[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 82 (Thursday, May 27, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4511-S4512]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              MEMORIAL DAY

  Mr. President, next week our Nation will observe Memorial Day, an 
occasion on which we honor the men and women who gave this country what 
President Lincoln called ``the last, full measure of devotion''--their 
very lives. President Lincoln uttered those now timeless words at a 
ceremony honoring thousands of Civil War troops who fell in a battle 
surrounding a small town called Gettysburg. To this day, his words 
reflect, with unparalleled clarity, the heroic sacrifices that made, 
and have kept, this country safe and free. This Memorial Day we once 
again honor those men and women.
  How do we properly honor those who gave their lives while in military 
service? Lincoln answered that question--``We honor them by dedicating 
ourselves to the cause for which they gave themselves. We honor those 
who died by ensuring, in Lincoln's words, that they ``shall not have 
died in vain.'' We carry on, we remember them, and we remember to tend 
to their comrades and their families who live among us still.
  The Senate's role in this important task, to honor veterans and their 
family members with the care and benefits they have earned, falls in 
part to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. I have had the honor of 
serving on that committee for 20 years, most recently as its Chairman. 
In that capacity, I am pleased to report on the progress Congress has 
made since last Memorial Day.
  Last Memorial Day, Congress had good reason to be proud when looking 
back at recent gains for veterans and their families. Since 2007, we 
have passed historic appropriations bills to properly fund VA, 
following years of drastic underfunding. We passed the most substantive 
GI bill since World War II, which has already been put to use by 
hundreds of thousands of Americans. And we made wide-ranging reforms to 
the Department of Veterans Affairs--overhauling its mental health care 
and suicide prevention programs, and enhancing cooperation and 
collaboration between the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.
  This Memorial Day, we can be proud of having done even more to help 
VA adapt to the needs of today's veterans and their families. I will 
focus on two of the most significant bills--one which reformed the 
broken funding process for veterans' health care, and the other, which 
charts a course for VA where the needs of women veterans and family 
caregivers receive special attention.
  When I became chairman of the committee, the VA health care system 
had endured many years of chronic underfunding, leading to health care 
rationing and budget shortfalls. While we succeeded in restoring VA's 
budget to appropriate levels, we still had not addressed the underlying 
funding process--a one-year-at-a-time appropriations process that led 
to funding delays in 20 of the last 23 years. To fix this broken 
system, I introduced the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and 
Transparency Act. This bill was designed to take the process of advance 
appropriations--funding a program one year ahead of the regular 
appropriations process--and apply it to the Nation's largest health 
care system. At this time last year, that bill was still pending in 
Congress. Since then, our colleagues overwhelmingly chose to support 
this legislation, and the President signed it into law. This change 
will be felt in every State of the Union. At the one thousand-plus 
points of care run by VA, administrators will know

[[Page S4512]]

