Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, And Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010--Continued

Floor Speech

MILITARY CONSTRUCTION, VETERANS AFFAIRS, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2010--Continued -- (Senate - November 10, 2009)

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, this week, thousands of families across our country are stopping to honor the memory of those who have served for us because of Veterans Day tomorrow and to thank them for all they have done to protect and defend our country. It is a time when many American families are watching what is unfolding at Fort Hood this week. It is a time in my State where today we are having a memorial service at Fort Lewis honoring seven soldiers who lost their lives a few days ago in Afghanistan. Our hearts and condolences go out to those families who have suffered the ultimate loss, especially at this time when everyone is recognizing the tremendous sacrifice so many people have given.

As a Senator from a State with a very large military presence and communities that are heavily populated with the men and women who dedicate their lives to protecting our country, I was particularly saddened by the senseless violence that ripped through our Nation's largest active-duty base last Thursday. As anyone who has ever spent time on a U.S. military base knows well, those are some of our most safe and compassionate communities in the entire country. They are places where a young family plants roots and raises a child and establishes a life for themselves. They are a place where military spouses form bonds that they carry with them throughout their deployments. They are a place where neighbors always lend a hand to those in need. I have seen that firsthand at places such as Fort Lewis Army Base in Tacoma and Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane. I know the pain of the loss of those 13 public servants extends to everyone at Fort Hood and to the U.S. military community as a whole.

I wish to make special mention today of Michael Grant Cahill who came from Spokane, WA. He was the lone civilian killed in that attack. He was a physician's assistant who worked in rural clinics and veterans hospitals, places where our veterans desperately need care and we desperately need workers. At the time of his death, he was only 4 years from retirement. In an interview with the Spokesman-Review newspaper a day after her father was killed, Cahill's daughter Keely told the paper that her dad was ``a wonderful person, that he loved his job and loved working with people and helping them with their physical needs.''

My thoughts and prayers are with Keely and the family members of all those who died or were wounded and the U.S. military families who are still reeling from this tragedy.

To the families who have lost soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan recently, especially those having military services today in my home State of Washington at Fort Lewis as well as many others, I want them to know that we know we are their voice and we need to stand up for them. As we all know, Veterans Day tomorrow is a day we celebrate and honor the great sacrifices all veterans have made. It is because of their sacrifice that we can safely enjoy the freedoms our country offers. It is because of their unmatched commitment that America can remain a beacon for democracy and freedom throughout the world.

Growing up I saw firsthand the many ways military service can affect both veterans and their families. My father served in World War II. He was among the first soldiers to land in Okinawa. He came home as a disabled veteran and was awarded the Purple Heart. Like many soldiers of my dad's generation, he didn't talk about his experiences during the war. In fact, we only learned about what he did and his heroism when he passed away, and we found his journals and read them. I think that experience offers a larger lesson about veterans in general. They are very reluctant to call attention to their service, and they are reluctant to ask for help. That is why we have to publicly recognize their sacrifices and contributions. It is up to all of us to make sure they get the recognition they have earned and, by the way, not only on Veterans Day. Our veterans held up their end of the deal. We have to hold up ours.

Veterans Day must not only be a day of remembrance, it must also be a day of reflection. It is a chance for all of us to reflect on our own responsibilities to our Nation's veterans. It is a chance to look at what we can do to make sure we are keeping the promise we made to our men and women when they signed up to serve. It is a chance to take stock of where care and benefits have fallen short, where new needs are emerging, and how we can make it easier for veterans to get the care and benefits they deserve.

It is appropriate that on the eve of this very important day, Veterans Day, we are working to pass a bill that takes a hard look at many of the challenges facing veterans and their families. It is a bill that is the product of collaboration with veterans, their families, caregivers, and scores of veterans service organizations.

As a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, I am aware we have a lot of work to do for the men and women who serve our country. Not only must we continually strive to keep up our commitment to veterans from all wars, but we also have to respond to the new and different issues facing veterans who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, wars that are being fought under conditions that are very different from those of the past. That is precisely what the caregiver and veterans omnibus health bill seeks to do.

One of the changes we have seen in our veterans population recently is the growing number of women veterans who are seeking care at the VA. Today more women are serving in the military than ever before. Over the next 5 years, the amount of women seeking care at the VA is expected to double. Not only are women answering the call to serve at unprecedented levels, they are also often serving in a very different capacity. In Iraq and Afghanistan, we have seen wars that don't have traditional front lines. All of our servicemembers, including women, find themselves on the front lines. Whether it is working at a checkpoint or helping to search and clear neighborhoods or supporting supply convoys, women servicemembers face many of the same risks from IEDs and ambushes as their male counterparts. But while the nature of their service has changed in these conflicts, the VA has been very slow to change the nature of the care they provide when these women return home.

