[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12638-12639]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 STOP-LOSS POLICY IS A BREACH OF TRUST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Madam Speaker, for over 5 years, the American people 
have seen the administration break one promise after another when it 
comes to Iraq. Now, another promise is being broken. This time, it has 
to do with the

[[Page 12639]]

stop-loss policy, a policy that forces soldiers to stay in the military 
when their unit deploys to Iraq within 90 days of the end of the 
soldiers' enlistment period. Stop-loss means that troops must continue 
to serve even when their enlistment period has expired.
  In January 2007, Secretary of Defense Gates ordered the military 
services to limit the number of stop-loss troops. For a while, in fact, 
the order seemed to be working. The number of troops affected by the 
policy dropped to about 8,500. However, now the number is back up to 
11,000, and Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 
said just last week that the number of stop-loss troops would continue 
to rise over the next couple of years.
  Stop-loss soldiers are forced to serve an average of over 6 months 
more than they signed up for. This creates enormous stress, Madam 
Speaker, and it also creates great strain on the soldiers and on their 
families. The multiple deployments that many of our troops face make 
the hardship even worse.
  The stop-loss policy is actually a backdoor draft, but it is even 
worse than that. It is a breach of trust with the men and women who put 
their lives on the line for our country. They deserve a lot better 
treatment and a lot more respect than that.
  The stop-loss policy is causing a great deal of suffering, but our 
troops and veterans are suffering in many other ways as well. It is 
easy for some of us to convince ourselves that everything is just 
hunky-dory with our troops now because Iraq has disappeared from our 
television screens. But while the conflict may have disappeared from 
television, it has not disappeared from the lives of our troops and 
from the lives of their families.
  Over 300,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have major depression 
or post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Rand Corporation. 
That is one in five who have served, and an additional 320,000 have 
sustained head injuries. The great majority of these injuries were 
sustained in Iraq.
  Only half of those suffering from depression or post-traumatic stress 
have sought treatment actually because many fear that it will harm 
their military careers. And half of those who have received treatment 
have gotten only ``minimally adequate'' treatment. That, too, is 
according to Rand.
  And there was also a very disturbing report in the press today that 
the Veterans Administration has tested drugs on veterans suffering from 
post-traumatic stress without telling them about the possible mental 
side effects. Congress must conduct a full investigation of that 
report.
  Most tragically, suicides among members of the Army have been rising 
steadily during the occupation. In 2007, 150 soldiers committed 
suicide, Mr. Speaker, compared with 67 in 2004. About a quarter of the 
deaths occurred in Iraq. And an average of five U.S. soldiers attempted 
suicide every day in the year 2007. Before the occupation, the number 
was one per day.
  However, not everyone is being hurt by the occupation. Some people 
are doing quite well, thank you, and they've got the money to prove it. 
Chairman Waxman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has 
asked the Inspector General of the Department of Defense to investigate 
``potentially thousands of criminal cases involving fraudulent 
contracts in Iraq.'' Hundreds of millions of dollars could be involved.

                              {time}  1930

  And the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction has already 
reported that millions of dollars in contracts have been wasted.
  Mr. Speaker, we must hold the administration accountable for every 
dollar spent in Iraq. We must do everything we can to give our veterans 
the best possible care. We cannot allow war profiteering to go on while 
our injured veterans lack the care that they need.

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