what their budget will be for the current year and for the year to 
come. The 6 million veterans who are projected to seek VA care will not 
have to worry about whether their local VA clinic will have to go 
months without a proper budget, as they did in the past.
  We now turn to the important task of overseeing the implementation of 
the new law and standing by should VA or the Administration ask for 
appropriate funding. We are currently working on the first budget with 
advance appropriations under the new authority, and I have been pleased 
with what has been a smooth transition.
  At this point last year, many other veterans' initiatives were 
pending--for veterans in rural areas, for the caregivers of wounded 
warriors, and for women veterans--to name a few. All of these 
proposals, along with others, were wrapped into one important package--
the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act. While this was 
a bipartisan bill from the beginning, its passage was far from assured. 
Isolated Members of Congress sought to block the bill at several 
stages, citing fears of cost and change. Resolute that it would be 
change for the better and that its cost is, in fact, a cost of war, the 
supporters of this bill prevailed last month when President Obama's 
signature made it law.
  This new law's many provisions where reviewed by this body before we 
voted for them, so I will not again go into all of the details. 
Instead, I will highlight just a few of the changes in the new law:
  For the families caring for wounded warriors, it brings an 
unprecedented permanent program to train, certify, and financially 
support them. With this important change, VA recognizes that the 
families of disabled veterans should be treated as partners, not 
ignored.
  For a growing number of women veterans who served our Nation 
honorably, it brings changes to help VA adapt to their needs. These 
include an authorization for VA to provide health care for a woman 
veteran's newborn child for up to one week; a mandate for VA to 
implement a pilot program to provide child care and adjustment care to 
women veterans; and a requirement that VA train mental health providers 
to treat military sexual trauma.
  For veterans in rural areas, the new law brings programs and reforms 
to break down barriers between them and the care they deserve. To name 
a few, these include travel reimbursements for veterans treated at VA 
facilities; grants for veterans service organization transporting 
veterans from remote areas; an expansion of telehealth options for 
veterans; and provisions promoting collaboration with community 
organizations and providers such as the Indian Health Services.
  The bill makes other important changes, from eliminating copayments 
for catastrophically disabled veterans to strengthening VA's ability to 
recruit and retain first-class health care professionals. These 
valuable changes and others are now law, thanks to the support of 
Congress and the President.
  As I noted at the outset, these measures, which demonstrate 
Congress's gratitude to our troops abroad and veterans at home, are the 
best way we can honor those who gave their lives in service to their 
country. While much remains to be done, as we pause this Memorial Day, 
we can recall the significant changes over the past year.
  I close by expressing once more my gratitude to the patriots who are 
with us in the flesh and in spirit, and to the nation and the national 
ideals that unite us all.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, as you are aware, on Memorial Day 
citizens across our great country pause to reflect on our fallen 
heroes. American hearts swell with pride as men and women everywhere 
stand just a little bit taller when hearing our National Anthem, and 
they feel a lump in their throat at the sound of a bugle playing taps. 
We stand proud and remember our Nation's sons and daughters who no 
longer stand with us but whose names and memories remain forever 
preserved in our hearts. On Memorial Day, our Nation weighs and 
respects the price of our freedom.
  We can and we should learn from those Americans who went to war but 
never returned home. For them, service meant accepting the risk that 
they might not have a chance to enjoy the freedom their service 
protects. They selflessly chose to serve anyway. For the fallen, honor 
meant the privilege of wearing a U.S. military uniform and a chance to 
earn the respect that it garners around the world despite the risk that 
it might make them a target for those who mean us harm. For them, 
selflessness meant answering a call for help from a fellow soldier, 
without hesitation, even if chances were high that it would be their 
final act.
  These timeless qualities of service, honor, respect, and selflessness 
form the bedrock of military service in a free society. On Memorial 
Day, we commemorate those who lived according to these principles so 
that we might assemble in this Chamber and across the land as free 
people, safe under the umbrella of protection that their brothers and 
sisters continue to provide around the world today.
  It is appropriate that on Memorial Day, we should set aside our 
differences and unite as Americans--a unified nation with one common 
voice to honor our fallen. Let us celebrate that we are a free nation, 
a proud nation, a nation guided by principles and universal truths. And 
although we may disagree on many things, we do so peacefully and 
lawfully. Even in tough times such as these, we remain a beacon of 
light around the world for those who can only imagine a life of freedom 
as they struggle to survive under the grip of tyranny and oppression. 
Today we remember the men and women who kept that beacon lit and 
consider the gravity of their sacrifice.
  As a nation, we must also remember that with every fallen soldier 
there is a family left behind. We should appreciate with compassion and 
respect their enduring sacrifice and provide for them the support and 
gratitude they deserve. Ours is a grateful nation.
  Often quoted is our Declaration of Independence that proclaims ``all 
men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with 
certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the 
pursuit of Happiness.'' It is those who have answered that call to 
service who ensured that our gift of liberty is not only unalienable, 
it is also enduring.

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