[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5460]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    OUR MILITARY HEALTH CARE SYSTEM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I have long believed that how we treat the 
most vulnerable in society says a great deal about who we are as a 
Nation. So you can imagine that I, along with tens of millions of 
Americans, was appalled at the recent revelations in the media about 
the care at the outpatient facility at the Walter Reed Army Medical 
Center.
  Now, let me say, having visited Walter Reed more than once with my 
wife to visit injured Hoosier soldiers returning from battle, that 
there are, in fact, dedicated caregivers at the Walter Reed Army 
Medical Center, doctors and nurses and members of the facility staff 
who spend their days and nights helping the wounded. But the now 
infamous Building 18, a decrepit former hotel outside the main gates of 
Walter Reed, has come to public notice. It housed more than 80 
soldiers. With moldy walls, soiled carpets, leaky pipes, mice, and 
cockroach infested, this facility was a national embarrassment.
  I am outraged that our wounded warriors were forced to endure these 
terrible conditions. Our troops deserve better care, and they deserve 
it as soon as possible.
  But more than the filthy living conditions, Mr. Speaker, the dirty 
secret of the military health care system in this country is that our 
injured veterans, after navigating the dangers of the battlefield, must 
navigate a bureaucratic morass to get the care they deserve. After 
receiving lifesaving surgeries at military facilities, wounded 
soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines must negotiate an overwhelming 
amount of red tape. I have seen it firsthand, working with families 
attempting to make their way through our veterans' and military health 
care system.
  I was at the President's speech this morning at the 47th annual 
gathering at the American Legion as the President said that these 
bureaucratic delays as well as these living conditions must come to an 
end. The President said, ``It is unacceptable to me. It is unacceptable 
to you. It is unacceptable to our country. And it is not going to 
continue.''
  I applaud the President and Secretary Gates for all they have done to 
hold the entire chain of command responsible for the conditions at 
Walter Reed, but we must do more to fundamentally bring reform to the 
system whereby we provide health care services to our veterans.
  Today, the American Legion signed an agreement, for instance, with 
Walter Reed Army Medical Center to establish an office at the facility 
to assist in the transition of wounded servicemembers from the 
Department of Defense to the Department of Veterans Affairs. This is a 
good start. The hope is that the legion office will significantly 
alleviate the long backlogs in out-processing wounded soldiers. Thank 
God for these veterans who are willing to help.
  As a fiscal conservative, I have long called for smaller, more 
accountable government. In the area of military health care, we need 
now, more than ever, more accountable government. I appreciate the 
President's emphasis on the need to improve the delivery of services 
and not just throw more money at it. Washington D.C. and especially 
this Congress under current management and, quite frankly, prior 
management often solves problems by throwing more money at it. But 
assuming Congress enacts the President's 2008 budget, the VA health 
care budget alone will be up 83 percent since he took office.
  Money alone is not the answer. We must change the way we serve the 
medical needs of those who have served us in uniform. We need 
substantive reforms, and it is my hope that the Dole-Shalala Commission 
and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs task force that the President 
announced this morning are able to meet those immediate needs.
  The President said, and I would echo today, ``We have a moral 
obligation to provide the best possible care and treatment to the men 
and women who have served our country. They deserve it, and they're 
going to get it.''
  But let us not just solve the problem with more money, with changes 
in the chain of command. Let us work in a bipartisan way in this 
Congress to fundamentally bring changes to our health care system that 
serves our military, that serves our veterans, that ultimately will 
rise to the level that each one of them deserves.
  The Old Book says if you owe debts, pay debts; if honor, then honor; 
if respect, then respect. One of the ways that our Nation discharges a 
debt that we cannot ever fully repay to those who have worn the uniform 
is to ensure that they receive the medical treatment that they so 
richly deserve. And I commit myself to that today.

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