[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 182 (Wednesday, November 8, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7084-S7089]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Veterans Day
Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, this coming week will mark Veterans Day. It
is an important time for us to reflect on what veterans do for us and
what their families do for us. The sacrifices of both those who serve
and those who support those who serve are incredibly important.
We have half a million Missouri veterans, and one of the great
privileges of this job is to get to represent them, their values, and
the commitment to freedom in our country that they stand for.
A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to welcome a group of
southwest Missouri veterans who came to Washington with the Honor
Flight program. I think the Presiding Officer also does this, but every
time I get a chance, if there is an Honor Flight from our State, I try
to get down there because it is a great time to see and to talk to and
to thank those who have served us.
When the Honor Flights started 20 years ago or so, there were still
some
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World War I veterans coming, and then they were almost all World War II
veterans. Today we see some World War II veterans, Korea veterans, and
Vietnam veterans, all of whom serve in the great tradition of being
willing to fight for the freedoms that we enjoy every day. I find it
humbling and gratifying to know that those veterans get to come here
and enjoy the day with each other. In many cases it is the first time
they have ever been to the Capitol, the National World War II Memorial,
Arlington, and the other places on the trip that now so many tens of
thousands have taken.
Many of those veterans whom I saw the other day and whom I have seen
through the history of the Honor Flight program were just teenagers
when they answered the call to serve--basically, a little more than
high school kids who knew that something needed to be done and they
were able and willing to do it. They fought difficult battles and, in
some cases, often under unbearable conditions. Some of them lost their
closest friends in the military. Many of them lost comrades in arms.
Some of them lost comrades right beside them. Some of them lost people
who went out on another mission and never came back. Some of their
families lost a servicemember who never became a veteran.
I was down in Perryville, MO, a little town between Cape Girardeau
and St. Louis, on the Mississippi River. They are building an exact
replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial--the Vietnam wall. We were
able to present a flag to the group that raised the money and made the
plan to replicate the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall to take it
back and become part of the Vietnam memorial at Perryville.
Our veterans are an extraordinary group of men and women. They really
stand for the best we stand for as a nation. It is important that with
not just honor them on Veterans Day but honor them every day--every day
that we live in this free and prosperous Nation that they helped
defend.
Admittedly, it is hard not to take all of the freedoms that we enjoy
for granted because generations of Americans have been willing to fight
and die to protect those freedoms. Because of that, generations of
Americans have benefitted from those freedoms, and it seems to us the
way people should be able to live everywhere. Maybe too often we think
it is the way people do live everywhere, but in many parts of the
world, having the security to walk out the door every morning, to drop
your kids off at school, to go to work and earn a living, to worship as
you please, and to build a better life is not available to people in
other countries the way it is here. That is the debt of gratitude we
owe to our veterans.
This year, one of the areas of great legislative success has been in
the work for veterans. Chairman Isakson of Georgia is going to follow
me on the floor in just a few minutes. He is the chairman of that
committee. He has a great committee, but they have a great chairman.
That committee, with its chairman, and the committee in the House have
passed eight bills, at least, that the President of the United States
has signed into law that do a number of things for our veterans.
We have built on previous progress for improving veterans care. A few
years ago, we made the decision that veterans need to have more
choices. A veteran shouldn't have to drive by a hospital they would
like to go to in order to get to a hospital miles and miles away. They
shouldn't have to pass three or four facilities that could do as good a
job or better in order to get to a veterans facility.
There are some things our veterans facilities should do better than
anybody else. They should be better at dealing with post-traumatic
stress better than anybody else, although they may not be as
accessible. They should be better at dealing with patients who have
suffered from IED attacks, eye injuries, people who work with veterans
in prosthetics, and those patients who have lost arms and legs in the
service of our country. They should be pretty good at that. There is no
particular reason they should be good at open heart surgery or kidney
dialysis or all the other things you go to the hospital for, if that is
where a veteran wants to go. We found out that a lot of veterans would
rather go closer to home. A lot of veterans would like to go to the
hospital they are more familiar with when they need their own
healthcare. They would like to go to the hospital they have been to
lots of times with other family members and others.
