Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.

I thank Chairman DeFazio and Ranking Member Duncan and Chairman Oberstar for this creative solution to a very difficult problem.

I happen to live at the border. I represent the whole California- Mexico border. Through my district, at least 4,000 trucks a day pass through. That means across the whole border three or four, five times that will cross. The volume is enormous. There is no way for us to inspect this incredible volume of traffic. In fact, when there was a test case several years ago of inspecting all the trucks, they found 100 percent of the trucks had either insurance or safety violations.

We are dealing with issues of insurance. We are dealing with issues of truck safety. We're dealing with issues of driver certification and jobs on this side of the border. There's no question that these certifications are just not the same standards that we apply. We have fraudulent use of papers. There is enormous difficulty in getting accountability.

But, in addition, if we allow the truckers to cross they will be in this country and able to take jobs away from our local companies, especially small trucking companies. It costs them about 150 dollars to go to L.A. from San Diego and back. A Mexican trucker will do it for 50 dollars. That puts all our guys out of business if the administration proposal was allowed to go through.

So I thank the Chair for coming up with this creative solution. This is a bad, bad vision that the administration has to allow all trucks across in a way which does not really meet the safety or insurance or certification standards that we have in this country. And we're going to have a major accident somewhere, and the people in America are going to say how did this happen.

Well, we intend in Congress to make sure that we keep our safe roads and we keep our jobs for American truckers.

When the Democrats became the majority of this Congress earlier this year, we promised to keep our contract with our Nation's veterans, to keep our contract.

So how have we done during the first four months as Democrats? Wherever we stand on the war, wherever we stand on the war, we are committed to make sure that every young man and woman who returns from that war gets all the care, the love, the attention, the honor, respect and dignity that this Nation can bestow.

And in the first three budget bills that went by this House, in the last 3 months, we were able to add over last year's total over $13 billion for veterans health care; $13 billion, that's almost a 30 percent increase over last year. The biggest in the history of the Veterans' Administration.

And we're going to use that money to make sure that the terrible brain-injured veterans that come back, those who have physical scars or mental scars (PTSD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) will get all the care that an advanced Nation can give.

As a nation, we are not doing our job now, but we Democrats are committed to making sure the job is done.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1642) to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to ensure that, to the extent possible, an enhanced-use lease for a homeless housing project at the Department of Veterans Affairs facility known as the Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center, located in North Hills, California, shall provide that such housing project shall be maintained as a sober living facility for veterans only, and for other purposes.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2642. We all know that homelessness among veterans is a pervasive problem. Estimates are that there are 20,000 to 30,000 homeless veterans in the Los Angeles area alone and more than 200,000 probably on the streets of our entire Nation. Many of these homeless veterans also have substance abuse problems.

My colleague and friend, Congressman Brad Sherman, has worked with veterans in the San Fernando Valley community to mobilize community support for veterans-only housing, a project that will use two buildings at the VA Sepulveda complex to provide housing and supportive services for homeless veterans with substance abuse problems.

The bill before you will ensure that the Sepulveda veterans facilities and resources are used for veterans only. It also provides that all qualified housing organizations receive the opportunity to compete for the homeless veterans housing project at Sepulveda. Most importantly, this bill directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to ensure that, to the extent possible, an enhanced use lease for a homeless housing project at Sepulveda shall be maintained as a sober living facility for veterans only with adequate staffing and security.

Additionally, this bill will ensure that all qualified housing organizations receive the opportunity to present competing proposals to the VA for a

homeless veterans project at the Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center in North Hills, California.

Mr. Speaker, two worthy and good nonprofit organizations, New Directions, Incorporated, and their partner, A Community of Friends, made a proposal to local VA administrators and local elected officials and community representatives to enter into this lease with the VA for a veterans-only housing project for recovering substance abusers that would in fact be alcohol-free and would have adequate staffing and security. All the parties that were brought together by Mr. Sherman agreed to these commitments.

But just last summer, the nonprofits abandoned that proposal and sought enhanced-use lease to deliver a project that was substantially different than what everyone had agreed to earlier. They took these steps after discovering additional funding sources through Housing and Urban Development that it believes might be available for this project if it opens these facilities to residency by non-veterans and allows the use of alcohol.

Mr. Speaker, how can you begin to help homeless veterans who are trying to get their lives together, trying to recover from addictions to drugs and alcohol, but putting them in a facility that allows the very thing from which they are trying to recover? It does not make any sense.

This bill does not stop the Secretary of the VA from entering into a lease, but it does ensure that the Secretary conduct a diligent search to find a qualified organization with the experience, efficiency and funding sources to deliver a veterans-only, sober living facility and to enter into a lease with the organization best suited to deliver the projects.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support passage of H.R. 1642. I also ask for their continued support for our Nation's veterans. This bill is the least we can do to help ensure our homeless and recovering veterans have an environment that allows them to reach their goal, clean and sober.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the concerns that the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite) raised. I think the concern should be directed to the VA Secretary who, if he had asked for a competition on proposals, wouldn't be negotiating with just one group.

