Condemning the actions of September 7, 2007, resulting in damage to the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 680) condemning the actions of September 7, 2007, resulting in damage to the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I might consume.

I rise in strong support of this bill which condemns the action that resulted in damage to our Vietnam Veterans Memorial. We all know that this memorial recognizes and honors the men and women who are veterans of our Nation who served in one of America's most divisive wars. The memorial grew out of a need to try to heal the Nation's wounds as America struggled to reconcile its different moral and political points of view on this war. In fact, the memorial was conceived and designed to make no political statement about the war. It was designed to bring us together. It was designed as a place where everyone, regardless of their opinion of the war, could come together, remember and honor those who served and those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service of their country. I think all of us, wherever we were during that terribly divisive time,

feels at peace and feels a relationship to those people who served our Nation.

The memorial, as I said, has paved the way towards reconciliation and healing, a process that still continues. That's why, Mr. Speaker, I think we were all so disturbed when we heard about the senseless act of vandalism that happened earlier this year. Someone walked along that memorial with some type of oil applying it secretly on the wall as they walked by. The unknown oil has done real damage to the polished granite surface. But it did more than damage the wall, Mr. Speaker. It damaged the respect we have for our Nation's veterans and their sacrifice, damaging the healing process; and it takes us, as a Nation, back to a time when we did not honor or take care of our returning Vietnam veterans.

It takes us back to a time when many people in this country confused the war and the warrior. If you did not like the war, you said to heck with the warrior. That was a deep mistake on our part, Mr. Speaker, a tragic mistake, and one, as a Nation, we still suffer from today.

We did not provide these veterans the care they needed. We didn't welcome them back with honor and dignity and respect, and we're paying a price today. More than half of the homeless on the streets throughout America tonight, are Vietnam vets, over 200,000. Others still suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, other ailments. And as I said earlier, as many Vietnam veterans have now committed suicide as died in the original war. We, as a Nation, have to rectify this wrong. We have to take care and provide the health care, the treatment and the support that our Vietnam veterans deserve and need. We have to say that we are sorry for the treatment that they received when they came home, and honor these courageous men and women for their sacrifice to this Nation.

Anything that subtracts from this healing process is an outrage to the honor and memory of these brave veterans who fought and died for our country. And that is exactly what the senseless, needless act of vandalism that was perpetrated on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial does. It rubs salt into the wounds of our veterans that are still healing, and dishonors those that deserve nothing less than our Nation's honor and gratitude.

So, Mr. Speaker, through this resolution we condemn this act. We condemn those who are responsible. The oil is not just a stain on a piece of granite; it is a stain on the fabric of our Nation, a Nation still healing from a divisive war but a Nation that honors the sacrifices of its soldiers and veterans.

Maya Ying Lin, who designed the Memorial, said, `` . . . this Memorial is for all those who have died, and for us to remember them.''

Mr. Speaker, let us remember their patriotism and valor and let us condemn the discordant acts of those who seek to tarnish them.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to another hero of the Vietnam War, a man who served two tours in Vietnam, the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Boswell).

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to hearing the words of our great Vietnam hero, Mr. Johnson, who was, of course, a POW in Vietnam for many, many years. But I will let Mr. Boozman introduce him.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H. Res. 680.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Carter. I thank all the Members who spoke on this legislation. It is an important bill. But I must say, we ought to go further than this resolution.

Mr. Poe said voting for this resolution means we're standing up for our troops. Well, I just spoke recently to the Annual Convention of the Vietnam Veterans of America. I'll tell you what they define as standing up for our troops--and there will be legislation embodying all of this soon. It would mean that we would look at the 200,000 Vietnam vets who are on the street homeless tonight and solve that moral blot on our record.

Most of us go to Stand-Downs every year, where the whole community comes around for 3 days and provides security and comfort, medical attention, dental health, legal assistance, clothes for the homeless vets in that community. The community comes together and has a holistic approach of drug and alcohol abuse and job counseling. So we know what to do for those 3 days. But the last five or eight Stand-Downs that I've addressed I said, I'm tired of coming to Stand-Downs. We should have Stand-Downs 365 days a year. That's what the Veterans Administration ought to do. With a $100 billion budget, you would think we could take care of the Vietnam vets who are homeless. That would be standing up for the troops.

In addition, many of them have been fighting for decades to get compensation for an agent orange disability. And the law, while we have extended the areas to which presumption applies and give these brave veterans health care and disability compensation, there is still too many areas that are not awarded a claim.

