Medal of Honor Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. PAPPAS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Kentucky for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the Medal of Honor Act.

The Medal of Honor is our Nation's highest military decoration. It recognizes the extraordinary valor that distinguished men and women of our military demonstrated in critical moments during their service to our great Nation.

There are 63 living Medal of Honor recipients, including heroes like Army Staff Sergeant Ryan Pitts of New Hampshire, who served two tours in Afghanistan. During his second deployment, hundreds of insurgents attacked the Army base where he was stationed. Sergeant Pitts was badly wounded by a grenade but continued to fight with a tourniquet on his leg, singlehandedly holding his outpost for 2 hours.

That battle is now known as the Battle of Wanat, one of the bloodiest battles of the war in Afghanistan. Thanks to the bravery of Sergeant Pitts, Americans were able to turn the tide in that battle and hold their position, leading Taliban fighters to withdraw from the area.

As ranking member of the Economic Opportunity Subcommittee of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, I am focused, with my colleagues, on how we can make good on our promises to our veterans and be worthy of their sacrifice.

It is our responsibility as Americans to ensure that all of our servicemembers, veterans, and their families have the support that they earned and deserve. One way we can do that is by ensuring that veterans are financially secure when their military service is over.

Medal of Honor awardees receive a monthly pension that has not been raised in 23 years. It is well past time to do the right thing and increase the pension for these distinguished American warriors. This bill ensures their extraordinary acts of bravery are not forgotten and that their sacrifices are valued by a grateful Nation.

I have been really glad to partner with Congressman Nehls on this bill to introduce this legislation and get it to the floor today. I thank him for his determined leadership on this issue and hope that we can get all of our colleagues on board later today with a strong vote in passing this legislation over to the Senate and seeing it signed into law.

Mr. Speaker, this is the right thing to do by our veterans and by our Medal of Honor recipients, and I urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation.

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