Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Mrs. FISCHER. Mr. President, I rise today to offer a bipartisan amendment with my colleague, the junior Senator from Wisconsin. Our measure would provide much needed funding for the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, or the DPAA, so they can continue the important work of identifying and accounting for our missing servicemembers from conflicts around the globe.

Tragically, more than 83,000 Americans remain missing from World War II, the Korean war, the Cold War, and the Vietnam war. Many more remain unaccounted for as a result of more recent conflicts. The Defense POW/ MIA Accounting Agency is an agency within the Department of Defense whose mission is to recover personnel listed as prisoners of war or missing in action. Their core task is to provide the fullest possible accounting for these personnel to their families and to this Nation. The value of the work being done by DPAA cannot be overstated. No matter when an American servicemember goes missing, our commitment to fully investigating what happened and bringing closure to their family should never waver.

I am honored to represent one of DPAA's forensic laboratories, located at Offutt Air Force Base. There, they are currently working to identify the sailors lost in the sinking of the USS Oklahoma during World War II and conducting forensic identification of the Tuskegee Airmen who remain listed as missing in action.

As a result of North Korea's recent agreement with the United States, DPAA's work has taken on added significance. In July, North Korea turned over 55 boxes containing the possible remains of DOD personnel lost during the Korean war, who must now be processed and identified. On several occasions, North Korean officials have indicated they possess as many as 200 sets of remains they have recovered over the years. To this day, there are still 5,300 U.S. military personnel who remain listed as missing in action and are presumed deceased during the Korean war, their remains still located in North Korea.

For the families of those lost, this is a long-awaited opportunity to gain closure and to give their loved ones the respectful, dignified remembrance they deserve. For that to happen, we must ensure that DPAA has the resources it needs to conduct the forensic analysis of these new remains and continue working to locate and account for American servicemembers. That is why I am offering this amendment, which will provide $10 million in fully offset funding to allow DPAA to cover this additional workload. By supporting this amendment, we can ensure that this influx of new work can be handled without delay and that the talented men and women of DPAA have the support necessary to continue this important task.

For the families of those lost in service, it is never too late to offer closure, and for our heroes in uniform, it is never too late to remember and to honor their sacrifice.

I thank the junior Senator from Wisconsin, the junior Senator from Massachusetts, and all of our cosponsors who have aided in this effort. I urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting this amendment and lending our voice to the memory of our missing and fallen servicemembers.

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