At this stage (I would like to talk to Mr. Johnson later about this), I would say all these agent orange claims, if they have medical backing and help by a veteran service officer, are presumptive, and have them stop fighting after all these decades and get the care and attention that they need.

I will tell you, I have just got a list of 500 veterans from one State, Vietnam vets, who got Parkinson's disease in their early fifties. That's way earlier than the average age of on set for the general population. So it's obviously Vietnam that was the cause. Yet the law says there is no proof that agent orange caused Parkinson's or Lou Gehrig's disease, and so they're shut out. That's a shame. They served us; we should serve them. Let's grant all these agent orange claims.

And we ought to, according to the representatives at the convention, give the status of ``mandatory'' or ``assured funding'' to the health care for our veterans. Right now, health care in our budget is called ``discretionary.'' We fight over it every year, Democrats, Republican, House, Senate, VA Committee versus everybody. We should not play politics with veterans health care, and we should have a guaranteed mandatory budget.

Those are the things that would really tell our Vietnam vets that we care about them. So let's pass this resolution. The wall is, as we've heard today, so important to our memories, to our healing, to those brave men who fought for us. But let's go further and really give the Vietnam vets a thank you and pass legislation that will not only end homelessness and grant the agent orange claims, but give mandatory funding for the VA health care budget.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank the gentleman for yielding. And I would also like to thank Ranking Member Buyer and Chairman Filner for bringing this forward today. I think this is an important resolution.

When I heard about the fact that someone had defaced the Vietnam Memorial, I just didn't really know what to think about it. It wasn't a front page item; it was a back page item. But to me it was just a shock. So I went down to the park to take a look at it.

And as I walked along there, and I know some others have done this too, you could see where this substance had cast what looked like a shadow across the names that were printed on portions of this wall. And it brought back to me a memory of the time when the traveling wall came to the town I am from in Round Rock, Texas, and was put up out in the park, and I went out there with one of my good friends and one of the lawyers who worked in my court who was a true Vietnam veteran and a hero, and we walked up to approach that wall. And it was sitting up on a hill in our park, and he got about 75 or 50 yards from the wall and he just stopped. And I said, Mike, are you going up there? And he said, Not right now. And then he stood there and stared at that wall and cried. And it

took him a long time before he approached that wall because, as he said, there were too many names on that wall that he missed and loved.

That wall means that kind of thing to our Vietnam veterans. And for someone to go out and deface the honor of these fallen heroes whose names were carved on that wall is intolerable. I too hope the Park Service finds these people and prosecutes them to the full extent of the law because this is a shame. It's not only a shame to our national monument, which is against the law, but it is a shame to our national honor that this happened. And that is why I brought this bill forward.

I want to note that there are others who feel the same way, and many of them are here today and I am thankful for them. The Gathering of Eagles and the AMVETS posted a $5,000 reward to try to find out who did this defacing of the wall. That's how much it means to them.

This act of vandalism cannot be tolerated, should not be tolerated. And by passing this resolution, we will reaffirm to our veterans who fought the war in Vietnam that they did it with honor, they did it with principle, and we respect them as our warriors who did their job and should have been treated accordingly with honor when they came home. We need to continue to honor our Vietnam vets. That's why I feel this resolution is so important. And I hope it will be passed unanimously by this House.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial serves as a memorial to the 2,700,000 men and women in the United States Armed Forces who served in the designated war zone during the Vietnam Era.

While serving in Southeast Asia or as a result of their wounds or a service-connected disability, 58,256 men and women died.

On Friday evening, September 7, 2007, the United States Park Police reported being notified of a light, oily, and unidentified substance that was spilled over portions of some of the names, panels, and paving stones of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

At least 14 of the 140 inscribed panels of the Memorial Wall were damaged.

The National Park Service has determined that the damage was the result of an act of vandalism.

Thank the Gathering of Eagles organization and AMVETS for bringing attention to this crime through the $5,000 reward they are offering and by spreading the word to their members.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H. Res. 680, which condemns the actions of September 7, 2007, resulting in damage to the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial.

Mr. Speaker, the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial, commonly referred to as ``The Wall,'' serves as a memorial to the 2.7 million men and women in the United States Armed Forces who served in Vietnam. It is a memorial that has many different meanings to those who lived through that era and serves as an especially poignant reminder of the cost of that war and the ultimate sacrifice made in any conflict.

Americans come from all across the country each year to reflect on the sacrifices of the 58,256 names inscribed on the 140 panels of black granite. Whether it is a family member looking for the name of a loved one or a comrade in arms honoring a foxhole buddy or a young child searching for the name of a relative they never knew, every American who visits the wall leaves a changed person. It is fitting that the Memorial for our most divisive war has become a place of solace and coming together.

