Recognizing 75th Anniversary of Establishment of Veterans Administration
RECOGNIZING 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF ESTABLISHMENT OF VETERANS ADMINISTRATION -- (House of Representatives - July 18, 2005)
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Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 361 recognizes the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the Veterans Administration, the forerunner of today's Department of Veterans Affairs, that will be observed on Thursday of this week.
Throughout the history of the United States, more than 48 million men and women have served America well and faithfully in military uniform. More than 1 million made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom, and 25 million veterans are living among us today. These men and women selflessly set aside their civilian lives to put on the uniform and serve us.
The Nation's obligation to its defenders is as old as the Nation itself. Thomas Jefferson noted in 1809 that ``the care of human life is the first and only legitimate object of good government.'' And in his second inaugural address in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln clearly expressed the obligation ``to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan.''
On July 21, 1930, pursuant to a congressional authorization, President Hoover issued an executive order to ``consolidate and coordinate Government activities affecting war veterans,'' creating the Veterans Administration. The new agency was charged with ensuring that America's veterans received the benefits and services they had earned from their military service.
The Department of Veterans Affairs was subsequently created from the Veterans Administration on March 15, 1989, when President Ronald Reagan signed P.L. 100-527, the Department of Veterans Affairs Act. Today, the 230,000 public servants of the Department of Veterans Affairs continue in the noble tradition of their predecessors to carry out the words of Jefferson and Lincoln by serving veterans and their families.
Mr. Speaker, this resolution would not only recognize the anniversary of the VA as an organization, but it would also acknowledge and commend the achievements and contributions of the men and women who have dedicated themselves to the mission of the VA. In war and in peace, they have always been there for our veterans to provide them the benefits, the care, and the support of a grateful country.
These are the men and women who man the phones at the call centers, work the claims, provide high-quality medical care, and keep the cemeteries looking like national shrines. They are the real VA, and too often we forget to thank them for their dedicated work.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I would like to thank the gentleman from Indiana (Chairman Buyer) for cosponsoring this resolution and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Evans), ranking member, for his cosponsorship. I also would like to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Filner) for his hard work on this also.
Recently I was in Landstuhl, Germany, and we were there on a NATO parliamentary trip, and I had the opportunity to see a young soldier who had been wounded in Iraq only literally the evening before. I was there at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon; this young man had been injured at about 4 o'clock. They cleaned him up, sent him to Landstuhl, gave him extra good care, as we are demanding of these types of situations. But I got to visit with him right after he came out of recovery. And this young man, literally he wanted to tell his story. His speech was slurred. He was apologizing to us because he could not speak clearly, but he wanted to tell his story. He told us all about what had happened. And then he said two things: He asked about his wife. He had not been married very long, and he lost both his legs. And we assured him that he would be with his family the next day at Walter Reed or Bethesda. The other thing he asked, he looked up and said, I saw this happen to my buddies. I saw it happen to my friends, other guys in the unit, and I never thought it would happen to me.
Then he looked and said, ``You know, do you have the ability to help me walk again?''
I could look him in the face and say, ``Absolutely. You are going to get the finest care that is provided anywhere in the world, and we will get you walking again.''
Well, the reality is that those kind of things do take money, and we are putting lots of money in the system. The commitment is to put whatever money we need in the system.
Another thing that is happening is my favorite uncle passed away a few weeks ago. He was a World War II veteran, a great patriot, and probably in the last 6 months we have spent more on medical care for him than his entire previous life. Again, he was not injured in battle. He was a guy like one of the guys fighting alongside this injured young man.
So our commitment is to support everybody; the guys that are severely injured in this case, but also the rank and file veteran. I think we are doing a good job of that, and I know in a very bipartisan way we are committed to getting whatever funding it takes.
Right now, health care is in such a state that if you look at Medicare, we have got significant problems there in shoring that up. Medicaid, the same situation, as with private insurance. Our employers cannot absorb 15, 20 percent increases in health care costs each year. We have to do something about the underlying inflation costs in health care. I think again as a Congress we are working in a bipartisan way to do that.
Mr. Speaker, again, I look forward to working with the gentleman from California (Mr. Filner) and the rest of the committee in a very bipartisan way to put whatever funding that we need to in the health care system for our veterans, and very much so to get back to the business at hand.
I want to thank our Veterans Administration, all of its employees, all of the workers that volunteer on a daily basis that are so important, thank them for their service, and thank them in this very important recognition.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to unanimously support H.R. 361.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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