So we really expanded the Veterans Choice Program and expanded the
money available for that program. We try to create these opportunities
side by side with an existing facility. There has to be some startup
money involved, but, eventually, I think our young veterans will find
that they can almost always find a hospital they would rather go to or
a doctor they would rather see.
We have increased compensation for veterans with service-connected
disabilities. World War II veterans, such as Arla Harrell from St.
Louis, who suffered a lifetime of illness because he was part of a
mustard gas experiment, is finally getting both compensation and the
recognition that throughout his lifetime his health was impacted by
something that happened while he was serving his country.
We have continued efforts to address the problems at the Veterans'
Administration by passing legislation to modernize the outdated
benefits claims appeals process to make it easier for VA employees to
be fired for misconduct.
We want to protect employees who point out what is wrong. There have
been plenty of whistles being blown at the VA over the last decade.
While we want to be sure people can blow those whistles, we also want
to be sure that the VA can quickly and effectively remove employees who
are not doing what they ought to be doing and, in fact, are
aggressively doing, in some cases, things they shouldn't be doing.
We worked to expand the possibility and the opportunity for education
benefits by expanding what can happen under the post-9/11 GI bill,
helping to connect veterans with employers who provide benefits and
programs. The HIRE Vets Act, a bill I sponsored in the Congress, was
part of the first major pieces of legislation the Congress passed this
year. I think that, sometime in the next few weeks, the Department of
Labor is going to be talking about how we will recognize and evaluate
employers who hire veterans, who give veterans credit for skills they
learned in the military, and who promote veterans. To every employer
who hires veterans, that is a good thing and we should want to do that.
The HIRE Vets Act, like the LEED standard for energy, creates a
standard so that we can recognize companies that do that in a
significant way. I am pleased that Secretary Acosta in the Department
of Labor has put that on a fast track so these companies can be
recognized for what they do.
Our veterans have worked hard and have put themselves in danger to
keep us safe. As legislators, we owe them, as we owe those who follow
in their footsteps, our continued efforts to ensure that those
defending our country have everything they need and to show that we are
also grateful to those who have defended our country in the past.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Georgia.
Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I wish to thank Senator Blunt, the
distinguished Senator from Missouri, for his eloquent remarks on
veterans and in support of all the things the Presiding Officer and I
have tried to do on the Veterans' Affairs Committee and for pointing
out the many reasons we in America are so proud of the veterans in
service, who allow you and I to be here today. Were it not for our
veterans, this Republic would not exist.
I was wondering how I would start out this speech. I did an interview
with a reporter who wanted to ask me a number of questions about the
current administration and what we were doing for veterans. It turned
out to be a 35- or 40-minute interview.
I said I had to go, and he said: I have one more question for you.
This was by phone. So I couldn't look him in the eye, and he couldn't
see me.
He said: I have one more question for you.
When you hear that from a reporter, that means the zinger is coming.
He said: Don't you think we could save a lot of money if we didn't
fight in any more wars?
I thought for a minute. I said: We probably could, but there wouldn't
be any reason for you and me to exist if we didn't fight any more wars,
because
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America is the place where everybody wants to be because we are safe
and we are free and we are independent, because we fight and defend
what we have as a country. I thought I would bring that up in my speech
today because that is the reason we celebrate veterans today. So we
give thanks to the men and women who volunteer, who served our country
in the wars overseas, in the battles overseas, and, sometimes, in the
challenges domestically to protect us and keep us free.
America is a great country. We don't find anybody trying to break out
of the United States of America. They are all trying to break in and
for a very good reason. It is a safe and free place to raise a family,
to start a business, and to serve in many other ways.
So this year, on the 11th day, at the 11th hour and the 11th minute
of November, when we celebrate Veterans Day, pause for a minute to say
thanks for those who have come and gone and for those who are still
here who fight to serve and protect us.