Mr. Speaker, regardless of who is responsible for the recent attack on the Vietnam Wall, that cowardly act was an affront to every American. In an apparent act of vandalism, 14 panels were defaced with a light, oily substance that damaged names, panels, and paving stones of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

While I am thankful that it appears that the substance was removed and the Memorial has been restored to its pristine condition, I believe it is important for us in Congress to show Congress's support for one of our Nation's most sacred sites.

Mr. Speaker, I also urge my colleagues to join me between November 7 through November 10 to read some of the 58,256 names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. This will only be the fourth time that this reading has occurred here in Washington, and it coincides with the 25th anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

I thank my colleague Representative Carter for introducing this resolution and Chairman Filner and Ranking Member Buyer for bringing it to the floor today.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the sponsor of the legislation, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Carter).

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sam Johnson), a true American hero who certainly can speak with authority on this subject.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota, Colonel Kline.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite).

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe).

Mr. Speaker, I know that all of us look forward to passing this very important resolution. I want to thank Judge Carter for bringing it forward. And then also a special thanks to Mr. Filner, chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, and Ranking Member Buyer, in expediting it and getting it on the floor.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

General Leave

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I, like my colleagues, have come here today to condemn in the strongest possible terms the actions which damaged the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

And as always when I am in the same room with my colleague Mr. Johnson from Texas, I am humbled to be in the presence of a real hero of the Vietnam War. And I don't know that I can add to the passion and to the caring that he has already conveyed for us, but I just have to say that I can't remember being so outraged by such a cowardly act.

Visitors from around the world who come to visit the Memorial are moved by the simple but powerful image of the etched granite wall. For those of us who served in Vietnam, however, the names on the wall hold an even stronger significance. Those names bolster our sometimes failing memories of the friends and comrades who didn't return with us.

It is with these memories in minds that I express my complete, my total, utter outrage at this recent desecration. The person or persons who did this have violated a sacred trust, and I consider their actions deplorable. Their cowardice, yes, their cowardice, stands in sharp contrast to the bravery and valor of those for whom this memorial was erected, and we as a country will simply not tolerate such behavior. Just as we honor and pay tribute to those who served and sacrificed so much, so too must we condemn, we as a Congress, we as a people, we as a Nation, those who would denigrate that sacrifice through such cowardly actions.

If there are those who applaud or somehow justify this desecration, I would only remind them of the hypocrisy of their beliefs and their actions. Our freedom was won and maintained by brave men and women such as those honored on this wall, and we should all hold them reverently in our hearts.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague Mr. Carter for bringing this important resolution to the floor, to the chairman and ranking member of the committee for bringing it to the floor.

I encourage my colleagues to support this bill. Let's support it unanimously.

Thank you, Mr. Boozman, and thank you, Chairman Filner. I appreciate your bringing this to the floor. It's an important piece of legislation. And I think what everyone has said is absolutely true.

Mr. Speaker, as a former POW in Vietnam for nearly 7 years, and I was there for two tours too, Mr. Boswell and I both, I find this vandalism unconscionable and un-American. Why on Earth would someone want to reignite the pains of the past?

Defacing the wall was the ultimate act of cowardice. Why anyone would want to destroy a sacred monument in Washington, DC. is beyond me.

Even though I did two tours in Vietnam, I spent most of my time in captivity. I didn't get to know a lot of the brave men and women who died in action, those who have their names etched into the shiny, marble dark wall.

But I did get to know a great American very well. His name is Ron Storz, a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force and a fellow fighter pilot.

Originally from New York, Ron was shot down on April 28, 1965. I was shot down barely a year later, on April 16, 1966.

Because our captors tried to blame a handful of us for overthrowing the Vietnamese Government, they labeled us diehards. They threw 11 of us in solitary confinement in adjacent cells. Of the 11 of us, only 10 came home. Our captors killed Ron Storz after he went on a hunger strike.

It breaks my heart to think that someone would senselessly harm and deface the names, the honors, the legacies of great patriots like Ron.

You can find Ron's name on panel 1 of the east wall.

I deeply hope and pray the loved ones of those men and women memorialized on the wall know we remember their selfless family members and thank them for their dedicated service and ultimate sacrifice. These men and women listed on the wall all demonstrate why America is the land of the free and the home of the brave. These valiant warriors fought to protect and defend this great Nation, and we should not allow someone to tarnish their good names, and we must condemn this vandalism.

I thank you both.