Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, a lot of our colleagues have been coming down to the floor today and had come down yesterday to talk about two things that are actually very connected. The first is the VA MISSION bill, which we just passed, that is going to significantly transform how we treat our veterans and how we make sure our vets are getting the care they have earned and deserve. Also, appropriately, as that bill has just passed the Senate and is heading to the President's desk, we are talking about Memorial Day and the Memorial Day weekend that is fast approaching--a very important, sacred time for our country and, certainly, for my State, the great State of Alaska.

What I would like to do is to talk a little bit about the bill and then reflect a little bit more on the importance of Memorial Day as we move forward into this weekend.

One of the things we all do is, certainly, with regard to legislation like this is to look at the national implications. We also look at how our own constituents will be impacted and make sure their interests are served when there is broader, national legislation that we have been working on for months. Many of us had been working on this bill for almost a year. The Presiding Officer and I are on the Veterans' Affairs Committee, so we were very focused on it.

In my State, we proudly claim more veterans per capita than in any State in the country, but we also have unique challenges. Alaska is a very, very big place. With regard to enabling our veterans to get the healthcare they need and the services they need from the VA, it can be a challenge. So one of the things that we worked hard on was to make sure that if a veteran lives in a big State in a very rural part of America, they will still get the benefits they have earned as a veteran.

There are a number of things in the VA MISSION Act, which we just passed, that focus on the unique elements of Alaska. I will give a couple of examples that are now in the legislation that will be signed by the President in a couple days.

The bill requires access to community care--non-VA care--where the VA does not operate a full-service facility in the State. Well, there is no full-service VA facility in Alaska. So what this enables our veterans to do is to get care from other medical service providers, particularly our veterans who are in some of the more rural parts of the State.

It has a specific Alaska fee schedule for the reimbursement of providers because healthcare costs are structurally so much higher in my State, as are transportation costs. There is a fee schedule that the VA uses in this bill just for Alaska. It continues to allow the VA to have Tribal sharing agreements with members of Tribal organizations that, again, have a very far reach and provide excellent care to so many Alaskans, both Natives and non-Natives.

By the way, Alaska Natives serve at higher rates in the U.S. military than any other ethnic group in the country. There is incredible patriotism from those constituents in my State, whom we are all very proud of.

The bill creates standards for timely payments to community care providers. One of the big challenges we had in the VA was that non-VA medical providers provide care for veterans, and then the VA does not reimburse them for months. This causes enormous challenges, including collection agencies calling the very veterans who got the care and services. This is completely unacceptable. We are trying to change that, and this bill will do it.

Finally, a bill that I had with Senator Tester from Montana is called the Serving Our Rural Veterans Act, which is now part of the broader bill. What this does is create VA residency programs in States such as Alaska and Montana that don't have medical schools and where there are very few residency programs. Studies show that after doctors do their residency, well over 50 percent of the doctors stay in the States where they do residency programs. That is a great advantage if you have a lot of residency programs, but we don't. What this bill does is set up a pilot program by the VA to work with Native health organizations, DOD health organizations, IHS health organizations, and establish residency programs through the VA so that we can get doctors in Alaska who will do service for our veterans and then stay.

Those are just a few examples of how this bill helps not only veterans nationwide but certainly helps the veterans in my State. Of course, the implementation of this bill is going to be key. One thing that concerns me, to be frank, is that right now there is very little leadership at the highest levels of the VA. As a matter of fact, we have had four secretaries in 4 years. We need to start putting established, secure leaders in the VA to start implementing this important piece of legislation. We will continue the oversight role in Congress, but this is a good start.

More importantly, this bill also sends a strong message to our veterans throughout the country that the Senators in this body, Democrats and Republicans, have focused on them and have their backs, as do Americans all across the Nation.

This is what I want to talk about for the remainder of my remarks this afternoon, on the eve of Memorial Day weekend--looking at and reflecting for a little bit on the Senate floor about the ebb and flow of how we, as Americans, have treated our veterans and memorialized their service because that is what this weekend is all about.

We know and we continue always to lionize and celebrate our World War II veterans and the over 400,000 Americans who gave their lives defending freedom. That is who we are thinking about this weekend. During World War II, from ticker tape parades when they came home to Honor Flights that continue today, this ``greatest generation'' of Americans, both living and dead, has received the respect and honor that all of our veterans should have, and with good reason. Their sacrifice saved the world from authoritarian takeover, whether it was from Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan. So we always had the ``greatest generation'' up here in terms of how we view them, how we memorialize them--the veterans, those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

Then, just 5 years later came the Korean war, and the respect we gave to the tens of thousands of veterans returning home from Korea started to decline, something akin to benign neglect. Many in American society during that time seemed as if they didn't want to be bothered by what was going on in Korea or didn't want to think about the tens of thousands who were killed in action, the over 8,000 who are still declared missing in action, and the over 100,000 American servicemembers wounded in the Korean war. This is reflected even today in the name that many historians have given this conflict, the ``Forgotten War.''

I have never liked that phrase. I think it is actually borderline disrespectful. The better way to memorialize the sacrifice of our Korean war veterans is in the words etched into the marble of the incredibly moving Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, just a few miles from here. That memorial--for those who haven't visited, I highly recommend you do; for those who are visiting Washington, particularly on this weekend, it is great to go down there. But there is a simple phrase there: ``Freedom is not free.''

Freedom is not free. If this weekend means anything, it is the importance of that phrase on the Korean War Veterans Memorial. That memorial also states: ``Our Nation honors her sons and daughters who answered the call to defend a country they never knew and a people they never met.''

