[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 23, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H5654-H5656]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
URGING AMERICANS AND PEOPLE OF ALL NATIONALITIES TO VISIT THE AMERICAN
CEMETERIES, MEMORIALS AND MARKERS
Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the
resolution (H. Res. 392) urging Americans and people of all
nationalities to visit the American Cemeteries, Memorials and Markers.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The text of the resolution is as follows:
H. Res. 392
Whereas the United States has fought in wars outside of its
borders to restore freedom and human dignity;
Whereas the United States has spent its national treasure
and shed its blood in fighting those wars;
Whereas many of those who died on the battlefield were laid
to rest exactly where they fell;
Whereas those plots of ground are now known as American
Cemeteries, Memorials and Markers, and they exist in 10
foreign countries on four continents;
Whereas these cemeteries exist as the final resting place
for American servicemembers who fought valiantly in battles
across the globe, including Ardennes and Flanders, Belgium;
Manila, the Philippines; North Africa, Tunisia; Florence,
Italy; and Normandy, France;
Whereas each year millions of American and foreign citizens
visit the American Cemeteries, Memorials and Markers;
Whereas these overseas sites annually recognize Memorial
Day with speeches, a reading of the Memorial Day
Proclamation, wreath laying ceremonies, military bands and
units, and the decoration of each grave site with the flag of
the United States and that of the host country; and
Whereas the splendid commemorative sites inspire
patriotism, evoke gratitude, and teach history: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That House of Representatives strongly urges
Americans and people of all nationalities to visit the
American Cemeteries, Memorials and Markers abroad, where the
spirit of American generosity, sacrifice, and courage are
displayed and commemorated.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
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California (Mr. Filner) and the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Lamborn)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.
Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, we are about to take up a package of seven bills that
have come to the floor from the Veterans Committee, a committee which I
am very proud of that has worked together over the first 4 or 5 months
of this session to keep our contract with our Nation's veterans. And
there is no better time than just before Memorial Day to say thank you.
Memorial Day celebrates those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for
our Nation's freedom. We are here on the floor today to say thank you
to those, and to those who are still deployed, and to veterans from
past wars.
In the recent election, Mr. Speaker, the Democrats promised to do
more for our Nation's veterans. We said we had a President who was
saying, support the troops, support the troops, support the troops; but
when they came home, where was that support? Walter Reed ripped off the
veil of our incompetency of dealing with veterans and showed that so
many were not getting the care they were promised and people thought
they were getting.
We have had story after story in the Nation's press about how
returning veterans with PTSD or brain injury have not been getting the
care which this Nation has promised at the highest quality medical
system in the world. So we have to do better.
We have a system that is really about to break and collapse. What we
saw as the majority party is that the first thing that had to be done
was give the VA the resources to carry out the job; secondly, we had to
have accountability for the spending of those resources.
Well, in the first three spending bills that went through this House,
we were able to add $13 billion for the health care of our veterans.
That is an unprecedented increase from one year to the next, an
increase of 30 percent in the health care budget.
We have put in the resources to clean up the backlog of claims for
disability pensions that have built up to 600,000. We have put in the
money to open up new Centers of Excellence for traumatic brain injury,
to finally give the mental health care that the tens of thousands of
veterans who are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan need.
We call it PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, but virtually every
soldier subject to at least five blasts that would give them brain
injury, seeing their buddies shot and killed in front of them, maybe
having to kill even by accident some innocent people in Iraq, they come
back with tremendous mental issues. They have to be worked out. They
need medical care, and too many have been falling through the cracks.
So we have said we will provide the resources to make sure that does
not occur. We have provided the resources to meet these needs. Now we
have to have accountability for their spending. The Veterans' Affairs
Committee of this Congress has pledged to do that.
So we have a collection of bills on the floor this afternoon to say
thank you to our Nation's veterans, thank you for your efforts in this
war, thank you for your efforts in past wars, and we honor those who
gave the ultimate sacrifice on Memorial Day.
This resolution before us now, H. Res. 392, comes to us under the
leadership of the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Lamborn), and I thank
him for his activity on the Veterans' Affairs Committee. This
resolution encourages people to visit the cemeteries, memorials, and
markers overseen by the American Battle Monuments Commission. I am sure
many people who hear this say, what is the American Battle Monuments
Commission?
In 1923, Congress created the Battle Monuments Commission to control
the construction of military cemeteries, monuments and markers erected
to honor American servicemembers killed on foreign soil. Host countries
provide the necessary lands for these sites to the United States in
perpetuity and free of charge.
