[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5636-5637]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING OUR COUNTRY'S VETERANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
South Carolina (Mr. Duncan) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of 
our country's veterans, and I want to begin briefly by mentioning an 
organization that helps veterans that was recently brought to my 
attention, Patriot Outreach, a nonprofit organization to assist our 
military with getting the help they need to deal with the trauma 
associated with aspects of military service. You can learn more about 
that at PatriotOutreach.org, and I think they're doing a great service 
for our veterans.
  Benjamin Disraeli once said that ``the legacy of heroes is the memory 
of a great name, and the inheritance of a great example.'' In our 
country, some of our greatest heroes are veterans, individuals who 
answered our Nation's call to protect and defend our freedom.
  Our veterans are one of our Nation's greatest treasures and, as such, 
our country has given them a firm promise. Because of their willingness 
to protect us with their service, when their service ends, we promise 
to take care of them. But, unfortunately, if you talk to veterans 
today, they don't believe that our government is living up to their 
promises.
  When we made the commitment to take care of our troops when they 
returned home, we never said anything about making them jump through 
hoops or navigate a complicated bureaucracy. We promised our veterans 
the Moon and, instead, have failed, in many instances, to provide them 
with the most basic of care.
  As of March 16 this year, the Columbia, South Carolina Regional 
Office of the Veterans Administration had over 21,927 pending cases, 
with an average wait time of 232 days.
  Survivor benefits for veterans' spouses can take between 10 and 18 
months to be disbursed, and sometimes even longer, depending on the 
health status of the beneficiary.
  My office is currently assisting a constituent who contacted us 
because

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he has had 12 claims pending before the VA, which date all the way back 
to 2004. Another constituent has had her claims delayed over 18 months 
because she's been told by the VA that they don't have medical records. 
Now, this is despite the fact that she's already sent the VA her 
medical records twice by certified mail.
  Unfortunately, claims aren't the only backlog facing the VA. Veterans 
are also facing delays in seeking medical attention. A lack of doctors 
and inefficiency in the system have forced some veterans to have to 
wait months to receive medical care.
  Mr. Speaker, to put it simply, the VA isn't clicking and ticking. 
Despite the best intentions of VA personnel to deliver a high level of 
service and care to our veterans, too many of our former servicemen and 
-women are falling through the cracks.
  In the Third District of South Carolina, we recently created an 
advisory committee composed of retired military veterans to provide 
insight into some of the problems that they're facing today. Their view 
is not that the law needs to be changed necessarily, but that the 
spirit of the law is not being followed. Veterans were promised certain 
benefits and, in too many cases, they are still waiting to receive 
them.
  In addition to the mounting pile of problems regarding veterans 
services, I'm deeply concerned that veterans will be negatively 
impacted by the implementation of ObamaCare. The clear goal of the 
Obama administration's unconditional and unconstitutional health care 
law is to begin lumping our servicemen and -women into the bureaucracy 
of ObamaCare. Not only do I think that this breaks a promise made to 
our veterans, but I'm afraid it will make an already bad situation 
worse.
  In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, we can do better; and for the sake of our 
living heroes, we must do better. Let us not forget the promises that 
we've made to our veterans, and let us not just honor our veterans with 
our words, but let's also honor them with our actions.
  Thank you. May God bless our troops in the field, those here at home. 
May God bless those who have served our country in uniform, and may God 
continue to bless the United States of America.

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