Providing for Consideration of H.R. 3159, Ensuring Military Readiness Through Stability and Predictability Deployment Policy Act of 2007

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. I thank the distinguished chairwoman of the Rules Committee for yielding me the time.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3159 is a very straightforward bill with a very straightforward message. Like its name implies, this is a bill to ensure that our military is ready to carry out combat and combat-related missions by having a stable, predictable deployment policy.

H.R. 3159 would require that our uniformed men and women, our military units, receive minimum periods of rest and recuperation between their deployments to Iraq. We have been hearing for over a year now about the strain on our active duty, Reserve and Guard units caused by multiple redeployments to Iraq and the ever-shrinking time at home provided by many units between deployments.

So why did this legislation work its way through the Armed Services Committee at this time? There is a very simple reason, Mr. Speaker, why this bill is so timely now. On May 9, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced a change to deployment policy. Secretary Gates changed the current policy for active Army units from 1 year at home for 1 year deployed to a policy of 15 months deployed for every 12 months at home.

Mr. Speaker, this is a change that is moving in the wrong direction. Rather than taking care of our troops, this change increases the stress and strain on our servicemen and servicewomen. This change has raised serious concerns about the sustainability and readiness of our active duty Army and whether such a reduced period at their home bases allows sufficient time for units and individuals to adequately train, equip, recover and reconstitute for the next deployment.

If anyone in this Chamber is not concerned about the physical, mental, emotional and logistical strain placed on every combat unit and individual subject to multiple deployments to Iraq, then I hope they will stand up during this debate.

We hear a lot of talk in this House about ``supporting the troops.'' Only a handful of Members in this body have had to lay it on the line in Iraq. Only a handful had to bid their families farewell and face combat in Iraq.

For the rest of us, there is no sacrifice, no strain, no stress placed on us personally or on our families and loved ones.

Well, here is our chance to show that we genuinely do understand what we have been asking our troops to do in Iraq, that we genuinely do understand the toll that it takes on each of them individually, as a unit and as a service, that we genuinely do understand the sacrifice that we ask of their families, and that we will require the Pentagon to provide our uniformed men and women a minimum amount of time to recover from combat to reconnect with their families and to prepare again for a return to battle.

There are some in this Chamber who will yelp and yowl that this is just a ploy to end the war.

Mr. Speaker, as someone who is clearly on record as wanting to end this war as quickly as humanly possible, I can testify that this is not the case.

I opposed this war with every fiber of my being, but I strongly believe that for as long as this war endures, the bare minimum this Congress must do is take care of the troops who carry out this mission and make sure this war does not shatter our military from the strain of multiple deployments.

I urge my colleagues to support the rule and the underlying bill.

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