I personally have talked to groups that say they would offer proposals which would guarantee all veterans and would guarantee sober living, and we are convinced it would not take 2 years, but could be done rather quickly.

I think Congressman Sherman can answer with much greater expertise and I would yield to him such time as he may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman, and like her, I commend the gentleman from California for his tireless work on an issue that rarely gets community support, and I am convinced, as he said I visited the area, that we will have an up-and-running homeless program for veterans with substance abuse in a very short time. It is a place where the VA is using its facilities, and it is a great opportunity for anybody who wants to help this issue.

So I thank the gentleman and I thank the gentlewoman.

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

Madam Speaker, my friend and colleague, James L. Wood, died on Wednesday, April 18, following a brief bout with an aggressive cancer. Since his retirement from San Diego State University in May 2005, Jim and his wife Patsy lived in Berkeley. Jim was an inspirational teacher and reform activist. These passions animated him throughout his life, both in his family relations and in his engagement with the larger world.

Jim was born in Oakland, CA, in 1941. After graduating from the Oakland public schools, he enrolled in the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his Bachelor's degree and Ph.D. in sociology. As a student at Berkeley, Jim met his future wife Patsy. They studied at Berkeley in extraordinary times, when national and world affairs and their academic aspirations converged. Jim's first day of graduate school, October 1, 1964, marked the beginning of the Free Speech movement. Additionally, the Civil Rights movement and the anti-war movement's mobilization of students and broad segments of the general public against the U.S. involvement in war in Southeast Asia influenced Jim to study collective behavior and mass movements.

Upon completion of his doctoral studies at Berkeley, Jim moved to San Diego and joined the Sociology Department at San Diego State University (SDSU) in 1975. His scholarship and teaching focused on social movements and political sociology. He also taught courses on statistics and methodology. Jim assumed the duties of Department Chair, from 1991 to 2000. During these years at SDSU, Jim authored and co-authored many articles and books addressing civil rights, collective behavior and student activism, social movements, and sociological traditions.

When State budget allocations for the California State University system (CSU) declined, in the early 1990s, efforts of the SDSU leadership to restructure departments on that campus, including elimination of the Sociology Department, prompted Jim to focus intensively on the politics of higher education. As an activist and leader in the SDSU Chapter of the California Faculty Association, Jim was part of a faculty-student coalition that prompted the restoration of nine academic departments that had been slated for dismantling, and the withdrawal of termination notices for the numerous tenured faculty who would have been dismissed. For the CFA Chapter, Jim chaired the legislative committee. He also actively participated in other organizations, including the American Sociological Association. He was a member and elected officer of the American Association of University Professors. In 1996, he was a founding member and later became president of the San Diego-based Faculty Coalition for Public Higher Education, which supports funding stabilization for the State's public colleges and universities, the protection of tenure in the face of the expansion and exploitation of contingent faculty ranks, faculty control of technology in the classroom, and the exposure of corporate influence in higher education.

Following retirement, Jim and Patsy resettled in Berkeley. Jim continued to be active in sharing information and supporting the reforms for the community colleges and universities to which he had devoted so much energy over the years.

For colleagues and friends, the memory of Jim as a committed professor and activist will continue as an inspiration.

Jim is survived by his wife Patsy and daughter Ann, both of Berkeley, and son Jeff of Los Angeles.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, April 28, at 2 p.m. at the Unity Church, 2075 Eunice Street, Berkeley, CA.

I thank the gentlelady, and I thank the leadership of Ms. Woolsey and Ms. Lee of the Progressive Caucus.

Madam Chair, I rise this morning as the Chair of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee in proud support of the Progressive Caucus budget.

Other budgets fund the war; this budget funds the warrior. I am going to repeat that: Other budgets fund the war; this budget funds the warrior.

Most of us in the Progressive Caucus are against the war in Iraq, but we are united in our view that when these young men and women come home and all the other young men and women who came home in the past, that they get all the care, the support, the honor, the dignity, the love that a grateful Nation can bestow.

We are united in saying we will honor those who come home. They have done everything we have asked, they have been brave and courageous, they have had incredible wounds both physically and mentally, and we are going to give them the care, love, respect, and honor that they deserve.

This is the only budget before us today that says we will have what is called ``mandatory funding'' of veterans health care. Mandatory funding means we don't have to wait 5 months like the Republicans did last year when they didn't fund the Veterans Administration for the first 5 months of the fiscal year. Assured funding, mandatory funding, means that they will be funded on the first day of the fiscal year, and they will get automatic funding that doesn't have to go through a political fight.

We have a President that says support the troops, support the troops, support the troops. The speakers on the other side say support the troops, support the troops, support the troops. But when they get home, who is supporting them? Who is supporting these brave young men and women when they come back? We saw what happened at Walter Reed. We saw what happened to Bob Woodruff when he had traumatic brain injury--and those who were less fortunate than he didn't get the treatment they needed. We heard about the young marine who went to a Minnesota hospital saying he had PTSD and was thinking about committing suicide, and they said he was number 28 on the waiting list, come back in a month. He went home and he committed suicide. That is not a Veterans Administration, that is not a country that is welcoming its troops home. It is time that we fund the warrior and not just the war. Vote for the Progressive Caucus budget.

