[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 20162-20163]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       WOUNDED WARRIOR AMENDMENT

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, before I leave the podium, I wish to say a 
couple words about another important piece of legislation.
  Earlier this year, Americans were shocked by reports of the crisis at 
Walter Reed and other armed services medical facilities. It wasn't just 
Walter Reed, but that was the picture everyone saw. We learned that 
many of our courageous men and women wounded in service to our Nation 
were receiving unacceptably poor treatment and care upon their return 
to our shores.
  I learned from this morning's news that there is a big lawsuit filed 
by Afghan and Iraqi veterans. Hundreds of thousands have joined 
together in a lawsuit against the Veterans' Administration. I do not 
procedurally understand how that is going to go forward, but it was in 
the morning headline news.
  There is now, according to this news report, about a half a million 
backlog requests for Iraqi veterans to get care.
  We learned during the early look at Walter Reed and other facilities 
not only was the veterans' care system ripe for bureaucratic failures, 
but even the physical facilities failed to meet a minimal level of 
acceptable quality.
  The American people were outraged by these facts, and I am glad to 
say the Senate took prompt action. The Armed Services and Veterans' 
Affairs Committees held a rare joint hearing to identify the best ways 
to make right the existing failures and to prevent similar injustices 
from ever happening again. Members of these committees worked together 
in an entirely bipartisan manner. Last month, they introduced the 
Wounded Warriors bill, which was entered as an amendment to the Defense 
authorization bill. The Wounded Warrior amendment addresses the 
substandard facilities, which we have all read about and have visited, 
such as Walter Reed, and the lack of seamless transition when medical 
care for troops is transferred from the Department of Defense to the 
Veterans' Administration, which often leads to diminished care.
  The legislation also looks at the inadequacy of severance pay to help 
those who have sacrificed so much already to support their families 
while they recover, and the need to improve sharing of medical records 
between the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans 
Affairs.
  It addresses the inadequate care and treatment for traumatic brain 
injury and post-traumatic stress syndrome by authorizing $50 million 
for improved diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation. We saw this 
problem highlighted, as I have indicated, in the morning news. There 
are a number of stories about that, but the main story is in the L.A. 
Times, which cited a report by a special Pentagon task force showing 
that 38 percent of soldiers and 50 percent of National Guard members 
come home from Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health issues. Yet only 
27 of these 1,400 VA hospitals have inpatient post-traumatic stress 
disorder programs.
  Finally, the Wounded Warrior legislation provides support for wounded

[[Page 20163]]

troops whose health insurance programs, such as the TRICARE program for 
retired veterans, have allowed gaps in medical coverage and treatment.
  In the next few days, I intend to take the Wounded Warrior amendment 
from the Defense authorization bill--there were additions made to that 
from the time it left committee--and I will seek unanimous consent that 
we pass it now. The rest of it, with rare exception in the Defense 
authorization bill, if we passed it yesterday, wouldn't kick in until 
the beginning of the fiscal year. But the Wounded Warrior amendment 
legislation becomes law upon passage and approval. I hope we can do 
that. This would make these provisions immediately effective when the 
President signs this. Given the immediate care these people need, and 
the immediate need to act on the Wounded Warrior amendment, which has 
overwhelming bipartisan support, I am hoping we can all work together 
to pass it before we leave here. If we have to do it by unanimous 
consent, I hope we can do that.

                          ____________________