The Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act--Motion to Proceed--Continued

Floor Speech

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise today to urge my colleagues to join me in passing a critical bill that keeps the faith with the men and women of our Reserve Forces.

Representative Kline, a Republican Congressman from Minnesota, has led this effort in the House. I am leading it in the Senate. It affects troops from all over the country, a promise that was made to them that must be kept.

My home State of Minnesota has no large Active-Duty bases, but we have a long and proud tradition of military service in our National Guard and our Reserves.

Throughout every military engagement since the Civil War--including the two wars we have fought over the past decade--Minnesota's National Guard members and reservists have served with courage and honor to defend our Nation overseas.

In fact, it was a ragtag group of workers and farmers who signed up for the precursor of the National Guard during the Civil War, who went to the Battle of Gettysburg and had the highest percentage of casualties of any unit in the Civil War. There is a big monument for them honoring the fact that they had that high rate of casualties. In fact, they held the line for troops to come in in the Civil War.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have highlighted the importance of our brave citizen soldiers across the country and the unprecedented sacrifice they have been called upon to make. The National Guard and Reserves were not built to serve as an active-duty force for prolonged periods. Yet at times as many as 40 percent of the American forces fighting

in these wars have been Guard and Reserve troops. I say to the Presiding Officer, I know you know that, being from Vermont, where you have many National Guard troops who have served our country.

Just last month, about 3,000 members of Minnesota's National Guard First Brigade Combat Team--our Red Bulls--returned home from a year of service in Kuwait assisting the drawdown in Iraq. Some of these men and women were not serving for their first, second, or third time. I met these soldiers. Some of them were serving for their fourth time, for their fifth time, some even for their sixth time.

The repeated mobilizations and overseas deployments of Guard and Reserve units have profoundly affected families and communities in Minnesota and across the Nation. That is part of the reason we pushed so hard to bring those troops home from Iraq. That is also why, in 2007, in recognition of the extraordinary sacrifices our servicemembers and their families have made, the Department of Defense created the Post Deployment/Mobilization Respite Absence--or PDMRA, as it is called--Program.

The PDMRA Program awards extra leave days to servicemembers who deploy beyond the standard rotation cycle. The motivation is simple: Troops who serve multiple deployments above and beyond the call of duty--who are basically being deployed as Active Duty even though they are not; folks who have raised their hands and stepped forward time and time again to volunteer and support our country--deserve leave time at home with their families as some compensation.

When they signed up to serve, there was not a waiting line. When they come home to the United States of America and they need a job or they need health care or they need an education or they want some time with their families, they should have that.

Well, one can imagine the concern the Red Bulls felt and I felt too when we learned all of a sudden the leave benefits our troops were promised under the program were being reduced as they were serving overseas. They were promised one thing when they left, and the program changed when they were gone.

Here is what happened. Until last fall, members of the Reserve Component who served more than 1 year out of 6 could be awarded up to 4 extra PDMRA leave days for each extra month of service. Then on September 30, 2011, the Defense Department changed the policy, reducing the 4 days down to 1 or 2, depending on the location of service.

But here is the problem: Instead of grandfathering in the troops who had been promised the 4 days of leave under the old policy, the Defense Department implemented the change immediately, applying it to all troops on the ground.

I can understand having a new policy, I really can. But do not do it to the troops who have already been promised one thing. That meant in the middle of their deployment, 49,000 reservists deployed around the world, who had been promised up to 4 days of leave for their service each month and who had earned that leave, were told, with little warning, that the days they were promised under the PDMRA Program were going to be cut, starting October 1, 2011.

Well, as you can imagine, this was a real setback for our troops, and for many reasons. First of all, it means they would get less time at home with their families, whom they have not seen--their kids, their spouses, their parents.

Second, it means our troops and their families are forced to cope with unexpected financial challenges as their leave benefits are cut without warning.

Finally, the change has meant that our reservists--who, unlike the Active Component, do not necessarily have a job to come back to when they separate from duty--are faced with an increased and unexpected urgency to find employment.

Well, our economy is on the mend, it is stable, but we are still seeing, as the Presiding Officer knows, record numbers of unemployment among our veterans of the past two wars. Now is not the time to cut the leave benefits of people who have been promised the leave and push them out to find their own way.

When the men and women of our armed services signed up, they did it for the right reasons. They are patriotic. They put their lives on the line for our country. The least we can do is keep the promises we made.

That is why my colleague in the House of Representatives, Congressman John Kline--himself a decorated veteran--and I introduced legislation that makes a simple fix to this program.

Our bill does not reverse the new policy change that the Department heads made after careful review of the program. Our bill simply grandfathers troops deployed under the old policy so they receive the leave benefits they were promised.

I want to take a few moments to share just a few key points about this bill.

First, it has bipartisan support in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. In fact, it passed in the House on Tuesday night with the support of all Representatives.

Second, the cost of this bill is fully offset. No new spending is created in this bill.

Finally, this bill is now supported by Secretary Panetta himself. It is supported by the Department of Defense, after they realized what the effect of this policy would have if troops were not grandfathered in.

This is a country that believes in patriotism, and patriotism means wrapping our arms around those who have served and sacrificed for our country. I
think all of my colleagues here today agree that nobody needs and deserves our support more than the men and women who have offered their lives in defense of our Nation.

For 10 years, the men and women of our National Guard and Reserves have done their duty. Now I believe it is for us in Congress to do our own duty to make sure our troops receive the benefits they are due.

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