Ciro D. Rodriguez

Madam Speaker, I rise today in recognition of 15 years of dedicated community service by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Harlandale Memorial Post 4815 and Post Commander Edward C. Torres. This San Antonio-based non-profit organization has and continues to serve its dedicated senior citizen community.

VFW organizations have a respected reputation for not only serving their fellow community veterans but also the community as a whole. Annually, on average, the VFW and its supporters contribute more than 13 million hours of volunteerism within their respective communities. With a history dating back to over 110 years ago, the Veterans of Foreign Wars organization and their auxiliaries live up to its mission ``to honor the dead by helping the living.''

The Harlandale Memorial VFW Post 4815 and Ladies Auxiliary continues to follow this noble tradition. For the past 15 years, this post hosts the areas senior citizens every third Friday of the month. They offer these respected members of their community the opportunity to engage and interact with others while at the same time providing a safe and entertaining place to gather. They prepare and serve both a continental breakfast and hot, full course lunch to those in attendance and provide free entertainment in the way of bingo games with prize-giveaways. They also host seminars regarding community and safety information which are not likely as readily available elsewhere to these residents. The particular groups in attendance are generally from two area nursing homes so this provides one of the few occasions they have to leave their residences. This one, special day allows a luxury these people may not know otherwise. It is fun, entertainment, and a chance to socialize outside of their daily set.

Under the leadership of Commander Edward C. Torres, the Harlandale Memorial VFW Post 4815 and Ladies Auxiliary are an integral part of their community. They provide a precious service to oft time overlooked citizens which help to not only enrich and strengthen community bonds but to enrich and strengthen lives.

Madam Speaker, on behalf of the United States Congress, I am privileged to recognize Commander Edward C. Torres and the Harlandale Memorial Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4815 for their hard work and excellence in service to their community.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank the chairman for his great work on this issue. He has been the champion on these issues and responsive to the needs of our borders.

Border security is one of my highest priorities. I represent 785 miles of the Mexican border, more border with Mexico than any other Member of Congress. As the vice chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Committee, we have made making our border more secure a high priority.

Earlier this month, the House passed a supplemental appropriations bill that continued funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and in addition included $701 million in much-needed border security funding. This is funding that our men and women on the border are asking for and need to get the job done. We all know the violence in Mexico has escalated. We need to ensure the U.S. borders are not left vulnerable.

This new version is much smaller than the previous one cut by the Senate. This bill does not have the funding for Operation Stonegarden, a much-needed program supported by many bipartisan Members. Nonetheless, I support the chairman on his effort and thank him for his leadership.

This bill will target funds just as the previous House-passed supplemental did. This includes an additional 1,000 Border Patrol agents and 250 additional officers at our land ports of entry, which are critical and important at this point in time. This is a significant step towards securing our border, and I want to thank the chairman for his leadership in this area and ensuring that the border becomes a priority.

Madam Chair, I just wanted to take this opportunity to come down to the House floor and congratulate our chairman, Congressman Chet Edwards, on his efforts in this area. I feel really elated in terms of the amount of resources that we have been able to put for our veterans.

Having been on the Veterans' Committee and on the appropriations side and the authorizing side, I had the opportunity to witness the situation that we suffered with when we had to do the copayments and require our veterans to come up and pay copayments. We cut Category 8 veterans from that. In addition, not only that, but we asked them to pay for additional fees for services.

And in the last 3 years, it's been a turnaround, and this bill provides resources there for the first time that allow an opportunity for us to be able to look at our infrastructure and improve on those areas that are out there.

We have a good number of hospitals out there that are lacking on infrastructure, and I'm hoping that in the future we continue to do this. This bill puts us on the right track to provide additional resources, and I want to thank him, personally, also.

I know that it also has been able to put additional resources and creating additional polytrauma centers. We have four in the Nation. Now we have a fifth in Texas, and so I want to thank him personally, there in San Antonio,

for the polytrauma center that has had the resources to be able to begin to provide those needed items that our veterans need.

I also want to just thank him for putting the resources there and just advertise the fact that, just in the last year and a half, we have over 240,000 veterans that are now taking advantage of the GI Bill. And this is a tremendous bill. We expect to have over half a million veterans participating in the GI bill. And that, in the future, will show a tremendous amount of positiveness when those individuals get their bachelor's, their master's, and their doctorate degrees as they move forward. In addition to that bill, it also allows their kids and their spouses to take advantage.

So congratulations on the great work that you have been doing, Chairman.