The Commission cares for 24 military cemeteries and 25 memorials,
monuments and markers in 15 nations around the world. These sites serve
as the final resting places for almost 125,000 Americans who fought in
the Mexican-American War through World War I and II. The Commission
takes special care that all cemeteries under its supervision are
maintained to the highest standard attainable.
The Battle Monuments Commission extends an open invitation to all to
visit these splendid shrines and go beyond the most well known, like
Normandy, and venture into others. Each site has its own sense of
history, sacrifice and beauty; each offers a different and unique
experience. No two have the same garden or architecture. Perhaps only
the spiritual qualities are similar.
In less than a month from now, on June 6, the Battle Monuments
Commission will commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the D-Day landing
by opening a new Normandy American Cemetery Visitor Center. Under
construction since 2002, the center will tell the story of the American
servicemembers memorialized at Normandy.
I encourage everyone to visit this new D-Day center and any of the
other sites under the jurisdiction of the Commission.
Overseas American cemeteries are lasting reminders of America's
willingness to come to the defense of others. These tangible symbols of
American values endure long after the fighting is over.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Lamborn for bringing this resolution to us.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LAMBORN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the chairman of the committee for the
good work he has done and also the ranking member, the gentleman from
Indiana (Mr. Buyer), for the good work he has done in helping shepherd
this package of bills and resolutions that are on the floor today
paying tribute to our Nation's veterans.
Mr. Speaker, on House Resolution 392, I want to commend this
resolution urging Americans and people of all nationalities to visit
the American cemeteries, memorials and markers located on and near the
battlefields where members of our Armed Forces fought and died to
secure our Nation's freedom, and to actually secure the freedom of the
whole world.
Properly honoring a veteran's memory is one of our most solemn and
sacred obligations. These patriots and their families are due the
tribute and thanks of a grateful Nation.
The overseas national cemeteries of the American Battle Monuments
Commission provide these heroes honored repose in a national shrine far
from the homes they left to serve us. These cemeteries are the gold
standard in memorializing the priceless gift given us by those who fell
in our defense.
The Commission oversees 24 overseas military cemeteries that serve as
resting places for almost 125,000 American war dead; on Tablets of the
Missing that memorialize more than 94,000 United States service men and
women; and through 25 memorials, monuments and markers.
These memorials and cemeteries are the final resting place for
Americans who fought valiantly in battles whose names ennoble our
history: Ardennes and Flanders, Belgium; Manila in the Philippines;
North Africa, Tunisia, Italy, and Normandy.
With Memorial Day less than a week away, this is a most fitting time
to consider this resolution. I ask my colleagues to support it. I look
forward to its passage.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers.
Mr. LAMBORN. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the
ranking member, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Buyer).
{time} 1445
Mr. BUYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H. Res. 392
that encourages Americans and people of all nationalities to visit
American cemeteries, memorials and markers operated by the American
Battle Monuments Commission.
More than 125,000 American war dead of the Mexican, Civil, Spanish
American and both World Wars are buried in American cemeteries across
the globe. Our overseas cemeteries are under the jurisdiction of the
American Battle Monuments Commission. I believe they
[[Page H5656]]
are the gold standard in preserving the final resting place of this
Nation's heroes.
I've had the privilege of visiting our cemeteries in Normandy, in
Luxembourg and Cyrennes which is just outside Paris. I believe that
those who work at these cemeteries, in fact, when I said they set the
gold standard, it is a standard to which our VA cemeteries here in this
country should achieve. It's emblematic, I believe, of our Nation's
regard to those who made the highest sacrifice.
They are true shrines to Americans who came to lands that they had
never seen, to fight for a people that they had never met. They fought
for no bounty of their own and left freedom in their footsteps.
Normandy, the American cemetery, is probably the most famous of our
Nation's overseas cemeteries. It is the final resting place of more
than 10,000 Americans who died in one of the greatest and most decisive
battles of the epic struggle against tyranny in World War II. This year
the Commission will open a new visitors center to help communicate the
story of this site to those who fought and died over its length and
breadth in time.
I had the opportunity to deliver the Memorial Day address, along with
my friend Henry Brown of South Carolina, at Normandy as I stood there
on the cliffs at Omaha Beach in 2005, an experience that I will never
forget.
When I visited the Luxembourg cemetery last year, I was in awe of the
beauty of the white stone chapel flanked by two very large stone pylons
as the centerpiece of this cemetery in which then-General Patton lies
in rest before his men. These pylons have maps and inscriptions telling
the achievements of the U.S. Armed Forces in the region. Inscribed here
are the 371 names of missing who gave their lives near this site but
whose remains were not recovered or identified.
