National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2006--Resumed

NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006--Resumed -- (Senate - July 21, 2005)

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I also compliment the Senator from South Carolina for his leadership on this issue, and also the Senator from New York. I know they have worked together on this, but I will say that one of the first issues that the Senator from South Carolina talked to me about when I first arrived in the Senate was this very issue. It is important for a lot of reasons, important in my State of South Dakota because we have a number of people who have been called up. Over 1,700 of our National Guard men and women have served in the deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, and as I have traveled my State and attended many of the events as they have been deactivated and come home, I looked into the eyes of their children and their loved ones and assured those people that the job they are doing is important to freedom's cause, that the work they are doing is important in bringing freedom and democracy to places such as Iraq and Afghanistan and thereby also making our country more safe and secure.

It is important that we put in place the appreciation for the good work that our guardsmen and reservists are doing and important that we recognize that by offering them access to affordable health care. This legislation is important because we do have a challenge as we go forward with the continuing duration of the deployments, with the need to call up our Guard and Reserve on a more frequent basis, to ensure that we put the incentives in place so that we can recruit and retain the men and women who continue to fill those very important roles.

And so I am happy to cosponsor this amendment to offer my support to the Senator from South Carolina and to urge our colleagues on the floor of the Senate to support this important legislation, to send a strong, clear message to the men and women who are serving our country in the Guard and Reserve that we support them. This is no longer a 1-weekend-a-month, 2-weeks-a-year deployment. That is a thing of the past. The longer deployments and the heightened responsibilities are taking an unforeseen toll on the families and members of the Guard and Reserve. If Congress is going to call on our Reserves to do more, we have a responsibility to provide them with more. By offering TRICARE to Guard and Reserve, we are helping to mitigate the effects of the burden we are asking Guard and Reserve to shoulder in the war on terror. No soldier should be deployed to fight for his country only to have his thoughts consumed by the welfare of his family.

So I thank Senator Graham for his leadership on this issue. I encourage my colleagues to support this amendment.

Mr. President, I yield the remainder of my time.

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