Always remember that the Congress, shortly after the end of World War
I, decided that the 11th day--the day the armistice was signed--of the
11th month, November, with the 11th hour being 11 o'clock in the
morning, would be the time the bell would toll to celebrate and pay
tribute to those veterans. So at 11:11:11 this November 11, we are all
going to toll that bell one more time to give thanks for our veterans
for all they have done for us and for all they will do for us in the
future.
It is best, when you talk about veterans, to talk about them as the
people they were and the people they are, whether they are alive or
whether they have passed on. I want to talk about two veterans whose
paths have crossed my life to point out why we owe them so much and why
we have so much to be thankful for. One of them is Jackson Elliott Cox,
III of Burke County, GA, which is the Bird Dog Capital of North
America. It has raised and trained more bird dogs than anywhere else in
the country. It is the home of a nuclear power plant, the Plant Vogtle.
It is a beautiful rural county in Georgia.
Jack was my best friend in college. We met in 1962; we graduated in
1966. I will never forget that the last time I saw Jack was when he was
shipping out to go to OCS in the Marine Corps. Jack had decided when he
graduated that it was more important for him to volunteer and fight for
our country because of what was going on in Vietnam than do anything
else, so he voluntarily joined the Marine Corps, went to OCS, got his
commission as an officer, and became a captain in the U.S. Marine
Corps. He fought and he died in Vietnam.
I will never forget the last words he told me when we put him on the
bus from Waynesboro, GA, to Atlanta, ultimately, to be shipped out.
What he said is: Johnny, I am sure I am coming back. Don't worry about
me. Just pray for me. But in case I don't, make sure people remember
who Jackson Elliott Cox III was.
I said: Jack, I will do that.
Sure enough, 2 years later he was shot and killed by a sniper in
Vietnam. He lost his life at the age of 24. He was the finest human
being I had ever known, the nicest guy I had ever met, and my favorite
friend in all of my life. He was taken from me because he volunteered
to serve and fight for our country.
I am going to keep today on the floor of the U.S. Senate the promise
I made to him at the bus station. I want you to know who Jackson
Elliott Cox III was. He was a good old country boy from South Georgia
who volunteered to serve his country and risked his life and gave his
life so that you and I could be here today.
There are thousands of Jackson Elliott Coxes all over the world. In
fact, there are millions all over the country. There are hundreds of
thousands of them, and we have so much to thank them for because less
than 1 percent of our population has worn the uniform, been in the
battle, and fought to save us and protect us as Jackson Elliott Cox
did.
When you have your chance to meet and become friends with a veteran--
and all of you will--remember you owe them a debt of gratitude. At some
time, when you get the chance to pay that debt back, do what I am doing
today. Don't let their memory ever be lost or forgotten no matter where
you go or where life takes you because you wouldn't get to where you
are going, had they not allowed you to be safe and free to travel that
route.
The second name I am going to mention is Noah Harris. Noah was from
Ellijay, GA. Noah was a cheerleader at the University of Georgia. On
September 11, 2001, he turned on his television to see 3,000 innocent
citizens, most of them Americans, die in the Twin Towers when al-Qaida
and Osama bin Laden and the axis of evil attacked our country, took our
innocence, killed our people, and changed the world forever.
Noah was a cheerleader. We don't have a mandatory draft anymore. You
don't have to serve, and he was not serving. He was going to graduate
in a year and a half. He wanted to be an architect.
The next morning, after 9/11, when he left his dorm, he went to the
Army ROTC building at the University of Georgia campus. He walked in
and said: I want to go to OCS. I want to go. After what I saw on TV
last night, I want to go fight and get the people who did that to my
country and my friends.
They said: No, Mr. Harris you can't do that. OCS is a 2-year program
at the university, and you are graduating next year. You don't have
enough time to do it.
He said: I will double up on my studies. I will do whatever. I want
to go. I want to fight for my country and fight the axis of evil.
