[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6920]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                KEEPING PROMISES TO OUR SERVICE MEMBERS

  Mr. SPRATT. Mr. Speaker, all of us who go out into the field to see 
our troops, and particularly overseas, bring back many conclusions and 
various impressions; but to a person, we all come back impressed, 
inspired, and thankful for the men and women who serve in the Armed 
Forces of the United States. In hard, dirty, and dangerous 
circumstances and often thankless deployments like Iraq and 
Afghanistan, they not only serve but they have had to adapt and 
improvise and tackle tasks they were never trained to handle. They have 
risen to the occasion, they have risen to the challenge, and at 
significant cost, in terms of those who have been wounded or injured or 
killed in action. These troops are the finest that any country has ever 
fielded, and they deserve not only our admiration but our support, and 
not just for them and their roles, which are vitally important, but for 
their families back home, for they sacrifice dearly.
  There are three levels in which our support should come: first, to 
those on active duty, and their families, and particularly those who 
are deployed for long tours of duty in harsh environments and under 
hazardous conditions; second, to the Guard and Reserve who leave their 
civilian occupations and are now serving in numbers and percentages we 
have never seen since the all-volunteer force was created some 30 years 
ago. Almost half of those in Iraq come from the reserve components. 
More than 300,000 have been called up over the last 2\1/2\ years; 
45,000 have had their tours extended. Many are on their second tour, 
some on their third. They are answering the call, they are doing their 
duty, and they are proving that the total force works and works well. 
But they have families back home and jobs and businesses and 
obligations and debts to pay and health care needs, and they need our 
unstinting support as never before. They not only need it, they deserve 
it. Next come the veterans and the retirees, those who have put, in 
many cases, much of their adult lives into serving their country. They 
have served and they now look to their country to keep the promises 
that were made to them at the time they were serving and when they 
reupped and when they joined again and when they stayed in for 20 and 
25 years, promises about retirement benefits, about veterans benefits, 
about health care and education and many other things.
  When the needs of these three groups are put together, all together, 
they make up a long bill of particulars, more than we can do, in all 
candor, in 1 year or even 2 years; but every time we take up a 
supplemental appropriation bill or a defense authorization bill or a 
defense appropriation bill, we should frankly, candidly, and honestly, 
searchingly, ask ourselves, what are we doing in this bill, on this 
occasion, to meet the needs of our service men and women who are 
serving gallantly in places like Iraq and Afghanistan and what are we 
doing in particular for their families?
  What are we doing to help them out in their combat circumstances, 
with flak vests and personal protective gear and up-armored vehicles? 
But what are we also doing for their children back home for their 
health care needs? Have we provided adequately, I do not think we have, 
for family separation centers, the one place dedicated to helping them 
resolve their problems while family members are overseas? And for 
Tricare, health care, critically important in our society, particularly 
for Reservists and their families, Reservists leaving their job, what 
have we done to provide and see to it that they do not have to 
sacrifice in terms of health care for themselves and their families not 
only while they are on duty but in the months after they are 
deactivated and come back home?
  And how about servicemen's life insurance? For years it had been 
inadequately funded. Many troops because of the premium, modest though 
it seems, have not elected to take it. What are we doing to see to it 
that every American soldier who goes into combat, hazardous duty has at 
least several hundred thousand dollars of servicemen's group life 
insurance? And what are we doing about our veterans, our category 7 and 
8 veterans for over 2 years now, if they have not previously registered 
and are not able to get admitted to veterans health care facilities? 
There are 50,000 veterans waiting in line as we speak for an 
appointment to a veterans health care facility. The President's budget 
for this year provided $106 million, not much over last year which 
itself was inadequate to meet their needs. Over the next 5 years, this 
budget request is $18 billion below what is needed for current 
services. We can do better than that.
  We have got promises to keep to our veterans and these promises, 
above all, should be kept. Given the sporadic, unpredictable violence 
and the harsh, hard circumstances, it is not surprising that many of 
our troops come back, some have said as many as 17 percent, from places 
like Afghanistan and Iraq with difficult mental problems. This, too, is 
something we could do.
  Mr. Speaker, we have to follow up the gentlewoman from California 
(Mrs. Davis) who not only is a member of the Committee on Armed 
Services but also formerly a military spouse and speaks knowledgeably 
about this subject.

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