[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 14 (Wednesday, February 8, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E113-E114]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      A VOTE FOR MERCHANT MARINERS

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BOB FILNER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 8, 2006

  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, my bill, H.R. 23, the ``Belated Thank You to 
the Merchant Mariners of World War II Act'' will correct the injustice 
that has been inflicted on a group of World War II veterans, the World 
War II United States Merchant Marines.
  Senator Larry Craig has posted on his Web site his views of S. 1272, 
the Senate companion bill to H.R. 23. His views have been addressed by 
the co-chairs of the Just Compensation Committee of the U.S. Merchant 
Marine Combat Veterans. They have requested that the Senator's views 
and their letter be placed into the Congressional Record.

       What is Senator Craig's position on S. 1272?
       Without question, the service provided by members of the 
     U.S. Merchant Marine was invaluable to America's victory over 
     the Axis powers during World War II. Merchant Mariners in 
     oceangoing missions served alongside active components of the 
     Armed Forces as they braved the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans 
     to deliver vital supplies and manpower to the warfront. 
     Undaunted by their difficult missions, Merchant Mariners 
     suffered heavy casualties from enemy naval forces and land-
     to-sea artillery fire. To all members of the U.S. Merchant 
     Marine who put themselves in harm's way, I say ``thank you'' 
     for your service.
       Civilian groups like the U.S. Merchant Marine have 
     frequently performed the equivalent of military service 
     throughout our nation's history. In recognition of that fact, 
     Congress, through the enactment of Public Law 95-202 
     (established in 1977), a process by which civilian groups 
     could be recognized for their service and be classified as 
     ``veterans'' for purposes of all benefits administered by the 
     Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The Secretary of the Air 
     Force was chosen to be the Executive Agent of the Defense 
     Department in making decisions about granting that status. 
     And the Air Force Secretary's decisions are informed by a 
     review process conducted by the Civilian Military Service 
     Review Board. Since 1977, 30 groups have been recognized as 
     having attained veteran status. In 1988, members of the U.S. 
     Merchant Marine who served between December 7, 1941 and 
     August 15, 1945 were recognized.
       The criteria for having civilian service equated with 
     military service are necessarily stringent. That is as it 
     should be; we should never water down what it means to be a 
     veteran of the United States Armed Forces.
       With that perspective in mind, I turn now to the merits of 
     S. 1272. S. 1272, among other things, would entitle certain 
     members of the U.S. Merchant Marine (or, if deceased, their 
     surviving spouses) who served between December 7, 1941 and 
     December 31, 1946, to a $1,000 monthly payment. The $1,000 
     monthly payment would be in addition to any other VA 
     benefits. The following are the reasons why I do not support 
     S. 1272:
       (1) The cost of S. 1272 is considerable. Senate rules would 
     require the Committee to identify offsets for the new 
     entitlement spending. Assuming that just 3,000 Merchant 
     Mariners and surviving spouses are alive today (the lowest 
     estimate I have heard), the Committee would have to find $36 
     million of offsets in the first year alone. And the Committee 
     would be limited to finding those offsets within other 
     veterans' benefits programs and services, a task that I and 
     other Senators undertake only under extraordinary 
     circumstances.
       (2) The precedent set by enacting S. 1272 would likely 
     result in additional spending. For example, the Congress 
     would have very little justification to not extend the same 
     $1,000 monthly payment to the 29 other groups who have been 
     recognized since 1977 as having attained veteran status. 
     Furthermore, Congress has often granted benefits to 
     veterans long after their service. For example, Congress 
     did not establish presumptions of service-connection for 
     Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange until 20 years 
     after the herbicide spraying had ceased. S. 1272 might 
     create an expectation that retroactive payments for these, 
     and other veterans is owed.
       (3) While service in the U.S. Merchant Marine during World 
     War II was extremely dangerous, there is little precedent for 
     conferring a VA benefit (on top of all other benefits) on the 
     basis of casualty rates, danger of duty, or acts of 
     gallantry. Only Medal of Honor recipients receive such a 
     payment. To use a similar justification to award Merchant 
     Mariners a $1,000 monthly payment would rightly lead to 
     claims from others who served no less valiantly than they.
       (4) As previously mentioned, members of the U.S. Merchant 
     Marine who were in active oceangoing service between December 
     7, 1941 to August 15, 1945 are already veterans, entitled to 
     full veterans' benefits from VA. However, S. 1272 would 
     confer a veterans' benefit on individuals who served (in 
     addition to the dates above) between August 16, 1945 and 
     December 31, 1946. In effect, the bill seeks to grant a 
     veteran's benefit to individuals who are not veterans.
       For all of these reasons, I cannot support S. 1272. I want 
     to make clear however, that my opposition to S. 1272 does not 
     mean that I do not share a profound respect for the service 
     rendered to the country by members