Mr. Chairman, as the chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, I rise in strong support of the Wounded Warrior Assistance Act; and I yield to myself what time I might consume.

I want to thank Congressman Skelton and Congressman Hunter. This is a great bill. As a Nation and as a Congress, we were faced with a test, a real challenge, whether we can respond to the conditions of our Nation and of our veterans and our active duty troops. The revelations of what happened at Walter Reed presented us that challenge, gave us that test, and I say with confidence that this Congress is meeting that test.

This is step two in meeting that test. Step one was to make sure we had sufficient resources in the budget of this Nation to meet the needs not only of our existing veterans who have more and more need, whether they are from World War II or Vietnam or the first Persian Gulf war or the great influx of veterans that we are going to have from Iraq and Afghanistan. We already have over 700,000 returning troops who are now veterans, and we are going to get hundreds of thousands more.

In the so-called continuing resolution that was passed by this Congress a few weeks ago, the Veterans Administration was the only agency that got a significant increase from last year's budget; and this Congress added $3.6 billion to veterans in that one continuing resolution.

The supplemental for war that passed this House last week, led by Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Skelton, Chairman Obey, and Chairman Edwards, we said that the supplemental for war has to also have a supplemental for the warrior--for the health care of our returning veterans. Both in the Defense Department and the VA, we put in almost $3.5 billion; and in the budget resolution that we will be considering today and voting on tomorrow, the Democrats have put in $6.6 billion above the 2007 levels. That, in 90 days, is over $13.5 billion added to last year's budget for the care of our veterans.

George Washington said it very clearly, that the morale of our active duty troops is dependent on the sense of how they are going to be treated when they come home.

The first step of infusion of money, the second step of the Wounded Warrior Assistance bill, says that we are going to meet the challenge, that we understand that the costs of caring for our veterans is part of the cost of war, and that no matter what we think about the war in Iraq, we are united in this Congress and in this Nation that every returning young man and woman gets all the care and love and respect and honor that this Nation can deliver. That is what this bill says, that we are all committed to making sure that the care of these veterans is first in our consciousness.

Both the Defense health care system and the VA system is stretched to its limits. We have underfunded it over the years. We are asking from very dedicated professionals in the VA system to do more and more with less and less resources.

The strain is evident wherever you look. The strain is evident at Walter Reed. The strain is evident when a young Marine shows up at a VA hospital in Minnesota and says, I think I have PTSD and I am having thoughts of suicide, and he was told that you are 28th on the waiting list, come back in a few weeks or a few months, and he went home and he committed suicide. The strain on our system is shown by events like that, and we are committed to making sure that they do not continue.

So we have to live up to our responsibilities, both for the returning Iraqi and Afghanistan veterans and to those who have served our Nation going back to World War II.

In many instances, the problems are exacerbated because of jurisdictional and procedure roadblocks between the Defense and the Veterans Administration. So we have to remove those roadblocks; and, as chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, I have worked closely with other members of our committee who will speak today, with Chairman Skelton and Ranking Member Hunter of the Committee on Armed Services, to make sure we are working off the same page.

This legislation takes important steps in making the servicemember's transition from the Department of Defense to the VA a seamless transition. We have been using that word for a long time, but we still have great cracks in that system. It is not seamless, but this bill would mandate the Department of Defense to provide disabled servicemembers who are being separated or returned from the Armed Forces with a written transition plan, a road map pointing the way to programs and benefits offered to them as veterans.

It would institute a formal process for transmitting reports and other information to the Veterans Administration from the active duty situation.

It would require both the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration to establish a joint separation and evaluation physical.

Physicals now are done by two different agencies and with two different standards and with two different bureaucracies. It is sometimes a hellish situation for returning active duty troops. We have to have a fully interoperable medical information system so that two agencies can speak to one another, so that the veteran coming home will have on his record in the VA all the things that occurred to him when he was on active duty in the military.

If we are going to make the handoff in the continuum of care successful, if we are going to make sure there is a seamless transition, if we want to make sure that we don't fumble information that puts at risk the returning servicemembers, we have to take these steps. These steps have are not newly invented. They were first expressed in earlier reports, the President's Task Force, for example, to Improve Health care for our Nation's Veterans, talked about this transition. I hope we are providing both departments with the resources and the tools they need to get that transition right.

Mr. Chairman, our concern is for the health of our fighting men and women when they come home that they get that health care taken care of, both in the Defense Department hospitals and in the VA system. Let's work seamlessly. I urge support for H.R. 1538.

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

Mr. Chairman, I would ask unanimous consent to use 10 minutes that were yielded back from the Armed Services time to be split evenly between the majority and minority.

A point of order, Mr. Chairman, I had understood that they had yielded the time that they had left back to the Veterans' Affairs Committee for use if we needed it, and we do need it. I think Mr. Buyer needs some time, and I do also.

If I could yield to Mr. Hunter for that.

I appreciate that.

Parliamentary Inquiry

Mr. Chairman, we yield 3 minutes to the command sergeant major from Minnesota (Mr. Walz).

