[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 7917-7918]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               VETERANS CUTS DEPLORED BY VETERAN LEADERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, while American troops are fighting over in 
Iraq, veterans of past wars are fighting a different battle here in the 
United States. These veterans, who sacrificed a great deal to serve 
their Nation with great distinction, are now essentially being told by 
the House Republicans, ``thanks for your service, but we are going to 
have to make major cuts in your health care and other services to pay 
for our huge tax cut for the wealthiest few.''
  Last month, House Republicans approved a budget by the slimmest of 
margins that cuts $14.2 billion in veterans programs over the next 10 
years. Upon hearing that veterans were not a priority of the Republican 
majority, several leaders of veterans groups sent letters to Republican 
leaders.
  Mr. Speaker, I just want to read some excerpts from some of the 
letters sent to the Speaker, because I think they are so much on point.
  The first one is from Edward Heath, the National Commander of 
Disabled

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American Veterans. If I could just quote some sections, Mr. Heath 
writes:
  ``I write today on behalf of the 2.3 million disabled veterans, 
including the more than 1.2 million members of the Disabled American 
Veterans (DAV) to communicate our deep-seated outrage regarding the 
fiscal year 2004 budget adopted by the House Budget Committee which 
would cut veterans programs by more than $15 billion during the next 10 
years.
  ``Has Congress no shame? Is there no honor left in the hallowed halls 
of our government that you choose to dishonor the sacrifices of our 
Nation's heroes and rob our programs, health care and disability 
compensation to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy? You will be reducing 
benefits and services for disabled veterans at a time when thousands of 
our servicemen are in harm's way fighting terrorists around the world 
and thousands more of our sons and daughters are preparing for war 
against Iraq.
  ``If you, in your leadership role in your House, allow this budget 
proposal to pass the House without exempting VA programs from the 
massive cuts, it could mean the loss of 19,000 nurses, equating to the 
loss of 6.6 million outpatient visits or more than three-quarters of a 
million hospital bed days. But that is not all of the devastation that 
will be caused by the proposed cuts. You will be reaching into the 
pockets of our Nation's service-connected veterans, including combat 
disabled veterans, and robbing them and their survivors of a portion of 
their compensation.
  ``Mr. Speaker, this budget dishonors the service of millions of 
service-connected disabled veterans, including combat disabled 
veterans, and seriously erodes the Nation's commitment to care for its 
defenders.''
  Mr. Edward Heath, the National Commander of Disabled American 
Veterans, goes on to talk about the really negative impacts that these 
cuts will have.
  Mr. Speaker, I also want to read sections from a letter that was sent 
to the chairman of the Committee on the Budget by Steve Robertson, 
Director, National Legislative Commission for the American Legion.
  He says, ``Dear Mr. Chairman: The American Legion is deeply troubled 
by the impact H. Con. Res. 95, the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget, 
would have on veterans, especially severely service-connected disabled 
veterans and their families.
  ``Veterans did not cause the budgetary shortfalls and should not be 
financially penalized in the name of fiscal responsibility. Much has 
been said that all Americans must be willing to make sacrifices to 
eliminate the budget deficit. Severely service-connected disabled 
veterans have already made significant personal sacrifices for their 
earned entitlements.''
  Mr. Speaker, last is a letter to Speaker Hastert from Joseph L. Fox, 
Sr., National President of the Paralyzed Veterans of America.
  He says in part, ``Dear Mr. Speaker: The proposal, if implemented, 
would have a shocking effect on VA health care services and would be an 
affront to millions of veterans facing reductions in their health care, 
compensation, pension and education benefits.
  ``The House Budget Committee proposal also calls for cutting $15 
billion over 10 years, $463 million in fiscal year 2004 alone, in VA 
mandatory spending under the guise of eliminating fraud, waste and 
abuse. We do not consider payments to war-disabled veterans, pensions 
for the poorest disabled veterans and GI Bill benefits for soldiers 
returning from Afghanistan to be ``fraud, waste and abuse.'' Ninety 
percent of the spending for VA entitlements goes in monthly payments to 
these veterans and their survivors. The House Budget Committee plan, if 
approved, would force cuts in each of these programs.''
  Mr. Speaker, I am only mentioning these letters because I think it is 
much better to quote from some of the people who are involved as 
veterans, from veterans organizations, rather than speaking myself, in 
terms of the real impact of the cuts in the budgets on veterans 
programs.
  I think the Republicans clearly were not listening to veterans last 
month when they approved the fiscal year 2004 budget. I hope today they 
will keep veterans' voices in when they have a chance to instruct 
budget conferees to restore the funds that they so callously took away 
last month.
  Mr. Speaker, the bottom line is, we are in the middle of a war, and 
to cut veterans' programs at this time is definitely not the way we 
should go.

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