[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 20620]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  SMART SECURITY AND DISABLED VETERANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, the Bush administration is shamefully 
neglecting the men and women who serve in the United States Military, 
even as they return home from a war in Iraq, having lost arms, legs, 
other parts of their bodies, to suffer forever from other physical or 
mental disabilities such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
  In August of 2003, when I spent some time at Bethesda Naval Hospital 
where I was recuperating from back surgery, we were faced with and I 
met with the wounded soldiers because I visited them while I was in the 
hospital, the wounded, who had come home forever changed by the war in 
Iraq. Meeting with these soldiers and their families and seeing their 
injuries gave me a firsthand look at the true horrors of war. I became 
more committed than ever that our government should cover all the 
expenses of any injury that results from war. But that is just not 
happening.
  The disability benefits and health care system that currently assists 
5 million American servicemen and women has become so overburdened by 
the addition of over 26,000 wounded soldiers from the wars in Iraq and 
Afghanistan, is now woefully incapable of providing the benefits and 
services that were promised before those individuals went to war. 
Currently, there is a backlog of more than 300,000, and let me say it 
again, 300,000 service-related claims, and that number is increasing 
every single day. And since President Bush shamefully relied on 
thousands of National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers to fight in Iraq, 
these veterans now deserve veterans benefits, too. It is only 
appropriate.
  Just as President Bush failed utterly in his planning of the Iraq 
War, he also failed utterly in planning how the Veterans' 
Administration system would address the hundreds of thousands of 
soldiers returning from that war. The cowboy mentality of the Bush 
administration is quite clear: Shoot first, ask questions later, even 
if asking those questions could have saved lives.
  Worst of all, some of our soldiers still are not getting the 
necessary equipment that can save their lives; the advanced body armor 
that is capable of stopping bullets from assault rifles; armor for 
tanks to prevent the destruction of U.S. military convoys; and the 
water equipment to keep them hydrated in the scorching desert heat. 
Parents are sending that equipment to their kids, buying it here and 
sending it to them.
  The failure to give this equipment to each and every soldier is 
particularly shameful considering that, last November, Congress passed 
legislation to fund the war effort to the tune of $87 billion. That is 
on top of the $78 billion in supplemental funds that was appropriated 
in March of 2003. Yet reports show that billions of those dollars are 
being misused, misappropriated and even stolen in Iraq.
  And, now, the President plans to reprogram $3.4 billion of last 
year's $18.4 billion supplemental, using it for military purposes 
instead of for Iraq's reconstruction. So, now, we are forced to pilfer 
money that was supposed to pay for infrastructure needs for the Iraqi 
people.
  How many more soldiers have to have their limbs shot off before this 
administration will wake up? How many more soldiers have to die for a 
President's mistake? There has to be a better way. There has to be a 
better way than this, and we must fully support the thousands of 
soldiers who sacrifice to serve and protect America.
  That is why I have introduced H. Con. Res. 392, a SMART security 
platform for the 21st Century. SMART stands for Sensible, Multilateral, 
American Response to Terrorism. SMART security treats war as an 
absolute last resort. It fights terrorism with stronger intelligence 
and multilateral partnerships, and it controls the spread of weapons of 
mass destruction with aggressive diplomacy, strong regional security 
arrangements and vigorous inspection regimes. SMART security means 
equipping our troops with the tools that are essential to their 
survival and then helping them with proper health care once they get 
home. But the hawkish Bush administration, which quickly led this 
country to war, is failing in helping men and women in uniform when 
they get out of war.

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