They let him in, and he did. He graduated with honors. A few months
later, he graduated as second lieutenant from the U.S. Army at Fort
Benning in Georgia. Before too long, he was in Gazaria in Iraq, a
suburb of Baghdad, handing Beanie Babies out of one pocket while the
other pocket of his field jacket had his ammunition. He was trying to
win over the hearts of the Iraqi children while he was fighting to
preserve freedom for them and return their country to some form of a
democracy or republic, away from the captives of Saddam Hussein.
I knew Noah casually. I know his parents well--Rick and Lucy Harris.
I know they have mourned every day since they lost Noah in Baghdad when
he died in an IED accident, but I know how proud they are of what he
did and why he did it. I am proud he was my friend, and I am proud to
have known him as well. I am proud to be able to stand on the floor of
the U.S. Senate today and talk about Noah Harris and talk about Jackson
Elliott Cox, who were exemplary of all the others who have served in
the military--men and women, rich and poor, Black and White, who have
gone and fought the battle and borne the battle for us so that we could
be where we are today.
It kind of reminds me of the person who went to Benjamin Franklin in
Philadelphia shortly after the Constitution was adopted in Constitution
Hall and said: Mr. Franklin, what have you given us?
He paused for a minute and said: ``A republic, if you can keep it.''
We have kept it. We have kept it because we have subscribed to the
Constitution but also because we have a militia and a military. We are
willing to fight for what we believe in, protect our citizens, and keep
our country free. The country that our Founding Fathers gave to us,
that was nurtured in the early days of this Republic, which now is
hundreds of years old, is still there today for lots of reasons but,
principally, the undergirding foundation is a strong and vibrant
military.
When Veterans Day comes, give thanks for the veterans you know.
Mention a couple of them, as I have done here, so their memory and
their names never die, but also so we can lift them up at a time when
we pause for just a minute to say thank you for the greatest country on
the face of this Earth.
Senator Blunt talked about our committee and what we have done this
year. I want to take just a minute to reiterate some of the things he
said. There are no Democratic veterans and no Republican veterans;
there are only American veterans. They don't go to the battlefield as a
partisan; they go to the battlefield as an American, and they fight for
us whether we are Republicans or Democrats. They risk their own life
and sometimes sacrifice it so that we can do what Ben Franklin said:
Keep that republic. We owe them a lot. In fact, in many cases, we owe
them everything.
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We have had a mess at the VA in the last 10 years. They have been the
lead story on USA Today more than any other agency in the government
for failures of the VA to do the job that should have been done. Under
David Shulkin, the Secretary of the VA appointed by President Trump,
under the leadership of our committees in the House and the Senate, and
under a commitment to bipartisan service by all our Members--which
means we do almost everything unanimously and, if not unanimously,
almost unanimously because it is not about getting Republican credit or
Democratic credit; it is about doing the right thing for the right
people who have done so much for us--we passed the Whistleblower
Protection Act this year to give whistleblowers in the VA the
protection they need to go and turn in to the authorities those
employees in the Veterans Administration who are not doing their job.
We have given them the safe harbor they need to encourage them to help
us root out problems, and we are doing that.
We passed the accountability bill to shine the light of sunshine on
the employees of the VA and to give the authorities in the VA the
ability to terminate and fire, if you will, for cause an employee who
is not doing the job they should be doing for our veterans. So we hold
a standard of accountability up a little higher for our employees in
the Veterans Administration.
We are magnifying choice so that our veterans can have more choice in
their healthcare. We can use the private sector as a force multiplier
so that the government doesn't have to hire all the doctors and
physicians and assistants to service the VA. We can get them in the
private sector as well.
In the 21st century GI bill, we finally made sure that the GI bill
applies to everyone, not just World War II or Vietnam war-era veterans
but veterans of all conflicts and of all times.
We have done everything we can to see to it that the benefits, which
we promised them would be there when they left the military, are there
for them in retirement and in their later life. The sacrifices they
make are great, and the sacrifices we have made to save our veterans
are great.
Today veterans come home from the battlefield 90 percent of the time
when they are wounded. They come home, whereas, in World War I, 10
percent came home, and 90 percent died on the battlefield. But because
of the advancements we have made in armor and protection and healthcare
services, a lot of veterans today live when they would not have lived
just 25 or 30 years ago.