[[Page E114]]

     of the U.S. Merchant Marine who served during World War II. 
     They were rightly recognized as veterans of the Armed Forces 
     in 1988, and the nation owes them gratitude.
       The response from the Merchant Mariners:
     Senator Larry E. Craig,
     Chairman, U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, 
         Washington, DC.
       Mis-information is prevalent and must be rebutted when 
     Veterans of World War II are maligned. Especially the 
     reputations of 9,000 men who gave their lives for this 
     country and lay for the most part in Davy Jones' locker at 
     the bottom of the sea. There are no monuments or headstones 
     where they lay forgotten by the millions of people who 
     benefited from their valiant sacrifices. There are no MIA 
     lists because the government didn't want to disclose the huge 
     losses in the Merchant Marine during World War II.
       Let's correct the Record--I am referring to the website of 
     the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs. A Bill before 
     the U.S. House of Representatives, H.R. 23--``A Belated Thank 
     You to the Merchant Mariners of World War II Act of 2005'' 
     and its companion Bill in the U.S. Senate, S. 1272 sponsored 
     by Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska is under attack by Senator 
     Larry Craig of Idaho. We would like to point out that this 
     attack is full of misinformation.
       Senator Craig is eloquent in his praise of the U.S. 
     Merchant Marine but undermines their credibility with 
     erroneous and false statements, possibly not intentional but 
     nevertheless damaging to their efforts to establish their 
     rights under the G.I. Bill that benefited all other Veterans 
     of World War II.
       (1) Senator Craig lists on his website as item No. 1 ``The 
     Cost of S. 1272 is considerable'' assuming that just 3,000 
     Merchant Marine and the wives are alive today. Two things are 
     wrong about that statement. Compared to the cost of lives 
     lost on September 11th at over $1,400,000 each, the cost per 
     surviving Merchant Marine remaining life span under S. 1272 
     is negligible. A truer count of remaining Merchant Marine 
     Veterans of World War II has been estimated at close to 
     10,000 with an estimated 3,000 wives. This has been 
     established by the survivors in their voluntary 
     unincorporated association of the Just Compensation Committee 
     members. It is hard to believe that the Veterans' Affairs 
     Committee would be hard pressed to find $120,000,000 to fund 
     the first year of an approximate ten year cost to compensate 
     these Veterans for the 40 years of failure to deliver them 
     the G.I. Bill of Rights.
       (2) Senator Craig further says on his website that S. 1272 
     would result in additional spending on 29 other groups who 
     have attained Veterans' status also. These 29 groups total 
     less than 1,000 civilians under military authority, most of 
     whom are dead today and were very far from ``harm's way.'' 
     The Merchant Marine had 250,000 men on armed vessels during 
     World War II, all volunteers, who were in ``harm's way'' 100 
     percent of their service time with 81% exposed to enemy 
     action. Senator Craig states that Congress often granted 
     benefits to Veterans long after service. Millions and 
     millions of dollars were granted to Veterans under the G.I. 
     Bill of 1944. The problem is Congress has failed to pay the 
     Merchant Marine Veterans for over 40 years.
       (3) Senator Craig keeps referring to the Merchant Marine 
     claim as similar to Medal of Honor recipients. This is not 
     true and a distortion of facts. All other Veterans of World 
     War II received assistance in the equivalent value of 
     $120,000 in 1946 dollars. Adjusted for inflation, the U.S. 
     Government owes the Merchant Marine Veterans over $1 million 
     dollars each for their 40 years of neglectful lack of timely 
     payment of benefits. No one covets the $1,000 per month paid 
     to Medal of Honor recipients which the government bestows on 
