U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health, And Iraq Accountability Act, 2007
Floor Speech
U.S. TROOP READINESS, VETERANS' HEALTH, AND IRAQ ACCOUNTABILITY ACT, 2007 -- (Senate - March 28, 2007)
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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, a few moments ago the Senator from Idaho came to the floor to talk about an amendment he had regarding the language in the underlying bill covering veterans and he described it as ``too prescriptive.'' I think it is imperative that we keep the language the way it is written.
For 4 years, the Bush administration has conducted this war with very little regard for the tremendous strain it is putting on the VA and it is putting on veterans and their families. Last month we saw this horrible reality exposed at Walter Reed. So today, in this supplemental bill, we are helping to put an end to that neglect. We are not going to wait for the President to fix these problems. We have waited too long. We are facing the cost of war in the supplemental, and we are putting the money where it is needed.
This supplemental does include $1.7 billion for veterans health funding. We put this money in because this administration has fallen short in meeting the needs of our returning veterans. The supplemental does direct the VA to prescriptively put in $50 million for new polytrauma centers, as we have learned of the traumatic brain injury impact to many soldiers and their families. It does direct $100 million for mental health care, because we know more than a third of our soldiers who are returning home are suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome and too often are being turned away for care. It does include $201 million to treat these recently returning veterans, because we know they are waiting in line and cannot get their benefits, and too many of them today are ending up homeless simply because they can't get the check they need to be able to pay for basic costs for themselves.
It does include $30 million for research on the best prosthetics for amputees. We were at the VA hearing a few days ago and heard from a wonderful woman, Tammy Duckworth, talking about our veterans today who are coming back who need prosthetics, not just to be able to walk but to be able to ski or to be able to rock climb. Those are the kinds of prosthetics that take a great deal of training. We want to make sure those young men and women who are coming back today who have lost limbs have the best prosthetics available for what they need in their lives. It does include $870 million to fix those problems that were uncovered at the VA facilities across the country, not just at Walter Reed, but for tiles falling off ceilings, bats that haven't been eliminated in Oregon, facilities that have peeling paint at care facilities that would not be accepted by any of us in this country. It does include $46 million to hire new claims processors so our veterans don't have to wait for their benefits.
Why are we being so prescriptive? Well, we are here today because we have seen the VA not spend the dollars wisely, to move the dollars around in different accounts to cover the lack of funding they have needed, and we are going to make sure in this bill we take care of the needs we have heard so vividly about from so many men and women who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan and around the globe, and who are facing long lines, who aren't getting the mental health care they need, who need access to care for traumatic brain injuries, the signature injury of this war, and we are going to make sure we hold this administration accountable by finally being prescriptive so it is spent wisely.
I reject the Senator from Idaho's arguments on our amendment, and I think we have wisely held the administration and ourselves accountable to make sure the men and women who have served us so well are treated with respect when they come home.
Mr. President, we have a number of amendments we are going to go through at this time. I believe we are ready to accept them. I ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment.
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