The injuries they sustain are far greater than any injuries we have
known in warfare before. The signature illnesses are PTSD, post-
traumatic stress syndrome, or traumatic brain injury or a prosthesis
for an arm or a leg or an eye or some part of the body that is lost in
battle. But the trunk of the body is protected by new Kevlar vests that
are impenetrable by a bullet, so most of them succumb to IEDs and
explosives and things of that nature.
We have the healthcare to provide them with the best possible
rehabilitation we can, but you can never really replace a leg or an eye
or a body part. Once somebody has sacrificed it forever, they wear the
burden of the battle and of war.
We have an obligation, as the Veterans Administration, as the
Congress of the United States in the House and the Senate, to see to it
that we back up those promises our recruiters made when they came to
join the military, to see to it that they get those services from their
Veterans Administration.
Dr. David Shulkin is doing a phenomenal job. My ranking member, Jon
Tester, Democrat from Montana, is doing a fantastic job. The House
committee is doing a great job. The Members of the Senate are doing a
great job.
In a week and a half, we are going to have our final bill of the year
which, when we pass it, will make us 8 for 8. We will have totally
reformed the VA and worked with the VA to reform it in such a way that
our veterans get better service, our taxpayers get more accountability
for the dollars we spend, and America remains the great country it has
always been--safe and free because of those who volunteer to fight and
are willing to die on behalf our country.
So sometime on the 11th day and, hopefully, at the 11th hour and the
11th minute of that hour on November 11, you will pause for a minute
and remember I told you that is when we celebrate Veterans Day because,
at the time the armistice was signed in World War I, our country
decided that would be the perfect time to remember all those who have
fought in the past.
Let's look around, and every time we see a man or woman in uniform,
stop and say ``Thank you for your service'' because those are the
people who are risking their lives so that you and I can do whatever it
is we choose to do in this land of the free and home of the brave.
There are lots of things to be thankful for but nothing more
important than the men and women of the U.S. military. May God bless
our country, may God bless our veterans, may God bless the United
States of America.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cotton). The Senator from North Dakota.
Mr. HOEVEN. Mr. President, I am very pleased to have the opportunity
to speak today on the floor of the Senate after my esteemed colleague
from the State of Georgia. My colleague is the chairman of the
Veterans' Affairs Committee, and I just want to express my appreciation
for his commitment and his work on behalf of all of our great veterans.
Like him, I rise today to speak in tribute to our veterans and men
and women in uniform and all that they do for us.
This weekend at events across the country, we will pay tribute to the
fine men and women who have served in our Nation's Armed Forces. Every
day--but especially on Veterans Day--we honor these soldiers who have
left the comforts of home and family to defend our freedoms and fight
for our way of life.
Our freedoms have been secured by the sweat and sacrifice of
courageous men and women who, throughout our history, have bravely done
what was needed to protect our great Nation. We also recognize that
those who serve do not serve alone. We appreciate, too, the sacrifices
of the families and the loved ones who have supported our veterans in
their service.
This Veterans Day, we will honor military members from our ``greatest
generation'' to those men and women fighting in the War on Terror
today. These Americans understand best the words of President Ronald
Reagan when he said:
Freedom is never more than one generation away from
extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the
bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on
for them to do the same.
These men and women who have fought for and protected our country
have given so much, and we cannot do enough to thank them, whether they
returned from Active military duty 7 days ago or seven decades ago.
Although we can never repay our debt of gratitude, one of the most
tangible ways we recognize our veterans' service is by providing these
men and women with quality healthcare and support services, including
education and work opportunities. With that debt in mind, let me
briefly outline some initiatives that we have been working on to
provide for our veterans. Congress has passed significant veterans
bills this year, including legislation that holds the VA accountable
and ensures that VA employees are putting our veterans first and
legislation that updates and modernizes the VA's benefit claims and
appeals process, reducing wait times for our veterans.
