[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 29 (Wednesday, March 3, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H1087]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 RECOGNIZING MINNESOTA'S 34TH INFANTRY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Paulsen) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PAULSEN. Mr. Speaker, the amount of sacrifice given to this 
Nation by those serving in our Armed Forces is truly inspiring. 
American men and women in uniform are a remarkable symbol for our 
country, and we are truly proud of their dedication.
  The Minnesota National Guard's 34th Infantry Division, known as the 
Red Bulls, have served our State and our country with honor and are 
truly the best our Nation has to offer. Their dedication to ensure 
freedom has been a momentous task, and they continue to succeed with 
utmost bravery.
  This responsibility is no small task. Indeed, ensuring democracy in a 
fragile state is something that takes courage and trust.
  Most recently, more than 1,000 members of the Red Bulls were deployed 
to Basra, Iraq, where they took command of 14,000 troops in nine of 
Iraq's 18 provinces. After serving long hours and giving up days and 
years of their lives, the Red Bulls have finally returned home to 
Minnesota, and it was a joyous occasion. Families and friends were 
reunited after serving our country and representing our State. These 
heroes took part in the Minnesota National Guard's nationally 
recognized ``Return to Yellow Ribbon'' reintegration program which 
helps soldiers ease back into everyday life.
  To give thanks for their extended service, in January 2007, the Post-
Deployment Mobilization Respite Absence program, PDMRA, was implemented 
to offer extra pay for those who served extended time overseas during 
deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  But despite this promise, more than 23,000 troops did not receive the 
benefits they were promised due to the bureaucracy and the red tape 
within the Department of Defense. Troops that were owed thousands of 
dollars, they didn't see a dime. This was entirely unacceptable. This 
type of delay, whatever the excuse, was certainly outrageous. And 
although this was not a new issue, I was proud to work on this issue as 
soon as I arrived in Congress. In fact, the effort was led by 
Representatives John Kline and Tim Walz from Minnesota, along with the 
rest of the Minnesota delegation, and Representative Bruce Braley from 
Iowa, whose tireless work on this issue should not go unnoticed.
  Mr. Speaker, when it comes to our veterans' issues, partisan politics 
are not an option. We all share a common goal in Congress to support 
our troops, and have worked together to ensure that those who serve our 
Nation get the respect and the recognition that they deserve.
  While we authored legislation that would have provided an immediate 
fix for this issue, a major hurdle was that many Members of Congress 
did not know the problem ever existed. Despite the fact that 19 States 
had 500 or more constituents who had not received money, many Members 
were unfortunately unaware, which was a major hurdle in passing this 
legislation. And so we made it our mission personally to educate 
Members of Congress about the problem, and we tried to raise awareness 
about the issue.
  We also sent numerous letters to the Defense Appropriation and 
authorization committees so we could begin to address the problem in 
Congress, while thousands, in the meantime, continued to wait for the 
DOD to act. In the House, we were successful in getting language in the 
Defense authorization bill, and we got money allocated in the Defense 
appropriation bill. Unfortunately, the Senate authorization bill had 
language to fix the problem but their appropriations bill did not 
include the funding. Sadly, after all of our efforts, the final Defense 
appropriations bill that the President signed into law did not contain 
the funding that was needed to provide the fix to this problem for our 
troops.
  But we kept on fighting. We did not give up, and the issue was raised 
in a question by Representative Kline to Defense Secretary Gates during 
a House Armed Services Committee hearing recently, and it was just 
shortly after that the Department of Defense announced it was changing 
its policy and that they would end these burdensome regulations in 
order for the soldiers to get the money that they were promised a long 
time ago.
  So I am proud to report that now the first checks have been mailed 
out to our deserving troops. The Red Bulls, without a doubt, deserve 
every dollar they will be receiving after this 3-year wait. I want to 
take this opportunity to thank them again for their service and pledge 
to them that we will fight to make sure that a similar situation never 
happens again in the future.

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