Taking Care of America's Veterans

Floor Speech

TAKING CARE OF AMERICA'S VETERANS -- (House of Representatives - October 17, 2007)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, tonight I would like to discuss briefly another case of one of our very valiant soldiers who has returned to Ohio and numbers himself among the walking wounded.

My question to the President of the United States, my question to Members of this Congress, is what is wrong with the government of this country when we cannot move the bill we passed in this House that increased veterans spending by 18 percent, get it through the other body and to the President of the United States to sign? What is wrong with the way we govern that the President of the United States cannot call the leader of the other body and say, ``Move the bill so we can take care of the over 100,000 wounded that are coming home to us''?

The soldier I would like to talk about is only one of many that I met last Sunday who returned home from Iraq and is not being treated. This is a soldier who saw duty as a member of the 983rd Army Engineering Battalion, Combat, Heavy Duty, in Iraq, saw conflict, came home wounded, and is not getting treatment.

Here is what happened. There was an accident involving a truck and IEDs over there in Iraq and this particular soldier had a severe spinal cord injury and injuries to his head. In addition to that, since returning home, has had grand mal seizures, epileptic seizures. He never had that before he went to Iraq.

The military said, ``There is something wrong with him. We will give him a 60 percent disability. But we won't give him 100 percent disability, because maybe he got those injuries from playing football in high school.'' Football in high school? He never had seizures until he went to Iraq and got injured.

So the military says, ``Well, we will try to fix your neck.'' He goes through an operation in a hospital several hours away. It is very difficult for him to return there, because he doesn't have regular employment at this time and he is dealing with PTSD on top of everything else.

Now, why doesn't the government of the United States make it easy for wounded veterans, and we are not talking about 25 million people, we are talking about somewhere between 100,000 and 150,000 Americans to get cared for closest to home? Why can't we do that? Why can't the President of the United States, he is Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces, and this Congress, work together in the national interest to take care of all the soldiers that are coming home to us wounded?

In that particular unit that I visited on Sunday, there are many, many, many, many servicemembers who have PTSD. Why are they being asked to go 2 1/2 hours away from home, spend an entire day waiting in line at a hospital, and then maybe coming back home again and wasting a day when they don't get paid at work, if they have a job? Why can't we take care of them close to home? We are not talking about 25 million people. We are talking about a very discrete set of Americans who put their lives on the line for us, and yet we can't find a way to care for them?

I hope the President of the United States has somebody listening to this tonight, because as Commander-in-Chief, it would be very easy to call over to that other body and to move our Department of Veterans Affairs bill out of this Congress, up Pennsylvania Avenue, get it signed, and with dispatch get the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Veterans Affairs and say, ``Work with the Congress. Work with the individuals who are here. Let's get these ill veterans to the care they need.''

Why do we make it so hard? Why do we put the burden on the veteran? I had one veteran come up to me and say, ``Congresswoman, my knee is all messed up. I had an accident over there. Why did the DOD discharge me before fixing my knee?'' Now he has got to take weeks and weeks off of work, which he is unwilling to do, to try and go get an operation at a hospital very far from where he lives, and he doesn't have a support system in place.

Why would we do that? Why would the DOD not find a way to take a valorous veteran who is part of a combat engineering battalion and take care of him? Why do we let him fall between the cracks between the DOD and the VA? It is our responsibilities and the President's responsibility to care for these veterans, and we had best get at it.

Source