     them. A $1,000 per month for the 78- to 88-year-old Merchant 
     Marine Veterans of World War II with an expected 3- to 5-year 
     remaining lifetime is a bargain settlement for our 
     government. Most of these aged Veterans subsist on Social 
     Security payments and Medicare struggling to survive in these 
     days of rampant inflation.
       (4) Senator Craig states in his website that ``In effect, 
     the bill seeks to grant a Veterans' benefit to individuals, 
     not Veterans.'' The U.S. Congress passed the Fairness Act 
     that recognized that World War II officially ended December 
     31, 1946 and those who gave service up to that date were 
     entitled to be called Veterans.
       We thank Senator Craig for stating that the members of the 
     U.S. Merchant Marine during World War II ``were rightly 
     recognized as Veterans of Armed Forces in 1988 and the nation 
     owes them its gratitude.''
       I would like to refresh the recollection of the members of 
     the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate by setting 
     forth the words of the most honored leaders of World War II 
     as to their regard of the men who sailed the ships of the 
     Merchant Marine.
       The Merchant Mariners of World War II have been our 
     forgotten heroes.
       ``The men and women who build the ships, the men who sail 
     them, are making it possible to transport fighting men and 
     supplies wherever they are needed to defeat the enemy. The 
     Army is deeply indebted to these men and women for their 
     unceasing effort to do everything in their power to hasten 
     the day of victory.''--General of the Army George C. 
     Marshall, U.S. Army Chief of Staff.
       ``When final victory is ours there is no organization that 
     will share its credit more deservedly than the Merchant 
     Marine.''--General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower, Allied 
     Expeditionary Forces in Europe.
       ``The Merchant Marine . . . has repeatedly proved its right 
     to be considered as an integral part of our fighting 
     team.''-- Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander-in-
     Chief, Pacific Theater.
       ``The men and ships of the Merchant Marine have 
     participated in every landing operation by the United States 
     Marine Corps from Guadalcanal to Iwo Jima--and we know they 
     will be at hand with supplies and equipment when American 
     amphibious forces hit the beaches of Japan itself . . . We of 
     the Marine Corps salute the men of the merchant fleet.''--
     General A.A. Vandergrift, Commander, U.S. Marine Corps.
       ``. . . their contribution was just as important as that of 
     the troops . . . During the Tripoli campaign I went down to 
     the waterfront and personally thanked the men and skippers of 
     the merchant ships for getting through with the stuff . . 
     .''-- Field Marshall Sir Bernard Montgomery.
       ``Because the Navy shares life and death, attack and 
     victory, with the men of the United States Merchant Marine, 
     we are fully aware of their contribution to the victory which 
     must come.''--Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King, Commander-in-
     Chief of the Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations.
       ``I wish to commend to you the valor of the merchant seamen 
     participating with us in the liberation of the Philippines. 
     With us they have shared the heaviest enemy fire. On these 
     islands I have ordered them off their ships and into foxholes 
     when their ships became untenable targets of attack. At our 
     side they have suffered in bloodshed and in death . . . They 
     have contributed tremendously to our success. I hold no 
     branch in higher esteem than the Merchant Marine Service.''--
     General of the Army Douglas MacArthur.
       ``Our growing power on the seas is not alone a war measure. 
     As a post-war policy, American ships will retain the 
     commanding position in world trade which we are now 
     approaching our war effort . . .''--Vice Admiral E.S. Land 
     USN (Ret.), War Shipping Administrator.

                          ____________________