Additionally, one of my top priorities is ensuring that our veterans
have access to healthcare options closer to their homes and their
families.
This includes improving veterans' access to services under the
Veterans Choice Program and building on the success of the Veterans
Care Coordination Initiative at the Fargo VA Medical Center in my home
State. This effort has decreased the wait time for scheduling an
appointment under Veterans Choice from 24 days a year ago to 5 or 6
days at present. This initiative can serve as a model to help address
delays in scheduling appointments through the Veterans Choice Program
across the Nation.
We invited Secretary Shulkin, from North Dakota, to see this
firsthand, and our Veterans Care Coordination Initiative has since been
expanded to
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the VA facility in Helena, MT, as well. We believe it will be expanded
to other locations across the country.
We also passed an extension of the Veterans Choice Program earlier
this year and secured $2.1 billion in additional funding for the
program. This gives us time to work with the VA on the next phase of
the program. In addition to Veterans Choice, we are working to improve
local access to long-term care for our veterans.
We secured a commitment from Secretary Shulkin to work with us on the
Veterans Access to Long Term Care and Health Services Act. We have now
introduced this legislation in the Senate, and a companion bill has
been introduced in the House of Representatives. The legislation would
remove burdensome redtape that prevents nursing homes and other
healthcare providers from accepting veteran patients. Our bill allows
the VA to enter into provider agreements with qualified healthcare and
extended care facilities, bypassing complex Federal contracting
requirements. This will give veterans more options to access long-term
care services closer to their homes, their families, and to their loved
ones.
In addition, earlier this year, Congress passed--and the President
signed into law--the forever GI bill, which improved and extended
veterans' access to education and workforce opportunities. This is part
of our efforts to ensure that we are supporting our veterans as they
transition back to civilian life and work here at home. These are just
a few examples of our efforts to ensure our veterans have the resources
and the support they have so richly earned. While we cannot say thank
you enough, in this way, we can honor their courage and their
sacrifice.
We honor Veterans Day because we have the greatest veterans in the
world who have committed themselves to protect our Nation, and in so
doing, they have transformed this country into the greatest the world
has ever known. May God continue to bless our veterans and this great
Nation that they have been protecting and make sure we honor the
selfless service of all our men and women in uniform, of all our
veterans, not only on Veterans Day but every day.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina.
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I appreciate the kind words of Senator
Hoeven and his affinity toward veterans. I am here to talk about our
veterans as well.
I come at it from three different perceptions. I chair the Military
Personnel Subcommittee in the Senate Armed Services Committee. We are
trying to work on things to make sure that when somebody goes out of
Active Duty into veteran status, we make it as productive as it can be,
making sure they enter back fully into the workforce, the education
opportunities, and all the kinds of opportunities that are afforded
them as a result of serving in our armed services.
I also want to take a minute to talk about the person who served but
never wore a uniform, and that is the husband or the wife or the
children whom, on this Veterans Day, we should also thank.
A lot of times, when I have an opportunity--I live in Charlotte, NC,
where we have nearly 800,000 veterans. It is one of the largest
populations of any one State--I make a point to get to the airport a
little bit early so I can go up to the USO and just spend a moment
meeting with people who are there transitioning from Active Duty and
veterans to thank them for their service. Oftentimes, I will thank a
man or woman, and they will say: I didn't serve; my husband or my wife
did. I will say: By virtue of your being a military spouse, you served,
as did your children.
On this Veterans Day, let's make sure we expand those thank-yous to
include everybody who is affected when somebody is deployed in a
dangerous place or even serving in peacetime. It is a great sacrifice,
and it is one we should always show our gratitude for.
As I said, in North Carolina, we have about 800,000 veterans. We also
have one of the highest military concentrations of any State. It is the
home of the Global Response Force at Fort Bragg, with over 65,000 men
and women serving and 38 generals. You go down closer to the coast and
you get to Jacksonville, NC, where we have Camp Lejeune. There is a
debate over the pronunciation so I will pronounce it both ways, but
there we have nearly 45 percent of the Marine Corps. Many people don't
realize that. Stationed out of North Carolina, we could go to Seymour
Johnson, we could go to New River, or go to Cherry Point and see these
men and women serving every day--and the ones who served before them
who are now part of our veteran population. We should thank them all
for their current service or their past service.
