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Well, I just wanted to say that that is a letter
sent from the head of the Department of Defense, the Republican-
controlled administration sent to this Congress saying that if you pass
a benefit for the veterans, we will veto the bill. It is that clear. It
is black and white.
Mr. STRICKLAND. If my friend would yield.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I would be happy to yield.
Mr. STRICKLAND. It is not really passing a benefit. It is a bill to
try to
[[Page H3175]]
keep this government from taking something away from the veterans that
they have earned. If they have served their time in the military and
they are entitled to receive a pension, they should get it. And if they
have been disabled and qualify for disability benefits, they should get
the disability benefits, and there should be no offset.
If you worked in any other part of the Federal Government, you would
not be subjected to this discrimination. It is only the veteran that is
being subjected to this kind of discrimination.
{time} 2145
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr.
Strickland) filed a lawsuit some time ago.
Mr. STRICKLAND. Yes.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. The lawsuit was basically to force the VA to do
what it is charged by this Congress to do, and he will explain. But it
was not just a question of policy decisions that the Congress and the
President have made to cut benefits, to fail to take care of the
soldiers with body armor; it was not just bad decisions by Congress and
the President. It also was incompetence by the VA and underfunding by
the VA to take care of many of the people who were in their charge. I
would ask the gentleman from Ohio to explain that.
Mr. STRICKLAND. It is quite simple. I was shocked many months ago
when the VA put out a memo, and I am paraphrasing, but I am true to the
spirit of the memo, which basically said, too many veterans are coming
in for services and it is costing us too much money. We do not have
enough money to provide those services. So henceforth, all of you who
are health care providers are forbidden to market VA services to
veterans. And it got quite specific.
These health care providers were told they could not participate in
community health fairs in their local communities. They were told they
could not send out newsletters.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, so President Bush
and the Secretary of the VA have decided the VA should offer services
to American veterans, but they are not allowed to tell anybody that
they are offering these services?
Mr. STRICKLAND. I call it the ``If they do not ask, we will not tell
policy.'' If the veteran does not ask what they are entitled to
receive, the VA will not proactively provide that information.
I tried to work this out. I went to Secretary Principi, a man that I
know and admire, as a matter of fact, and we tried to work this out. I
tried to get them to rescind this gag order, because it is a gag order.
It is a gag order placed upon the health care providers. We just could
not get them to budge.
Finally, I decided to initiate legal action and I got the Vietnam
Veterans of America to join me. We filed a suit. That suit is currently
before the court. It is my hope that the court will decide that this
policy of the VA is, in fact, contrary to the law and will require them
to rescind this terrible policy.
It is a terrible policy because there are veterans out there, for
example, if I can just give an example, veterans out there who may have
been exposed to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam. We now know that
exposure to Agent Orange, even all of these years later, can lead to
serious health consequences. For example, certain cancers are more
likely to be found in those soldiers who were exposed to Agent Orange,
such as prostate cancer, for example.
There may be veterans out there who have been so exposed and are not
aware that they are at risk, that they should come into the VA
facilities for an examination, and if they are found to have one of
these illnesses, that they are entitled to receive medical care from
the VA.
That is just an example of why this outreach to veterans is so
important and why it is so really quite pathetic that an administration
that says it cares about veterans would take this action to limit the
information that is disseminated to veterans who are in need of this
kind of information.
This is a matter of health, and it can be a matter of life and death.
That is why I think it is so shameful that we would have a policy, and
as the gentleman says, at the same time we are giving tax cuts to
millionaires, to millionaires, we are taking steps to limit the
dissemination of information to our veterans because if they come in,
it may cost too much money to provide them the care they need.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, just before I wrap up, this is all
very puzzling. I understand why President Bush is hostile to good
environmental policy, because environmentalists do not vote for him. He
does not seem to care.
I understand that President Bush pushes legislation that kind of
restricts the rights of minorities because minorities do not vote for
him. I understand why he is hostile to organized labor because he does
not get many labor union votes from steelworkers or auto workers or
food and commercial workers.
But I do not understand why he is so hostile to veterans. That really
puzzles me because a lot of veterans voted for President Bush. They
liked the fact that his father was a decorated veteran. They liked the
fact that he served this country through the National Guard honorably
and fully, at least before the news broke they thought he did, and they
voted for him because they thought he was sort of a stand-up tough guy
and would stand up for American interests.
It astounds me that this President would change our policy and
military doctrine, would attack Afghanistan, attack Iraq, make noises
about Iran and other places such as North Korea, but when the veterans
come home, not treat them any better than he treats them.
The only answer I can figure is, he is so wedded and focused on his
tax policy, on cutting taxes for the very wealthy, saving literally
over a trillion dollars in taxes for the richest 1 percent, that
everybody else suffers, veterans suffer, school kids get shortchanged,
seniors through the Medicare program get shortchanged, environmental
enforcement gets shortchanged, food safety enforcement, research for
the NIH get shortchanged; and that is the only explanation I can come
up with.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I think it is appropriate for us to
talk about what the Democrats' plan is and what we would do. I think it
is important not just to criticize, although there is plenty of room
for criticism in this administration.
The Democratic budget that we want for veterans would increase the
tax for those who make more than a million dollars a year, not all of
it. As the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) said, they get $123,000 back
from the Bush tax plan. We would say they would only get $100,000 back.
They would have to give around $20,000 of their tax cut back.
Part of that money we would use, $2 billion of it, to restore the
full survivor benefits to families of military retirees. $2.5 billion
we would put in veterans health care. We would improve military housing
for 50,000 military families.
So if anyone is at home asking, what is the Democratic plan, this is
our plan: $2.5 billion for health care, 50,000 families for military
housing, $2 billion to restore full survivor benefits. And our
legislation, if we were controlling this Chamber, the other Chamber and
possibly the White House, would permanently permit Reservists to buy
military health care through the TRICARE program.
Many of the Reservists, almost 2,000 of them, and I hear often about
the health care issues, our plan would allow them to buy permanently
into the TRICARE program. We would give them pay raises, things the
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) talked about, the combat pay, et
cetera; our future veterans would be taken care of.
So the Democrats have a plan. Let the millionaire keep $100,000, we
are going to take a few thousand away and invest it into our veterans
and into the research and development for our amputees that will be
coming back, so they have the best possible health care that the United
States of America, the wealthiest superpower ever in the history of
world, can at the very least take care of its veterans.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr.
Strickland) and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan), and I look forward
to
[[Page H3176]]
the comments of the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith).
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