The Luxembourg cemetery is also the final resting place for some
5,000 GIs who repulsed Hitler's final offensive in the Battle of the
Bulge, including several members of the famous Band of Brothers,
deposed in Steve Ambrose's book.
I think if you visited any of these cemeteries all over the world you
can't help but walk away with the same feeling that I have, a strong
sense of humility and very humbled that these individuals gave
everything in the name of freedom and in the name of liberty.
I just encourage everyone so when you go overseas and you're on a
trip, or you go to Paris, pause for a moment and go visit one of our
cemeteries on foreign land.
And I'm pleased that after World War II we now make every effort to
bring these bodies back to our own country. So from Korea and Vietnam
and the first Gulf War, second Gulf War, we try everything we can to
bring these bodies back.
And speaking of Korea, now that the chairman is here on the floor, I
would even ask of the chairman, there is a bill that was filed by one
of our colleagues to bring recognition to Raymond Jerry Murphy, to name
the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in New Mexico after
this Medal of Honor winner. And I've given you several letters as to
why this bill shouldn't be brought up. We're hopeful that you could
have brought this bill to the floor while he was alive, but now he has
since deceased.
So I would ask the chairman if he has knowledge as to why this bill
shouldn't be brought to the floor and given the same honor to which
you're giving here with regard to this bill.
I yield to the chairman.
Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, this is not a germane issue, and I will
stick to dealing with the bills on the floor.
Mr. BUYER. So the chairman would raise an issue of germaneness rather
than addressing the issue of how we honor the men and women who serve
this country. That is disappointing.
This is a Medal of Honor winner from the Korean War in which we tried
to seek to give recognition, just like we're doing in this bill, in how
we honor our Nation's sacred fallen. This is an individual of whom is
so respected in New Mexico the entire delegation supports it. It passed
by unanimous consent in the Senate. The Senate bill lies upon this
desk, but the chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee won't bring it
to the floor, and I don't understand.
I will now yield back to the gentleman for a better explanation,
rather than germaneness, as to why you will not honor this veteran that
the entire delegation of New Mexico supports.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Ross). Does the gentleman from Indiana
yield back the balance of his time?
Mr. BUYER. No, the gentleman from Indiana yields to the chairman of
the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.
Parliamentary Inquiry
Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, parliamentary inquiry.
Does the yieldee have to make time for an extraneous comment from the
yielder?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Does the gentleman from Indiana yield for a
parliamentary inquiry?
Mr. BUYER. I absolutely yield for a parliamentary inquiry.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from California will state his
parliamentary inquiry.
Mr. FILNER. Is the yieldee required to give time to the yielder for a
matter that has nothing to do with the matter under discussion?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members may yield to one another during
debate, but remarks must be confined to the question under debate.
Mr. FILNER. So are they through with their time? Have they yielded
back the balance of their time?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Indiana has the floor.
Mr. BUYER. I will reclaim my time since the gentleman now is not
speaking of a parliamentary inquiry.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Indiana is recognized.
Mr. BUYER. Mr. Speaker, I think by silence, by omission, the chairman
just spoke, and how disappointed I am that veterans, that he just said
that he wanted to come to the floor, that he was going to take this
moment as a thank-you to veterans and all they do; yet here we have an
opportunity in bipartisanship to recognize this Medal of Honor winner
from Korea, whereby he wouldn't even do it when the gentleman was
alive, and now he's deceased, and he still won't even give this
individual the recognition. Yet the Senate bill, in a bipartisan
fashion, lays upon this desk.
I am very disappointed, and I don't know what it's going to take to
get you to move this bill and give the recognition. The Governor
supports it. The two Senators support it. The Members of Congress from
New Mexico support it. All the veterans service organizations support
the bill, and I support this bill.
And if you know of a particular reason as to why this Medal of Honor
winner, Mr. Murphy, should not receive this recognition by having the
veterans hospital named in his honor, please let all of us know,
because if you're blocking this for political motive, now we're upset.
Mr. LAMBORN. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of H. Res. 392, I have nothing
more to add except I do want to thank the chairman and I want to thank
the ranking member for their words on behalf of H. Res. 392, and I urge
its adoption by the entire House. I yield back the balance of my time.
General Leave
Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material on H. Res. 392.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join Mr. Lamborn and
me to unanimously support H. Res. 392. I have no further requests for
time, and I yield back my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from California (Mr. Filner) that the House suspend the rules
and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 392.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the resolution was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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