I say to the Presiding Officer, the Senator from Arkansas, I want to
thank you for your service because you served bravely in combat
positions before entering the Senate. That is another amazing thing
about the veterans. They continue to serve. If you go to a coffee shop,
you may see a huddle of veterans around somebody who is organizing the
event. That is probably a veteran making sure veterans are speaking
with each other and working through some of the challenges some of them
have when they are put in very difficult situations or, if you go into
a community center, you will almost always see a veteran there
continuing to serve, even after they ended their Active-Duty service.
On Veterans Day, we should make it a point to go to every person we
know who is a veteran and thank them. We should make sure that
everybody we see in uniform--I will be at the airport probably Thursday
evening or Friday. I will make it a point to go to every single person
I see in uniform and thank them for their service. We owe that to them
for all they do for us.
I think, on the one hand, we need to think about veterans, especially
on Veterans Day, but as Senator Hoeven said, we need to think about
them every day. As a Senator, the way we do that is not just by
thinking but by doing. What more can I do in my capacity on the
Veterans' Affairs Committee or in my capacity on the Senate Armed
Services Committee to make service easier and safer? After they move
out of Active status to veteran status, what more can we do for them?
There are a lot of things we can do; one is to make sure they get an
opportunity to have a job that, in many cases, will leverage the skills
they learned when they were in the military into private sector jobs.
Mr. President, you and I sponsored a bill--the VALOR Act--that will
be brought up before the Senate that helps to actually expedite the
process of having those who have served in the military to get hired.
It makes it easier for employers to put them in apprenticeship
positions, where maybe they leverage some of the skills they learned
while on Active Duty but get them in good-paying jobs to support
themselves and their families.
There are a number of other things we have to do for others who are
veterans that I think are particularly important. When we talk about
post-traumatic stress or talk about traumatic brain injury, those are,
in some cases, invisible wounds of war. We need to make sure and
understand why it is that nearly every day 20 veterans take their lives
through suicide. To what extent could that be something we just simply
didn't know about that veteran? Why are they disproportionately more
likely to do it? Many of them, incidentally--the veterans today who
have this disproportionately high amount of suicide incidents--are
veterans from the Vietnam war. We need to figure out how to reach back
to that population--a significant number of whom never seek VA medical
services--to provide them with the resources they need to work through
these sorts of challenges.
We need to make sure healthcare is available across the map. We need
to recognize that challenge in North Carolina is vastly different than
the same challenge in, say, South Dakota.
We have a State population of 10 million people--almost approaching 1
million veterans. When you include the spouses and families, it is well
above it. We need to make sure they are getting healthcare and services
where it is most convenient for them. I think some of that will be
providing them with a choice to go to the doctor who makes the most
sense for them. A lot of it will be providing a brick-and-mortar
presence of the VA so they can be
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among other people who are actually dealing with the same sorts of
circumstances, and they are actually being served by--about half the
population in our veterans hospitals and our healthcare centers are
veterans themselves.
This is a very important part of the broader solution we need to
provide to our veterans as we continue to build a relationship with
them for the rest of their lives. We will never finish all the work we
should do. We will keep on making installments into a debt we can never
repay, but what we need to do on November 11 is support our veterans by
showing our gratitude and our thanks for their service. On this
Veterans Day, make an extra effort to thank a veteran. Thank a veteran
spouse. Thank the child of a veteran for their service to this great
Nation. We will never be able to fully repay the debt we owe them, but
we can make a lot of installments as individual citizens and as Members
of this Congress. As long as I am in the Senate, that is what I intend
to do.
I say to the Presiding Officer, thank you, again, for your service,
and thank you to all the men and women who served before.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mrs. MURRAY. I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed to speak as in
morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.