Social Security Fairness for Merchant Mariners Act of 2004

Mr. Speaker and colleagues, I rise today to ask for the support of my colleagues for H.R. 664, ``The Health Care for Filipino World War II Veterans Act.''

Almost 60 years ago, President Franklin D. Roosevelt drafted the soldiers of the Philippines into service in World War II, because the Philippine was a territory of the United States at that time. Fighting side-by-side with soldiers from the United States mainland, the Filipino soldiers were instrumental in the successful outcome of the war. However, shortly after the war's end in 1946, Congress passed the Rescissions Act which took away promised benefits from many of the Filipino veterans and declared that their service was deemed not to be service in the military forces of the United States.

We owe not only a debt of gratitude to these brave veterans, but we owe them recognition as veterans of the United States military. And we owe them the benefits they were promised! Now in their 70s and 80s, they are in desperate need of health care, and approximately five veterans are dying each day.

I have introduced, H.R. 664, with a number of original co-sponsors from both parties, including Congressmembers Simmons, Evans, Cunningham, Pelosi, Issa, Rohrabacher, Abercrombie, Millender-McDonald, Tiahrt, Lofgren, and Scott. This bill would provide access to VA medical facilities for the Filipino veterans who are now living in the United States and would restore the designation of veteran to these brave men.

The Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Anthony Principi, testified in a June 13, 2002 hearing before the VA Health Subcommittee in support of H.R. 4904, the version of this bill in the 107th session. The House of Representatives passed these health care benefits on July 22, 2002 but they were unable to get passed by the Senate before adjournment of last year's session. Senator Inouye has reintroduced a similar bill in the 108th session in the Senate (S. 68).

There is overwhelming support for H.R. 664. We must quickly pass this bill to begin the process of restoring benefits that are deserved by the Filipino World War II veterans.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the ``Social Security Fairness for Merchant Mariners Act of 2004'' (H.R. 4904).

There were three major roles in World War II: the fighting forces overseas, the production army at home, and the link between them--the United States Merchant Marine. The maritime power of the Merchant Marine may have been the difference between victory and defeat.

The World War II Merchant Mariners suffered the highest casualty rate of any of the branches of service while they delivered troops, tanks, food, airplanes, fuel and other needed supplies to every theater of the war. Enemy forces sank over 800 ships between 1941 and 1944 alone.

Given the role of the Merchant Mariners in World War II, it is unbelievable that they were not given their proper recognition as ``veterans''. I would hope that this was an oversight, not a deliberate attempt to exclude them from benefits.

One of the results of this lack of the ``veteran'' designation is that the law does not recognize Merchant Mariners as veterans for Social Security purposes. If they had the veteran designation, their Social Security would have been calculated as if they had earned $160 more a month than they did earn during their time in service in the Merchant Marines. Of course, what this means is a smaller Social Security check, now that they are retired.

My bill H.R. 4904, will fix this unfair situation! It will provide benefits with the status of ``veteran'' under the Social Security Act to the Merchant Mariners who served during World War II.

Combined with my bill, the ``Belated Thank You to the Merchant Mariners of World War II'' (H.R. 3729), which would compensate them for their exclusion from GI Bill benefits, Congress can fix the injustice that has been endured by the Merchant Mariners. We can never make up for years lost, but we can provide additional benefits to Merchant Mariners, many of whom are living on small, fixed incomes, in their final years.

I urge my colleagues to support and co-sponsor H.R. 4904