Mr. Skelton and Mr. Hunter, your committee, working with the Veterans Committee, has produced an outstanding piece of legislation; and I hope that that cooperation, I know that cooperation will continue, because we have other things to do.

The gentleman from Kansas expressed what is on the minds of many of our colleagues, and that is to make sure that our rural veterans are served, also. We will do that; and I know my ranking member, Mr. Buyer, joins me in that commitment.

As I said earlier, Mr. Chairman, we have a test as a Nation. Are we going to make sure that every returning young man and woman from Iraq and Afghanistan has the best facilities, the best health care, the best treatment, the best love, the best commitment that we, as a Nation, can offer? And are we going to make sure that their predecessors, from World War II to the present, are also given that same care and commitment?

There are 200,000 homeless vets on the street tonight, mainly from the Vietnam era. We cannot allow that to continue.

We have a 600,000 claim backlog for disability payments. We cannot allow that to continue.

We have facilities that need to be repaired and rebuilt. We have needs for Agent Orange veterans and atomic veterans. We, as a Nation, must take up this challenge and must meet it.

We had significant new resources provided in the budget matters that have come before us in the last 60 days. This Wounded Warrior Assistance Act is the next step as we try to make sure that those who faced danger and life-threatening situations in Iraq do not have to face a bureaucracy which threatens to kill them off. This is a step to change that. We are going to have a seamless transition, and I thank the Chair for his commitment.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 327) to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to develop and implement a comprehensive program designed to reduce the incidence of suicide among veterans, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 327, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 5 minutes.

Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, today we have the first bills that are coming out of the Veterans Committee this year. We are going to have an ambitious agenda for our committee, an agenda that in fact is demanded by the American people.

We have seen in the last few weeks enormous attention paid to the treatment, or lack thereof, that is given to our Nation's veterans, whether they are from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the first Persian Gulf War or now from Iraq and Afghanistan.

We have seen the Washington Post articles which detailed the problems at Walter Reed. We have seen news magazines have cover stories on how veterans are falling through the cracks of the system. We have seen on ABC News, Bob Woodruff, do a very moving piece on how brain injuries are treated, or perhaps not treated. We have seen stories in the press of homeless, already, from veterans of Iraq.

The American people understand that we are not treating our veterans the way we claim to be. The American people, I think, understand that the treatment of our warriors is a part of the cost of war, and we simply have to provide for those brave men and women who have fought for our Nation's freedom.

So we have an ambitious agenda in front of us, Mr. Speaker. These first items today address some specific areas that demand attention. I thank the Members from across the aisle for their support not only of these bills, but I think for the agenda that we are going to pursue in the future.

And it is time, Mr. Speaker, that we say as a Congress and as a Nation, no matter where we are on this war in Iraq, that when those brave young men and women come back we are going to treat them with all the love and respect and honor and care that American veterans should have. And we make that pledge on both sides of the aisle.

As I said, one of the top priorities of our committee is to address the needs of returning servicemembers from Iraq and Afghanistan, especially in the areas of mental health.

I believe that if we send our citizens off to war, we have to address their health care needs when they return. We cannot say, support our troops, support our troops, support our troops, and then forget them when they come home.

It turns out, I think unsurprisingly, that veterans suffer a higher risk of suicide than the general population. The stress of combat combined with the stigma that exists for servicemembers and veterans seeking mental health care can have disastrous consequences. It has already occurred for returning veterans, maybe a couple

hundred. We must do everything possible to improve the VA's mental health services and its ability to detect and help those veterans most at risk.

This bill, H.R. 327, is an important step in the right direction. It comes to us from our colleague from Iowa (Mr. Boswell), who has taken the tragedy from a family in Iowa and turned it into constructive measures so that tragedy will not be repeated in other parts of the Nation. And we thank Mr. Boswell and his colleague, Mr. Braley from Iowa, for bringing this to our attention.

This bill will provide important tools to the Veterans Administration to assist the Department in strengthening suicide prevention, education, and awareness programs within the VA by mandating a comprehensive program for suicide prevention among veterans.

Again, I thank Mr. Boswell for introducing this bill. I thank Mr. Miller and his colleagues for supporting it.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the chairman of our Subcommittee on Health, the gentleman from Maine (Mr. Michaud).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hare), who has picked up the

torch from the legendary defender of veterans' rights, Mr. Lane Evans, and is carrying that torch with distinction.

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

Mr. Speaker, I say to Mr. Ramstad, we thank you for your passion. On the Veterans Committee, we intend to use the concern of America now for PTSD of returning veterans to argue that we need parity for all mental health issues in America.

So we thank you for your leadership on this. Thank you for reminding us of Corporal Schulze. We will use this as a reminder of what we have to do for our veterans.

Thank you again for your passion.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McNerney), whose son now serves us in our Nation as a member of the Air Force Reserve.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Walz), another new Member, who happens to be the highest ranking enlisted man, as a command sergeant major, ever to serve in the Congress. We thank you for your service.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to yield 3 minutes to the author of the legislation, the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Boswell), who, as I said, worked with the family of Mr. Omvig, who took their tragic situation and turned it into something that could help our whole Nation. We thank you, Mr. Boswell.