Today at the VA there is an insufficient number of doctors and staff with specific training and experience in women's health issues. Even the VA's own internal studies have shown that women veterans are underserved. That is why we included in the veterans health bill a bill I have introduced and worked on that will enable the VA to better understand and ultimately treat the unique needs of female veterans. The bill authorizes a number of new programs and studies, including a comprehensive look at the barriers women currently face when they try to get care at the VA. It includes a study of women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan to assess how those conflicts affected their health. It includes a requirement that the VA implement a program to train and educate and certify VA mental health professionals to care for women with sexual trauma and a pilot program that provides childcare to women veterans who seek mental health care services at the VA because, as we know, women will choose to take care of their kids before they take care of themselves. I believe we need to provide that childcare so those women get the care they need.

This bill I am talking about is the result of many discussions with women veterans on the unique and very personal problems they face when they return home from war. Oftentimes, when I hold veterans meetings in my State, the men who are there speak up and talk to me about some of the barriers they face, and it is not until the meeting closes and everybody is going out the door that the women come up to me and speak silently and as quietly as they can in my ear about the barriers they face. Some of these women have told me they did not even view themselves as a veteran and therefore did not even think of seeking care at the VA. Oftentimes, they have told me they lack privacy at their local VA or they felt intimidated when they walked in the doors. They have told me about being forced into a caregiving role that prevented them from even asking for care because they had to struggle to find a babysitter in order to keep an appointment. They should not have to speak quietly into my ear at the end of a meeting. They have served our country honorably. We should move this women veterans health bill so they get the care they support.

To me and to the bipartisan group of Senators who cosponsored the women veterans bill, these barriers to care they face are unacceptable. So as we now have more women transitioning back home and stepping back into their careers and their lives as mothers and wives, this VA has to be there for them. So this bill in the omnibus bill in front of us will help the VA to modernize to meet those needs.

Another way this bill meets the changing needs of our veterans is in the area of assisting caregivers in the home.

As we have seen in Iraq and Afghanistan, medical advances have helped save the lives of many of our servicemembers who in previous conflicts would have perished from the severity of their wounds. But these medical miracles mean that many of those who have been catastrophically wounded now need round-the-clock care when they come home.

In many of our rural areas, where access to health care services is very limited, the burden of providing that care often--and most often--falls on the family of that severely injured veteran. For those family members who are providing care to their loved ones, it now becomes a full-time job for them. They often, I have been told, have to quit their current jobs--forfeiting not only their source of income but also their own health care insurance at the same time. It is a sacrifice that is far too great, especially for families who have already sacrificed so much.

So this underlying omnibus bill we are trying to bring forward provides caregivers with health care and counseling and support and, importantly, a stipend so they can take care of their loved ones when they come home.

This bill also takes steps to provide dental insurance to veterans and survivors and their dependents and improves mental health care services and eases the transition from Active Duty to civilian life. It expands outreach and technology so we can provide better care for veterans in our rural areas. And it initiates three programs to address homelessness among veterans, which is especially troubling during these economic times.

This is a bill that is supported by numerous veterans service organizations and the VA. It is supported by many leading medical groups. It was passed in our Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee with broad bipartisan support after hearings with health care experts and VA officials and veterans and, importantly, their families.

Like other omnibus veterans health care bills before it--bills that have often been passed on this floor with overwhelming support--it puts veterans before politics. It is a bipartisan bill designed to move swiftly so its programs can be implemented swiftly. It is a bipartisan bill that is designed to make sure our veterans do not become political pawns. Yet here we are today facing delays.

The fact that this bill is now being held hostage by ideology is both a disservice to our veterans and a troubling precedent for our future efforts to meet their needs. Providing for our veterans used to be an area where political affiliation fell by the wayside. But today, because of an effort to score political points on issues that are far removed from the struggles of families who are delivering care to their loved ones with injuries or women veterans who are returning home to an unprepared VA or the mounting toll of this economy on homeless veterans, we are faced with delay on the floor. For our Nation's veterans, it is a delay they cannot afford. Our aging veterans and the brave men and women who are currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan need our help now. And how we treat them at this critical time will send a signal to a generation of young people who might now be sitting at home considering whether they want to go into the military.

It is imperative that we keep our promise to our veterans--the same promise Abraham Lincoln made to America's veterans 140 years ago--``to care for the veteran who has borne the battle, his widow and his orphan.''

Our veterans have waited long enough for many of the improvements in this bill. We should not ask them to wait any longer. So I urge our colleague to withdraw his objection to consideration of this bill and to let us move it quickly through the Senate so the families and the servicemembers who are waiting for its passage--whether it is a family taking care of a veteran who has been seriously injured or a woman veteran or anyone who has served our country--can know we stand behind them when they serve our country.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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