[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5984]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   BETTER TREATMENT FOR OUR VETERANS

  (Mr. KLEIN of Florida asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Madam Speaker, in my district, which stretches 
along the coast line from West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale, we have a 
number of veterans who have served in wars for this country, ranging 
from World War II to Iraq and Afghanistan. These veterans have been 
served well in most cases by clinics in our district, such as the VA 
Hospital and other outpatient facilities in Fort Lauderdale. But like 
many places around the country, these facilities have their share of 
problems as well, largely due to a lack of adequate Federal funding. 
These facilities are not always able to see and treat the veterans as 
quickly as they would like to, and of course we all know what is going 
on at Walter Reed, mold seeping from the walls and ceilings, rats and 
roaches running freely. These conditions are fit for no one.
  This is no way to treat our men and women in uniform who have 
sacrificed their families, their jobs, their lives, everything to serve 
our country. We must change the way we are treating our veterans when 
they return home, and that starts with providing critical funding for 
health care services and infrastructure needs. To ask them to sacrifice 
so much for us, only to find when they come home they are treated 
inadequately on so many fronts is nothing less than immoral.

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