(Mr. BOSWELL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

I would yield 1 minute to the gentlelady from California (Mrs. Napolitano), who has been a fighter to elevate mental health to the consciousness not only to California, but our whole Nation for her whole career.

Thank you, Mrs. Napolitano.

I would yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Iowa, the neighboring district to the Omvigs, and a new Member, Mr. Braley.

Thank you for being here today.

(Mr. BRALEY of Iowa asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

I would ask for the courtesy of yielding 2 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Salazar).

Mr. Speaker, I just want to thank Mr. Miller, the ranking member of the House subcommittee, for your courtesy today, for your leadership on these issues, and for bringing members of your caucus to the floor. I think it is very important that all of us have an understanding of these issues. And the more that we all understand it and communicate that to the American people, we are, I think, better as a Nation. So thank you for the cooperation and the support.

I think we all were moved by Mr. Boswell and Mr. Braley's presentations. In the name of Joshua Omvig, we ask for support from our colleagues.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 797) to amend title 38, United States Code, to improve compensation benefits for veterans in certain cases of impairment of vision involving both eyes, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 797, as amended.

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

As noted, this bill is ``as amended.'' And I want to thank the members on my committee on both sides of the aisle, particularly Mr. Boozman of Arkansas and Mr. Lamborn of Colorado, for their very constructive amendments. Mr. Boozman will talk later on what he did, but we have extended the authorization for the work/study program at his request for 5 years, so thank you for your amendments to that. And we thank Ms. Baldwin, who has brought this to our attention and is very committed to the health care of our veterans of this Nation.

So we are glad all to work together to get this to the House floor today. This has been introduced in previous Congresses, but we are glad it is on the floor now. It would allow veterans who receive veterans disability compensation for impairment of vision in one eye to be eligible to receive additional disability compensation for impairment of vision in the eye that is not service connected, where that impairment in each eye is to a visual acuity of 20/200 or less, or of a peripheral field of 20 degrees or less.

Suffice it to say that there was a great blind spot in the law that did not cover our veterans who would need the help.

It would direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the Secretary of Health and Human Services to match and compare VA needs-based pension benefits data, parents' dependency and indemnity compensation data, health care services data, and unemployability compensation data with the National Directory of New Hires, maintained by the Department of Health and Human Services, for the purpose of determining eligibility for such benefits and services.

It would extend authorization of the veterans work/study program until 2012 at the suggestion of Mr. Boozman, and allows for a bronze ``V'' marker in lieu of a government-provided headstone or marker for burials in a private cemetery, at the suggestion of Mr. Lamborn.

It would affect an estimated 5 percent of the 13,000 veterans who have service-connected blindness or loss of vision in one eye. As of April 2006, the Walter Reed Medical Center alone has treated 140 returning OEF/OIF servicemembers for visual injuries.

I urge Members to support the bill. It is the least we can do for our veterans.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms. Berkley) who is an aggressive advocate for the veterans not only in Las Vegas but across the Nation.

Mr. Boozman, thank you again for having the initiative to extend the work/study program. You took the creativity of Ms. Baldwin who was able to save money in this bill, not only meeting the needs of veterans, but by introducing a section to compare data which I hope you will explain, saved us money which can now be used to extend the work/ study program for 5 years. Thank you for your amendment

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Wisconsin (Ms. Baldwin), the author of this bill, who not only solved a problem but found some money.

Mr. Speaker, again, I would like to thank Mr. Lamborn for

this very important addition. It will give families added consolation, of course, on the burial of a loved one. So we thank you

I have no further requests for time.

Mr. Speaker, we urge support for H.R. 797, as amended, and I yield back our time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1284) to increase, effective as of December 1, 2007, the rates of compensation for veterans with service-connected disabilities and the rates of dependency and indemnity compensation for the survivors of certain disabled veterans.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 1284.

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

Mr. Speaker, we all urge passage of H.R. 1284, the so-called Veterans' Compensation, COLA, Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act. It would direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to increase, effective December 1 of this year, the rates of veterans' compensation to keep pace with the rising cost of living in our Nation. The rate adjustment is equal to that provided on an annual basis to Social Security recipients and is based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index.

Regardless, Mr. Speaker, of where any of us are on the current war in Iraq, we all believe that our returning young men and women who have served this Nation so courageously get all the attention, care, respect and love that we can give as a Nation. Nothing bothers any of us more than to see returning troops, whether it be at Walter Reed or any of our VA hospitals, have to face the bureaucracy that seems indifferent, and does not provide the services they need.

The cost of serving these veterans, which includes this annual COLA, is a continuing cost of war. We will have from Iraq and Afghanistan an increase in injuries and disabilities that will yield an increase in claims for compensation. Over 1.5 million servicemembers have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan without any end, it looks like, in sight, and the President calls for more troops. Therefore, the Veterans Administration, as well as the military hospitals, can expect a significant increase in the number of new claims for compensation and new demands on the health care system. I think that recent events have shown that neither system is adequately prepared for that onslaught, and, in fact, the systems are stretched to the breaking point.

