[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 59 (Thursday, April 12, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4440-S4441]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. CORNYN (for himself, Mr. Craig, Mr. Akaka, and Mrs. 
        Hutchison):
  S. 1096. A bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to provide 
certain housing benefits to disabled members of the Armed Forces, to 
expand certain benefits for disabled veterans with severe burns, and 
for other purposes; to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, for the past several months, our Nation 
has focused on the tragic stories of the shameful conditions our 
wounded soldiers have faced as outpatients in Building 18 at Walter 
Reed Army Medical Center, and the stories of the difficulty they faced 
as they tried to navigate the military and veterans health care and 
benefits systems following their return from Afghanistan and Iraq.
  This morning, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and 
the ranking member--the committee on which I serve--as well as the 
Veterans' Affairs Committee had further hearings and detailed the work 
we have to do to bring down another wall, and that is the wall that 
separates our wounded warriors from the benefits they have earned by 
their noble service.
  Today I introduce the Veterans Housing Benefits Enhancement Act of 
2007 that will provide immediate and tangible assistance to our wounded 
servicemembers and their families by strengthening our current law.
  This legislation provides explicit VA housing and automobile grant 
eligibility to servicemembers and veterans with burn injuries, enhanced 
eligibility for grant assistance during the Department of Defense-to-
Veterans' Administration transition, and requires the Secretary of the 
Veterans' Administration to report on possible improvements to the 
current law that would cover others with special disabilities, such as 
those with traumatic brain injuries.
  I am pleased to say the chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs 
Committee, Senator Danny Akaka, and the ranking member, Senator Larry 
Craig of Idaho, have joined me as original cosponsors of this 
legislation, as well as my senior Senator from Texas, Mrs. Hutchison.
  I grew up in a military family. My dad served for 31 years in the Air 
Force. I saw firsthand the importance of treating our veterans in a 
fair and equitable manner. The sacrifices our men and women in uniform 
make every day must not be forgotten when they take that uniform off or 
when they leave their active-duty military service. No veteran should 
ever be left behind. The fundamental agreement--I would say even sacred 
covenant--between our men and women in uniform and our Government does 
not end when a servicemember is wounded or separates from the active-
duty military service and becomes a veteran.
  Let there be no question about it, the conditions of these outpatient 
housing facilities at Walter Reed were absolutely unacceptable. But 
perhaps the story of that unacceptable condition has led us to finding 
a way to serve our wounded warriors and their families better. The U.S. 
military and the Department of Veterans Affairs must conduct a top-to-
bottom investigation of our entire military health system and take 
immediate steps to address any and all problems that might exist.
  It is sobering to know--as Senator Craig quoted during this morning's 
hearings in the Senate Armed Services Committee and Veterans' Affairs 
Committee--that the conclusions reached by GEN Omar Bradley some five 
decades ago were not fundamentally different from those that are 
tentative conclusions today about how we can improve that transition, 
and still we know problems exist.
  The President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded 
Veterans, led by Senator Bob Dole and Secretary Donna Shalala, is an 
important component of this ongoing effort, which will not be a task 
for the short-winded. We have an obligation and a duty to ensure that 
the men and women who are serving and who have served in our military 
are receiving the very best treatment and benefits for themselves and 
their families. We cannot and we should not tolerate anything less. We 
have to do whatever it takes, including providing both the necessary 
resources and cutting the bureaucratic redtape, to best meet the 
medical and other needs of those who have so nobly defended our 
Nation's freedom.
  In my State of Texas, my home of San Antonio, Brooke Army Medical 
Center stands at the forefront of modern army medicine, second to none 
in

[[Page S4441]]