If you want to see an example of American bravery and what it meant, take a look at the difference between North and South Korea today. There is a satellite photo that is very famous. It shows the Korean Peninsula at night. The North is dark; even today it is dark. The South is full of light, vibrancy, and energy. The reason that happened--the reason that happens to this day is because of the bravery, the service, and the sacrifice of American military members.

These are powerful words on the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, and to me the rightful tribute to that war and our veterans shouldn't be the ``Forgotten War''; it should be the ``Noble War.'' Think about what our men and women did. As I mentioned, they were sent overseas to ``defend a country they never knew and a people they never met.'' To this day, our troops are on the peninsula right now, keeping the peace--28,000 of them.

So we had benign neglect in the Korean war, and then what happened? Well, then came the Vietnam war.

We all know what happened. Yet to this day, we really don't know why it happened. Our country kind of went off-kilter, and in terms of the honor and respect we showed our Vietnam veterans and their wounded and fallen comrades, America hit rock bottom-- World War II, here; Korean war, benign neglect; Vietnam, disgraceful conduct toward the men and women serving in the military.

We have all heard the stories; they are sad and tragic. We have all heard the stories of young men and women who went to serve their country and fight overseas in Vietnam, who came home to protesters, were spit on, and called baby killers.

I remember hearing about one such episode from a senior marine officer when I was a young marine infantry lieutenant. He came home from combat and met his dad, who was a World War II veteran, at the airport. He was in his service alphas--the green uniform that marines wear--sea bag over his shoulder. His dad was with him. He came outside of the airport, and protesters were there, and someone threw red paint on him and his father.

Think about that. A dad and a young man who just came home from fighting in Vietnam--and that is what he got. But here is the amazing thing, and it is why our country owes such a debt of gratitude to our Vietnam veterans. Instead of being racked and incapacitated by bitterness and anger, these veterans did something amazing, something remarkable. They set out to make sure that future veterans of America's wars and their fallen comrades would receive better attention and better treatment and better respect than they did. They made it their mission in life that we as a nation would once again honor our military as we honored the veterans coming home from World War II--at the highest level. That is what they did.

Here is the amazing thing. They succeeded. They succeeded, and we need to really be thinking about our Vietnam veterans and those killed in action in Vietnam this Memorial Day.

Again, for those who haven't been there, if you want to go to a moving memorial about America's war sacrifices and war dead, there is nothing more moving than the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

As someone who has seen what our Vietnam veterans have done for the next generation of veterans, I have also seen this throughout my own military career: When we come home from doing our duty, it is the Vietnam veterans who are there making sure that the current generation of American soldiers, American warriors, gets the respect and honor that these veterans never got.

Let me give you one example. Many years ago, I was commanding a Marine recon unit in Alaska. One of my soldiers--one of my sergeants, one of my marines, a great marine--was killed. We had a memorial service. It was a small memorial service for this young Marine sergeant at Fort Richardson. It was outside. We were in our dress blues in a very somber service. Four guys pulled up on Harley Davidson motorcycles. They were older. They pulled up on their bikes, and they just sat there through the whole service--a very, very powerful presence.

At the end of the service they came up to me. I was a captain at the time. They asked if I was the senior officer, and I told them I was. I said: Thanks for coming. What are you doing here? Did you know my sergeant?

They said: No, we just read about the service in the paper today, and we wanted to be here to show our respect and honor for this young Marine sergeant.

Think about that. Vietnam vets who weren't treated well at all when they came home were making sure that one Marine Corps sergeant in Alaska got the respect and dignity he deserved as a veteran. Our Vietnam vets used their painful experience to become our Nation's guardians of military respect, honor, and dignity.

So, right now, where are we as a country? Well, I think we are back at that high level. I think we are back at that high level of not only respecting members of the military--veterans, Active Duty, Reserves-- but certainly our wounded and fallen warriors. It is, in large measure, because of the efforts, sacrifice, and courage of our Vietnam veterans. So we can't thank them enough. As Alaska's Senator, I am so honored to represent so many veterans and so many Vietnam veterans.

Here is what I think is important to talk about on the Senate floor. As we move into Memorial Day weekend, let's resolve--not just as a community, in places like Alaska, but as a country, as a Senate--that we will always, always stay at this high level of respect for our fallen, for our veterans and their families, and, particularly, for those who have given the ultimate sacrifice and the men, women, wives, husbands, and children they have left behind.

I think this is also important. Even though we are back as a nation at this very high level--you always hear it; you always hear it; it is always in the background--some start to question the service and sacrifice of America's military. You have heard it a little bit when ISIS was running amok in Iraq and Syria. You heard some people say: Geez, we took these places with a lot of blood and treasure, and now they have fallen to terrorists. Was that worth the cost of the young men and women who died in those battles? Did our soldiers, marines, and sailors die in vain?

I think it is really important to answer that question right here on the Senate floor, and it is something I hope we can all agree on. No American who has ever worn the uniform of our country to fight for freedom and defend our Nation and die for this country--whether at Valley Forge, Iwo Jima, Hue City, Ramadi, Fallujah--has ever, ever died in vain. We always need to remember that, particularly as we are coming upon Memorial Day weekend.

I wish to thank again all of the members of the military and their families who protected our freedom for centuries and will continue to do so. We are working hard in the Senate to make sure our veterans are taken care of. The VA MISSION Act, which we just passed and which is going to the President's desk for his signature, is part of that sacred commitment we have to our veterans and their families. I wish to thank them all as we come upon Memorial Day weekend.

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