[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 11622-11623]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                                VETERANS

  Mr. WELLSTONE. I listened to my colleague, Senator Inouye, in his 
opening remarks. He reminded me of an issue that I think is extremely 
important. Over this Memorial Day recess, the DAV, Disabled American 
Veterans, organized a big forum in Minnesota. I think they had 130 
forums over the recess period. The veterans wanted to focus attention 
on our commitment--hopefully, our commitment--to veterans.
  They were saying there is a whole set of issues that are really 
important to their lives. Some of them have to do with the ever-aging 
veteran's population and how we will deal with these needs. Some of 
them have to do with veterans, a third of the homeless population being 
veterans, which I think is

[[Page 11623]]

just a national disgrace. Many of those veterans are struggling with 
substance abuse problems and they were saying: Where is the treatment 
for these veterans? But some of what they were saying was, even if you 
put aside some of these challenges and the flatline budget proposed by 
the President--and then they were looking at our budget resolution and 
what we have come up with--it doesn't even keep up with medical 
inflation.
  The point was: We are worried about access to services. We are 
worried about much longer waits. We are worried about a lot of the 
staffs at medical centers having to work double shifts. We are worried 
about some of the facilities having to close. We are worried about not 
being able to get the care that we so desperately need and, I argue, so 
clearly deserve.
  I just wanted to say, since I heard my colleague from Hawaii speak--
as he knows, I am critical of the Pentagon budget. I admire the Senator 
from Hawaii, and I absolutely mean that, but I don't usually agree with 
these budgets. I usually disagree with some portions. As long as we are 
talking about our Armed Forces, I hope when we get to the veterans 
appropriations bill, we will get this right, and I hope we will make 
the investment we should make.
  There is a considerable amount of indignation on the part of 
veterans. And they are right; I wish they were wrong, but I have had a 
chance to see some of this firsthand. They just feel a sense of 
betrayal. I hope we are going to rectify what I think is a real 
injustice to veterans.

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