Wounded Warrior Assistance Act of 2007

Floor Speech

WOUNDED WARRIOR ASSISTANCE ACT OF 2007

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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Like all of my colleagues, I was greatly disturbed by the conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center which were depicted in The Washington Post. Last week, I introduced H.R. 1580, the Wounded Warriors Joint Health Care Ombudsman Act. My legislation is intended to create a single point of reference for recovering servicemembers and their families to ensure they are receiving prompt responses and information to their questions.

The amendment that I am offering today is a modified version of my legislation, and it creates a Department of Defense-wide ombudsman office within the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The functions of the office are to provide policy guidance and oversight to each military department. Specifically, the office would develop policy guidance with respect to providing assistance to and answering questions from recovering servicemembers and their families on a variety of important issues.

The policy guidance developed by the ombudsman office should allow recovering servicemembers to get information on administrative processes, financial assistance, the transition to care from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the support services available upon the member's return home. Very important.

The office would also establish accountability standards for the military departments. These standards would cover issues such as creating and maintaining case files for specific questions received, as well as tracking the response for all such questions. The office would also set timeliness standards for responses.

Under my amendment, the office can also require each military department to submit status reports of actions taken to address individual concerns raised by the recovering servicemembers and their families.

In closing, Mr. Chairman, everyone agrees that our military servicemembers should receive the highest quality of care and services possible. As they recover from their injuries, our wounded warriors should not have to battle bureaucracy to get the care and benefits they have earned. It is important that the ombudsman office be an advocate for servicemembers during every phase of treatment and the evaluation process as well.

I urge my colleagues to support this important amendment. I would also like to thank Chairman Skelton and Ranking Member Duncan Hunter for their assistance.

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