the world. Without a doubt--and this is a personal judgment, and I know 
my colleagues will indulge me--it is Brooke Army Medical Center that is 
the crown jewel of modern military medicine. I have seen firsthand the 
magnificent job our men and women are doing at Brooke Army Medical 
Center to care for our servicemembers, and they deserve all the credit 
and our firm support.
  When I made my most recent visit to Brooke Army Medical Center, on 
March 10, I had the chance to not only visit soldiers and their 
families but I chaired a roundtable of hospital administrators, 
veterans service organizations, and veterans themselves because I 
wanted to learn from them what we needed to do here in Washington, DC 
to craft the laws and policies of this Nation to serve them better. I 
appreciate the strong opinions and advice expressed by these people who 
participated in the roundtable, and others who have been a source of 
information and feedback to me as I try to do what I can in my capacity 
as their elected representative to accomplish these goals. The care and 
support our Nation provides to these wounded warriors is a direct 
reflection of the level of respect we have for both our military, our 
military families, and our veterans, and will, in many ways, shape the 
armed services, the all-volunteer services, for many years to come. 
They depend not only on recruitment but retention.
  In conjunction with my most recent visit to Brooke Army Medical 
Center, I heard from many soldiers, families, and veterans about their 
individual experiences, as I know the current occupant of the chair has 
when he has traveled back to Colorado, and as all of us have when we go 
back to learn more from our constituents about how we can improve our 
response. I learned in particular of challenges that burn victims and 
their families have faced because they have not received enough special 
care and assistance for that particular type of injury in the area of 
VA housing grants and automobile enhancements.
  In particular, I want to recognize two women, heroes in my eyes, and 
I am sure in the eyes of their families, people such as Christy Patton, 
whose husband, U.S. Army SSG Everett Patton, is undergoing treatment at 
Brooke Army Medical Center. He was wounded and badly burned by an IED, 
an improvised explosive device, in Iraq while with the 172nd Stryker 
Brigade from Alaska. The Pattons have five children.
  Then there is Rosie Babin, whose son Alan, a corporal, a medic, was 
shot while serving in the 82nd Airborne combat team in 2003, now 
medically retired and living at home with his parents outside Austin, 
TX. These two women--Christy Patton, who sought me out and explained to 
me the difficult challenges that her husband and her family of five 
children are having transitioning and dealing with these wounds and 
transitioning from the military medical care into retirement and the 
veterans system; as well as Rosie Babin, on behalf of her son Alan--are 
the most fervent and effective advocates anyone could ever want to have 
on your side. They have helped me a great deal as I have tried to craft 
legislation which I have introduced today to help not only them, 
because I know they didn't come to me advocating just for a solution 
for their husband or their son, they came to me because they thought we 
could craft a solution for wounded warriors and their families yet to 
come. These families, though, are facing unique challenges as they deal 
with the injuries of their loved ones, and we have a responsibility to 
ensure they do not go it alone and that they get all the resources and 
assistance our country can offer them so they can recover to the 
maximum degree possible.

  The intent of the legislation which I have introduced today, along 
with my cosponsors, is pretty straightforward. Let me describe briefly 
what it does.
  It would strengthen the present code to provide for the specific 
needs of burn victims for housing and automobile grants. It would 
ensure that wounded servicemembers and veterans with other specific 
needs, such as traumatic brain injuries, are also covered by these 
kinds of grants, if required. It would further strengthen the 
Department of Defense-to-Veterans' Administration transition.
  As the occupant of the chair knows, that has been one of the real 
problems we have identified early on, is transitioning people from 
active-duty military service into the Veterans' Administration, with 
the duplicate bureaucracies and redtape and the different standards for 
disability determination and the like. But this bill, in particular, 
would strengthen the Department of Defense-to-Veterans Administration 
transition by providing partial housing grants for those veterans 
residing with a family member to cover servicemembers still on active 
duty awaiting their final VA disability rating.
  I have to say a word here about the family members. When I have been 
to Walter Reed and when I have been to Brooke Army Medical Center in 
San Antonio, I have seen young spouses, mostly women, who are attending 
to their injured warrior husbands, or in the case of Rosie Babin, a 
mother, a loving mother attending to the needs of her son, who was also 
injured in 2003. It was brought home to me on a very human level what 
these wounds mean not just to those who receive them but to the family 
members, who basically sacrifice everything in order to attend to and 
care for their loved ones. So we ought to do everything we can for our 
warriors, such as Alan Babin, who are living in their parents' home, to 
make sure these housing grants will cover servicemembers still on 
active duty who are awaiting their Veterans' Administration disability 
rating.
  This legislation will also require the Veterans' Administration to 
report on the need for a permanent housing grant for wounded veterans 
who reside with family members; and, finally, it will adjust current 
law to provide home improvements and structural alteration housing 
grants to Department of Defense servicemembers who are awaiting final 
VA disability ratings.
  As a direct result of the care and concern of military family 
members, such as Christy Patton and Rosie Babin, we now have a concrete 
response to the very real concerns they have raised and ways that we 
can, working together, strengthen the current law. I hope my colleagues 
will support this legislation so we can work together on a bipartisan 
basis, in unison, to support our wounded servicemembers and their 
families better, particularly people such as the Babins and the 
Pattons. With continued attention to our veterans, we can fashion a 
revised system that best supports them and their families. I know we 
all agree that they deserve nothing less. They are the very finest our 
Nation has to offer.
                                 ______