Conditions At Walter Reed Hospital
Floor Speech
CONDITIONS AT WALTER REED HOSPITAL -- (Senate - March 13, 2007)
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, by now, most Americans have heard about the appalling conditions at Walter Reed, as exposed by the Washington Post articles. Those stories detailed conditions which not one of us should have to endure, especially our injured troops who have sacrificed so much for this country.
The Washington Post uncovered rooms with mice infestation, moldy walls, and holes in the ceilings. Their series also showed the administration is failing to provide adequate medical care for our injured troops who face inexcusably long waits for the most basic care. If squalid living conditions and lack of adequate medical care are not bad enough, troops face a daunting maze of paperwork for the simplest things.
One serviceman had to show his Purple Heart to even prove he had served in Iraq. Others told us that when they returned from Iraq, their uniforms were caked in dirt and blood, and they were forced to spend endless hours trying to secure new, clean uniforms. A severe shortage of caseworkers means patients endlessly search for answers to routine questions.
Mr. President, our service men and women are not the only ones facing bureaucratic nightmares. We also learned of problems their families face when they try to visit their loved ones at Walter Reed. From a lack of translators for families of Hispanic soldiers, to complicated and outdated forms for hotel reimbursement, relatives find themselves spending countless hours on paperwork--time which could be spent with their injured sons, daughters, husbands, wives, fathers or mothers.
Despite White House efforts, it was eventually revealed that members of this administration had known for years of the problems that plagued Walter Reed.
The President's response to Walter Reed has been slow and more media strategy than substance. Unfortunately for our troops, the administration has tried for weeks to paper over problems instead of offering us real solutions. Days after the first reports, administration officials repeatedly attempted to play down the problems. They painted walls and held press conferences and told America that the problems were overblown. But the press and the American public didn't buy it; they have been misled too many times by this administration. Stories on the President's failure to care for our injured troops continue to appear.
After 2 weeks of endless news on the horrible conditions at Walter Reed, the administration decided fall guys were needed.
First to go was MG George W. Weightman, the head of the hospital. The second--a bit higher on the food chain--was Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey. Finally, yesterday, the administration fired Lieutenant General Kiley, the Army Surgeon General and former head of Walter Reed.
On top of the fall guys, the administration has created numerous commissions to review the care of our injured troops and veterans.
Mr. President, while firing people who were involved in failures and creating panels to review problems are usually positive steps in the right direction, in my view, the administration's history, unfortunately, leads me to be fairly skeptical. For one, while Army Secretary Harvey, Lieutenant General Kiley, and Major General Weightman ignored for years the problems at Walter Reed, the buck stops with the President. As the White House spokesperson said a few weeks ago, the administration has been aware of this for some time.
Real accountability is not just finding fall guys; it is publicly owning up to failures and, even more important, changing course. Moreover, it is unlikely the panels are the solutions they seem to be. In the past 7 years, we have seen many recommendations from many commissions--including those from the 9/11 Commission and the Iraq Study Group--simply be ignored by the White House.
What good are fall guys and commissions if they produce no real change?
It is now undeniable that the administration has failed our troops and veterans. What is needed, and what these men and women deserve, are real solutions that will meet the needs from the battlefield to the VA and everywhere in between. Our forces in battle deserve adequate body and humvee armor, communications gear, and equipment to jam IEDs. What they don't need is another day in the field without those items.
Our injured heroes returning from Iraq deserve adequate mental care, treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, and they deserve less bureaucratic redtape. What they don't need is another report of the administration's failure to care for them or a White House media strategy to cover those failures.
Our veterans of Iraq deserve benefit checks to be mailed on time so they can provide for their families and are not forced into homelessness. What they don't need is another day without the benefits they deserve.
In the end, what all of our brave men and women need is an end to this administration's excuses. Democrats know what our troops deserve. We know they deserve a Congress that will not hide this administration's mistakes and will, instead, provide solutions. Lastly, Democrats took steps toward that goal.
The HEROES, Honoring and Ensuring Respect for Our Exceptional Soldiers, plan will ensure that our service members no longer fall through the cracks and fail to receive the treatment they deserve. It calls for increased oversight and coordination between the various committees overseeing our troops and our veterans. This effort is especially important because so many of us know the problems at Walter Reed are not unique. Instead, I fear much of the health care system for our troops is broken because we failed to do our job. From poor facilities to long waiting lines to overwhelming redtape, the system is failing our troops.
We need a comprehensive look at this problem and we need comprehensive solutions. Our troops and our families deserve no less.
Mr. President, I was stunned over the weekend to see that some of these brave men and women who have been injured in Iraq are now facing the indignity of being sent back before being cleared for duty.
According to a Salon.com article from March 11, several dozen injured soldiers at Fort Benning, GA, are being sent back to Iraq as part of the President's escalation plan. Those soldiers, the article tells us, have various medical problems that should prevent them from returning to battle. But the President is sending them anyway.
Let me quote directly from the article:
As the military scrambles to pour more soldiers into Iraq, a unit of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, GA, is deploying troops with serious injuries and other medical problems, including GIs who doctors have said are medically unfit for battle. Some are too injured to wear their body armor, according to medical records.
On February 15, Master Sgt. Jenkins and 74 other soldiers with medical conditions from the 3rd Division's 3rd Brigade were summoned to a meeting with the division surgeon and brigade surgeon. These are the men responsible for handling each soldier's ``physical profile,'' an Army document that lists for commanders an injured soldier's physical limitations because of medical problems--from being unable to fire a weapon to the inability to move and dive in three-to-five second increments to avoid enemy fire. Jenkins and other soldiers claim that the division and brigade surgeons summarily downgraded soldiers' profiles, without even a medical exam, in order to deploy them to Iraq. It is a claim division officials deny.
Mr. President, that report is very disconcerting. If it is true, it represents a new outrage and yet another example of how the administration's failure to plan for the war is being taken out on our brave women and men. MSG Ronald Jenkins, who is one of the soldiers who told Salon he was ordered to Iraq even though he has a spine problem that doctors say would be damaged by Army protective gear, said:
This is not right. This whole thing is about taking care of soldiers. If you are fit to fight, you are fit to fight. If you are not fit to fight, then you are not fit to fight.
I could not agree with Master Sergeant Jenkins more. This whole thing--the war, the buildup, the aftermath--must be about taking care of our soldiers.
Mr. President, far too frequently, taking care of our soldiers has been little more than an afterthought for this administration. Unfortunately, the list of failures we see goes on and on. Stories emerge every single day and, still, with this war, set to enter on Monday its fifth year, this administration has failed to make caring for our troops a top priority.
There has been more than enough time to address problems facing our troops. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the administration has failed our Armed Forces.
Mr. President, the administration and Republicans in Congress owe our troops, their families, and our veterans a lot more.
I am not going to sit idly by and wait for them to act, and I am not going to wait for another commission. I am going to continue to be out here on almost a daily basis to talk about it, to fight for our troops, for our veterans, and their families. They deserve nothing less.
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