We as a Congress, we as a Nation, have got to give our veterans all the care that they need, all the resources they need, and we as Congress have to provide accountability for the spending of those resources.

Let me say that certainly we on the Democratic side, and I am sure supported on the Republican side, have made major increases in the resources to our veterans care that is now demanded from our Nation. I am told that the budget resolution will have an additional $6.6 billion over what we appropriated last year for the Veterans Administration.

You know that we appropriated an additional $3.6 billion for fiscal year 2007, the year that we are in now, in the so-called continuing resolution, the biggest increase of any department in that continuing resolution.

The supplemental that we will be considering at the end of this week has $3.5 billion for military and veterans health care: we say if you are going to deal with the cost of war, deal with the costs of the warrior.

So just in 60 days, Mr. Speaker, the new majority in the Congress has provided an additional $13.5 billion for the care of our Nation's veterans, and that is a bigger increase than was totaled in the last 5 years combined.

So I think we are responding to the Walter Reed scandal. We are responding to the tragic suicides that came from indifference from the bureaucracy. We are responding to the needs of traumatic brain injury that have so increased in this war. We are responding to the needs of those who have post-traumatic stress disorder. We are responding to the needs of a Veterans Administration that is backlogged 600,000 disability claims.

So we are going to respond with the dollars. We also need to make sure we have accountability, and we will have more to say on that in the future.

Congress regularly enacts an annual cost-of-living adjustment for veterans compensation to make sure that inflation does not erode the purchasing power of veterans and their families who depend upon this income to meet their daily needs. This bill before us, in

fact, will benefit all veterans from the World War I era through the current conflicts.

So I hope that we will have support for this. I would like to add my thanks for the increases that I talked about just a second ago in this budget for 2008 and the continuing resolution for 2007 and the supplemental that we will be considering to our Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, who insisted that we care for our Nation's veterans; also, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Mr. Obey of Wisconsin; to his chairman of the subcommittee that looks at veterans affairs, Mr. Edwards from Texas; and the chairman of our Budget Committee, Mr. Spratt, all of whom said we are not going to fail this test that America is faced with today, the test of whether we are going to make sure that our veterans get the care they need

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

Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

You are asking that of me? The lowest level of person in the House? No, I hope we will take up that supplemental at the end of the week.

Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the new chairman of the Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee of the Veterans Affairs Committee, Mr. Hall of New York.

Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms. Berkley).

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, but I would like to thank Mr. Miller for his commitment to our Nation's veterans, for leading his side with civility, cooperation and friendship.

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

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

The verdict is in, my colleagues. Both the Defense Department's health services for returning troops and the Veterans Administration are strained to the limit; they are almost to the breaking point. For as much money that we give them, we have not prepared for the influx of the troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. The evidence is clear.

What was happening at Walter Reed that was outlined in the Washington Post has, in fact, educated the whole Nation. We have had cover stories in the news magazines on how veterans are falling through the cracks. There was an incredible documentary on ABC News by Bob Woodruff and how his brain injury was treated and how fellow vets had their brain injuries treated. And yesterday on CNN we had a story on how Iraqi troops returning were homeless already.

We simply have got to meet this test as a Nation. The Democrats are trying to do that. We put an additional $3.6 billion into the continuing resolution to fund this year to help our troops. And in the supplemental we have $3.5 billion for our Nation's troops. It is time to support our troops when they come home

Madam Speaker, since the creation of the Department of Veterans Affairs' health care system, the Nation's doctors of chiropractic have been, until recently, kept outside and all but prevented from providing proven, cost-effective and much-needed care to veterans--including many in need of the health care services that doctors of chiropractic are licensed to provide.

A little history: Over the years, representatives of the Department of Veterans Affairs have come before the House of Representatives Veterans' Affairs Committee and have insisted that chiropractic benefits are available to veterans and that no bias exists within the VA against the chiropractic profession. Access is becoming greater, and hopefully the bills I am introducing will not be necessary, but for all practical purposes, access to chiropractic care, until very recently, had been non-existent within the VA system. Chiropractic care was so seldom offered to veterans that it could have been fairly said to be a phantom benefit.

Because of the track record of neglect, in recent years Congress enacted 3 separate statutes seeking to ensure veterans access to chiropractic care (Public Law 106-117, Public Law 107-135 and Public Law 108-170). The last of those statutes gave explicit authority to the VA to hire doctors of chiropractic as full-time employees. I'm proud to have worked with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to help advance those initiatives.

In addition, former VA Secretary Anthony Principi released policy directives before his departure regarding the true and full integration of chiropractic care within the VA, and it is beginning to happen, offered in more than 25 medical centers. But we must remain concerned until we see these polices firmly in place and working well in all VA treatment facilities.

As insurance, the enactment of the legislation I propose will guarantee the right of a veteran to obtain this important service at the local VA without the cost and stumbling blocks of going through potentially hostile gatekeepers.

I am proud to re-introduce a bill that former Congressman Jeb Bradley had introduced in the last session of Congress: H.R. 1470, the ``Chiropractic Care Available to All Veterans Act,'' and to reintroduce my bill from the last session: H.R. 1471, the ``Better Access to Chiropractors to Keep Our Veterans Healthy Act (BACK Our Veterans Health Act).''

