[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 3]
[EX]
[Page 4644]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF VA BECOMING A CABINET DEPARTMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. BOB STUMP

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 16, 1999

  Mr. STUMP. Mr. Speaker, by 1988 the Veterans Administration had 
become the largest independent agency in the government. Only the 
Department of Defense had more employees. Making the VA a cabinet-level 
department was an idea whose time had come.
  On March 15 of this year, the Department of Veterans Affairs 
celebrates its tenth anniversary.
  I remember well both the formal creation of the new cabinet 
department on March 15, 1989, and the Ft. McNair ceremony the previous 
October 22 when President Reagan signed the bill into law. He paid 
tribute, and rightly so, to the two driving forces in Congress who gave 
veterans their seat at the President's Cabinet table.
  President Reagan singled out an Army veteran, Congressman G.V. 
``Sonny'' Montgomery of Mississippi, and a former Marine, Congressman 
Jerry Solomon of New York. At the time, they were, respectively, 
chairman and ranking minority member of the House Committee on 
Veterans' Affairs. It was their persistence and legislative skill that 
brought the measure from its inception to its passage, and finally, to 
enactment. They also deserve our congratulations today.
  Elevation to cabinet status has given the VA a greater opportunity to 
be heard at the highest level of government, and a greater voice in 
determining national policies in the areas of health care, education, 
housing and insurance. Veterans are concerned not only with issues 
unique to them, such as service-connected illnesses, but also with 
broader national issues such as homelessness, Alzheimer's and other 
health issues related specifically to aging.
  Making the VA a cabinet department cost the American people nothing 
in this era of tight budgets, but it would have been justified at any 
price. Veterans have served their country at great personal sacrifice. 
More than a million of them made the ultimate sacrifice. It's the price 
paid for the freedoms we enjoy as Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask you and all Members to join me in congratulating 
the VA for a decade of improved service to our veterans.

                          ____________________