[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5409]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   WE MUST TAKE CARE OF OUR VETERANS

  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Madam Speaker, historically, the month of March has 
been a time when we greet representatives of our Nation's veterans who 
come to Capitol Hill to advocate on behalf of their fellow veterans. 
This year, however, it is hard not to feel a sense of shame as we see 
the veterans spreading out over Capitol Hill again carrying their 
message. Sadly, as has been shown in our hearings and on the front 
pages of our papers around the country in countless news accounts, 
Congress has done a poor job of listening to their needs in the past, 
and we are seeing more than ever the need to address those concerns 
directly.
  I haven't supported the reckless treatment of our veterans. I have 
supported our Democratic efforts when we were in the minority, fighting 
for appropriate funding and equipment. But we can only go so far with 
an administration that has been focused on its own version of reality 
and its own priorities very much at variance with our veterans, and 
that have been enabled for the last 6 years by a Republican leadership 
with their own sense of priorities.
  We have seen and heard from our veterans about the long waits, the 
red tape. It is not, however, the fault of some faceless bureaucracy as 
implied by Vice President Cheney yesterday, because there are countless 
dedicated men and women who still provide good care for most of our 
veterans and who want to do better. It is an administration and its 
policies and the people that they have put in charge that must change. 
And, of course, it is the war in Iraq, itself.
  It is not just a question of money. We have given plenty of money to 
this administration, more in fact than they have asked for. We are 
spending more on our military and veterans than the entire rest of the 
world combined. But because of the mismanagement, we have been giving 
too much to the wrong people to do the wrong things, dealing with the 
wrong priorities.
  I just left a budget hearing. We are still looking at an 
administration that wants to lavish billions on missile defense and 
Cold War era weapons, while having proposals that would cut programs 
for traumatic brain injury and, according to the Congressional Budget 
Office, underfund our veterans' needs by some $3.4 billion over the 
next 5 years.
  We are dealing with an administration that has put political 
operatives in sensitive positions. The head of the Veterans 
Administration, for example, is a former head of the Republican Party 
who was surprised about the budget problems, whose administration 
forgot about the thousands of returning veterans that were going to 
need more services, who was baffled by the security lapses in the 
veterans' files on VA computers.
  This last week, I hope the tide is turning. I hope that finally the 
spotlight that has been focused on amplifying the concerns that a 
number of us have heard and have talked about in the past, will make a 
case that will not be possible for this administration to ignore any 
longer.
  Mr. Vice President, it's not just the Federal bureaucracy. It's your 
bureaucracy after 6 years. It's your budgets, your priorities, your 
leaders who are failing.
  I am confident that this Congress will be able to turn the tide so 
next year, when our veterans' representatives are here on Capitol Hill, 
we are not going to feel guilty; that we will be able to look our young 
men and women who are in the service today and the people who are 
recovering from their service overseas in the eye, knowing that we, 
this Congress, the administration and the American people have done all 
we could for them.

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