The first, H.R. 1470, requires that the provision of chiropractic services and care be phased in so that it will be provided at not fewer than 75 medical centers by December 31, 2009 and at all medical centers by December 31, 2011. Within five years, all veterans will have access to chiropractic care if and when they need it.

The second, H.R. 1471, is designed to provide veterans with direct access to chiropractic care at VA hospitals and clinics. The measure directly prohibits discrimination among licensed health care providers by the VA when determining which services a patient needs.

In developing these bills, I have worked closely with chiropractic patients, particularly our veterans, who know the benefits of chiropractic care and bear witness to the positive outcomes and preventative health benefits of chiropractic care. I also was pleased to work with the American Chiropractic Association (ACA), the nation's largest chiropractic organization and the national voice of doctors of chiropractic and their patients. I have been told by the ACA that there are more than 60,000 doctors of chiropractic and in excess of 25 million chiropractic patients across America. Some of these doctors certainly should be directly available to our veterans. Finally, I am a chiropractic patient myself and have been greatly helped by chiropractic care for physical problems caused by an automobile accident. I hate to think that veterans do not have this same opportunity for relief from pain.

A large number of all medical problems in the returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan--42 percent--are musculoskeletal injuries, which are injuries that are often directed to chiropractors. So the timing could not be better for passage of these bills.

Accordingly, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting unimpeded access to chiropractic care throughout the veterans' health care system and help enact these measures.

Madam Speaker, earlier his month the United States Coast Guard and the entire Coast Guard community lost a great friend and colleague with the retirement of Ms. C. ``Jeanne'' Timmons.

Jeanne began her incredible career with the United States Government in May 1963, when she became a staffer to Congressman Victor Wickersham from her home State of Oklahoma. Over the next 26 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, she worked for Congressman Jack Flynt, Congressman Bob Sikes, Congressman Earl Hutto, and the House Coast Guard Subcommittee.

In July 1989, Jeanne left the House to begin a new career with the United States Coast Guard, where she was able to utilize her expertise and passion to enhance recreational boating programs in our Nation. Her tenure with the Coast Guard has included various positions, all related to recreational boating safety. She has worked as a State Grant Regional Coordinator, the Chief of the State Affairs Branch, a Program Analyst, the Chief of the Program Management Division, and finally the Executive Director of the National Boating Safety Advisory Council.

Throughout her career, Jeanne's invaluable knowledge and experience were a tremendous asset to Congress, the Coast Guard, and to the boating community as a whole. I take this opportunity to commend and thank Jeanne for her years of service in the United States Government and wish her good health and good luck in her future endeavors.

Madam Speaker, I rise today, with my colleague John McHugh, to introduce The Law Enforcement Officers Equity Act (H.R. 1073). The purpose of this bill is simply to give law enforcement status to all Federal law enforcement officers!

Many Federal officials--for example, the Border Patrol--are classified as ``law enforcement officers,'' for the purposes of determining salary and retirement benefits. But many other officers-- such as Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Inspectors, Veterans' Affairs Police Officers, U.S. Mint Police Officers, Internal Revenue Officers, and police officers in about two dozen other agencies--do not have equal pay and benefits status.

The tragic irony, Mr. Speaker, is that the only time these officers are classified as law enforcement officers is when they are killed in the line of duty. Then their names are inscribed on the wall of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial right here in Washington.

Let me say that again. It is only when they are killed that they are called law enforcement officers, and that is a tragic irony.

My district encompasses he entire California-Mexico border and is home to two of the busiest border crossings in the entire world, so I am very familiar with the work of our Nation's border inspectors. They wear bulletproof vests, they carry firearms, and, unfortunately, have to use them. Most importantly, these inspectors are subject to the same risks as other officers with whom they serve side-by-side. However, they are not eligible for early retirement and other benefits, which are designed to maintain a young and vigorous law enforcement workforce that we need to combat those who pose life-threatening risks to our society.

The Law Enforcement Officers Equity Act will provide well-deserved pay and retirement benefits to the officers protecting our borders, our ports of entry, our military and veterans' installations and other sensitive government buildings. The costs of these benefits would likely be off-set by savings in training costs and increased revenue collection. The bill will also reduce turnover, increase yield, decrease recruitment and development costs and enhance the retention of a well-trained and experienced workforce.

Madam Speaker, the simple fact is that these officers have dangerous jobs and deserve to be recognized as law enforcement officers, just like others with whom they serve, side by side, and who share the same level of risk. I encourage my colleagues to join me and Mr. McHugh in cosponsoring, the Law Enforcement Officers Equity Act. The valiant officers who protect us deserve no less!

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I rise in support of this resolution.

Let me just say, as Chair of the Veterans' Affairs Committee of this House of Representatives, no matter where we stand on this war, no matter where we vote on this resolution, we are going to make sure that the brave young men and women who come home get all the care and all the support they need from a grateful Nation. We will show what support of the troops means when they do come home.

Now, those who voted for the war back in 2002 are sometimes asked, Knowing then what you know now, how would you have voted?

