Making Emergency Supplemental Appropriations For The Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 2006

MAKING EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2006 -- (Senate - April 26, 2006)

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I am very proud to be in the Senate today to support the Senator from Hawaii, Senator Akaka, in offering this amendment, the current pending business regarding adding additional funds for our veterans who have served us so honorably overseas every day in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry: Can the Senator yield to another Senator?

The PRESIDING OFFICER. He cannot yield, but the Senator can be recognized on her own and she was recognized.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, every day in Iraq and Afghanistan the men and women of our Armed Forces make us very proud. Last year, I had the honor of visiting our troops in Baghdad and Kuwait. I was personally impressed with their commitment and their professionalism. We in this Senate all agree that we support them and we stand with them as they carry out the mission they have been asked to do.

However, they also deserve our support when they come home, when they come home as veterans. We need to make sure they have the health care they were promised, job training, and transition assistance. They deserve all the things our country promised them when they signed up to serve us.

Unfortunately, today our country is still falling short of meeting those needs. We all have known for years that the demands on the VA have grown considerably, but funding just has not kept pace. Senator Akaka talked about what happened last year with the funding shortfall we got into. We had to get back in place emergency funds to meet the needs last year.

We are again offering this amendment to increase funding for America's veterans, frankly, because they were there for us and now it is up to us to be there for them.

We need this amendment this year again because veterans are still facing tremendous shortages and delays in getting the care they need. Veterans today coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan are able to get an appointment initially with the VA, but then they have to wait up to 6 months for a consultation and another 7 months for surgery. So, as a result, we are seeing veterans today take over a year before they get the care they are seeking at our veteran services. A lot of our veterans coming back from Iraq have to wait 18 months to get their disability claims processed. Imagine returning from Iraq and waiting a year and a half before you get the services you have been promised.

We all have met with veterans who have returned. We know many of them are coming back with severe injuries. Many of them are facing tremendous mental health hurdles. Today, the VA is operating on a bare-bones funding. It is doing more and more with less and less. As the war in Iraq continues, our heavy reliance on the Guard and Reserve has affected the VA and utilization rates in our ability to keep our promises to them for their health care and their services when they return.

Last month, the Secretary of the VA came in front of the MilCon VA Subcommittee and told us that OIF and OEF veterans accessing VA care was 38 percent higher than expected halfway through this fiscal year--38 percent higher than they predicted, than they had requested funds for.

We have to make sure the VA has the funds it needs to care for our veterans. I personally can think of no better way to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan and their families than by taking care of them when they return.

All Senate Members have met with our veterans, their families and spouses, those who serve them. We know the mental health care of our veterans is not being met today. Recent reports have verified that 30 percent of OIF and OEF veterans are accessing mental health services. That is much higher than anyone predicted.

We need to make sure those mental health care services are available. That is why Senator Akaka is in the Senate today offering this amendment to provide the VA with $430 million to enhance readjustment counseling and outreach to returning servicemembers, to shore up the VA's capacity to provide mental health services to veterans who need them, and to address the current shortfalls we are facing across the system.

Our amendment simply recognizes that caring for our veterans is and should be part of the ongoing cost of war. The bulk of the VA's readjustment counseling is provided through our Vet Centers, as many Members know. These are storefront facilities that operate independently of the rest of the VA health care system. That separation from the institutional VA care makes them an invaluable resource in reaching many of our returning servicemembers who today may be wary of the VA system or in very remote locations.

Our amendment provides $80 million for these Vet Centers so they can meet the needs they are seeing today. We know in the budget these Vet Centers have been flatlined. Over the years, these centers have provided services to a total of 118,811 OIF and OEF veterans. So far this year, these Vet centers have provided services to 70,547 OIF and OEF veterans.

And these vet center services include outreach to our returning servicemembers at their demobilization sites. So they are very critical services, and we need to make sure they are funded.

I mentioned mental health a minute ago. I think we all know that men and women who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering serious mental health problems. So our amendment addresses that by providing $168 million toward the implementation of the VA's own mental health strategic plan. That will help serve our veterans who are suffering from PTSD and other debilitating conditions.

We all know, and as I know from talking to our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of these soldiers are literally on the front line 24-7, and we know the cost of that in returning. We have to make sure they get the services they need for PTSD and other mental health conditions because not only should we provide that for them because they need it but because we need to make sure when they come home they get the help they need so they can remain valuable members of our communities.

Finally, the amendment secures an additional $182 million for the various regions in the country that are once again suffering from shortfalls. Despite all of our work last year, and despite our efforts on the floor last year, evidence has continued to mount that demonstrates there is still a need for supplemental funds. The VA medical centers are still millions of dollars in debt. We need to make sure we provide the dollars within the supplemental to take care of that.

So I am proud to stand with Senator Akaka as we offer this amendment. I hope every Senator recognizes that part of the cost of war is paying for the care of our men and women when they return home. I can think of no more important promise to keep. I urge all Senators to join us in supporting this critical amendment.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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