Well, Madam Speaker, we knew then what we know now, and we know now what you are going to know a year or two from now.

Let me read to you what I said 4\1/2\ years ago when we had the debate on Iraq: ``I rise in opposition to this resolution to grant unilateral authority to the President. I cannot believe that the Members of this body are ceding our constitutional authority to this President. And they can give me all the fancy whereases and phrases and put all the fig leafs and write all the report language they want, but this is a blank check. This is a Gulf of Tonkin resolution. This is a violation not only of our Constitution but will lead to a violation of the U.N. charter.

``Wake up, my colleagues. Why would anyone vote to do that? That is not our constitutional responsibility. And when we vote on this resolution, will America be safer? No, I think America will be less safe. We will dilute the war against terrorism. The destabilization of the area will lead to the increased probability of terrorists getting nuclear weapons. Al Qaeda is probably cheering the passage of this resolution. Now is their chance to get more weapons.'' I said that then.

Then we talked about the imminent threat. You guys threw the imminent threat at us. What a lie. And what are you saying now? We are emboldening our enemies and demoralizing our troops. I heard the word ``sabotage.'' I heard the word ``retreat.''

I will tell you what demoralizes our troops, my colleagues. What demoralizes our troops will be the failure to provide adequate health care when they get home. What demoralizes our troops is the story of just a couple weeks ago when a young marine went to a VA hospital in Minnesota suffering from PTSD, and they said, You have got to go on a waiting list. And this young man committed suicide. That is what demoralizes our troops. That is what we have to prevent here, and that is what we are working on to do.

I said back in 2002: ``I have heard all my colleagues on the other side calling us appeasers, those who are going to vote against this resolution. We are

wishful thinkers. We have our eyes closed. We sit on our hands.'' And, of course, now we want to cut and run.

Well, I tell you, Madam Speaker, no one on this side is suggesting cutting and running. Making peace is hard work. Just ask Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Ask Gandhi. Ask Nelson Mandela. They didn't cut and run. They were peacemakers. And they changed the history of this world.

So let us not hear talk of retreat and sabotage and surrender. We want action for peace. We want it now, and we want the United States to be part of that action.

I said also in 2002, Madam Speaker: ``There is a whiff of Vietnam in the air. I had a constituent call me and say, `You know, if you enjoyed Vietnam, you are really going to love Iraq.' The mail is running 10-1 against this war. Protests have already begun around the Nation and around the world.''

I said to the President then that ``you came to the office as a uniter, not a divider. Yet we have gone down the road to division in this Nation. You can see it. You can smell it. You can hear it. And we are going to get more.

``So let us not go further down that road, Mr. President. Rethink this policy. A country divided over war is not a country that is going to make any progress. Let us have a rethinking of this war.''

That is what I said in 2002. You guys didn't want to listen to us then. The President didn't want to listen to us then. You really should listen to us now and listen to the people of America who voted in 2006 to change this policy.

Let us respond to the American people. Let us vote against escalation. Let us begin to bring the troops home. Vote ``yes'' on this resolution.

Madam Speaker, United States Army Staff Sergeant Richwell Arzadon Doria

was killed by small-arms fire during the battle with the insurgents in Iraq on November 7, 2006.

He was born on December 6, 1980 in Dagupan City, Philippines. He immigrated to the United States of America in 1991 and graduated from Samuel Morse High School in San Diego, California in 2000. He enlisted in the United States Army and completed the Basic and Advanced Individual Training at Fort Benning, Georgia in 2001. He was naturalized as an American citizen in 2004.

Staff Sergeant Doria was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. He reported to the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment and was assigned to Alpha Company. He participated in training exercises at the National Training Center, Pohakuloa Training Area, and Operation North Wind in Japan. In 2004, he deployed with the Cacti Battalion in support of the Operation Enduring Freedom V in Afghanistan and also served with the Cacti Battalion in Operation Iraqi Freedom V. While in Alpha Company, he served as a rifleman, M203 gunner, machine gun operator, team leader, and as a squad leader.

SSG Doria was posthumously awarded the Army Commendation Medal with ``V'' device for valor. On November 1, 2006, his action saved the lives of his fellow soldiers following an insurgents attack. He was also posthumously awarded the Bronze Star, the fourth highest U.S. military award for gallantry in action and the Purple Heart for his courageous actions on November 7, 2006, when he made the ultimate sacrifice while covering for his fellow soldiers during an air assault and rescue mission in Iraq.

He is survived by his wife, Jasmine; daughter, Jada; parents, Fred and Rose; sister, Rowena; aunts, Zenaida and Minda, and grandfather/ adopted father, Benito Doria. His last wish to be buried at the Eternal Gardens Memorial Park in Dagupan City, Philippines was fulfilled, complete with full military honors, 21-gun salute, and the American flag was presented to the grieving Doria family by BG Simeon G. Trombitas, who is the Commander of the U.S. Army's Special Operations Command in South Korea.

U.S. Army SSG Richwell Arzadon Doria is a true hero and will forever remain in our hearts and memories for his bravery, dedication to duty, and service to the United States of America.