Veterans Jobs Corps Act of 2012--Motion to Proceed
Floor Speech
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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, it is difficult to come to the floor of the Senate on this anniversary of 9/11 and not reflect on your own experience. I was in the same room as the majority leader, Harry Reid, just a few steps from the Senate Chamber when we witnessed the second plane on television crashing into the World Trade Center and realized it was no accident, and then the black smoke billowing over the Mall from the Pentagon suggested we were under attack.
As we evacuated this building and rushed outside, standing, the crowd around, not knowing which way to turn, was looking for a safe place to go. No one knew. Some tourists came up to me and said: We are new here. Where are we supposed to go next?
There was no place to tell them to go. We knew Union Station was nearby and the Metro station not far away, but there was no other place to turn.
I might add parenthetically that the decision was made shortly thereafter to build the Visitor Center. It took us years to do it. It is an underground facility which is safe and I am glad we have it. It has been used every single day and is an important addition to the Capitol.
President George W. Bush faced that extraordinary challenge as Commander in Chief and President of the United States to deal with 9/11. There were some aspects of his response which I may have disagreed with, but I certainly commend him still for his leadership in that anxious moment after the tragedy of 9/11. I especially wish to thank him and commend him for reminding us time and time again when he was President that our enemies are not the people of the Islamic religion nor those of the Sikh religion; our enemies are those who corrupt religion in the name of terrorism.
Many people of the Muslim faith in America--good, patriotic Americans--face discrimination simply because those who were perpetrators of 9/11 claim to have shared that religion. It is a good day to be reminded of the thoughtful leadership of George W. Bush in telling us our enemy is not Islam; our enemies are those who corrupt the religion in the name of terrorism.
I also received a note over August from two friends of mine who live in New Bern, NC, Ed and Beth Edmundson. I met them several years ago in Chicago when their son Eric, who is a veteran of the U.S. Army and served in Iraq, was hospitalized in that city. What a story. Eric Edmundson had been serving our country and was injured. During the course of his injuries and subsequent treatment, he became quadriplegic. After months and months of effort, the Veterans' Administration basically told his family there was no place to turn. They said to his father: You are going to have to buy him a wheelchair and find a place for him in a nursing home facility. Eric was a young man, obviously, and married with a little baby at home. His dad and mom showed the kind of courage and love which touches our hearts.
Ed Edmundson said: My son, in his twenties, is not going into a nursing home. I will not let it happen. I am going to find a place that will treat him.
He ended up finding on his own the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, which is one of the best hospitals in the world. Eric was a patient there, going through rehabilitation from his injuries he suffered in Iraq. That is when I met his parents. They invited me to come see him. I did, and I promised I would return. I did a few weeks later just to visit, and they said: Eric has a gift for you. Eric, who would smile but didn't speak, was sitting in his wheelchair. His father and mother came over to his side, each grabbed an elbow, stood him up, and Eric took three steps. It was an amazing, emotional moment without a dry eye in that hospital room. They put him back in his wheelchair and his dad said: My son is going to walk out of this hospital in his full dress uniform. He said: Can you make it? We would like to have you there. I said: I wouldn't miss it. Many of us were there. The mayor of the city of Chicago, many elected officials, and all the news cameras were there to watch this heroic young man walk out of the Rehab Institute of Chicago--just a few steps--but in his full dress uniform with a smile on his face. He went home to New Bern, NC. His father literally left his business, the father and mother moved in with Eric, his wife, and baby and tried to make a life for him. The wonderful organizations and people in that community built a home that was wheelchair accessible for the whole family. I went to visit him there in North Carolina. They were taking Eric hunting. He was involved in many things in rehabilitation. They sent a card, a family card with pictures of all of them, and it is a joy to see it.
One of the last things Eric's father asked me to do was to look at a piece of legislation Hillary Clinton introduced but was not passed. It was called the Caregivers Act. The Caregivers Act said if a disabled veteran comes home and has the loving care of a member of the family and can stay home, we should try to help that member of the family by providing them with the training they need to take care of their disabled vet at home, give them a respite with visiting nurses or people from the VA so they can have some time to themselves, and if there is an economic hardship on the family, give them a monthly stipend so they can continue in their home.
I called Senator Clinton and asked her if I could take up the bill now that she was off to the State Department. She said: Please do. I did. Thanks to the great support of Senator Danny Akaka and Senator Pat Murray, we passed it. The Caregivers Act is now helping literally hundreds of family caregivers across the United States care for their disabled veteran at home. It is helping the Edmundson family and other families I have met in Illinois.
I tell that story because when we talk of the real cost of 9/11, it is not only the massive tragedy of the lives that were lost on that day and the families affected by those lives and those wonderful first responders who risked and gave their lives, but it is also the lives of the men and women in uniform who served us well, many of whom are carrying the scars of war for the rest of their lives--a lifetime--who still will always need our commitment and further devotion to make sure they are taken care of. The Edmundson family in North Carolina comes to mind immediately and so many others just like them as a reminder of what we need to do, the obligations we have as a government to the people who have served us so well in the military.
We have a bill that is coming up and I hope we can, in that same spirit, consider it on a bipartisan basis and pass it. It is an effort to give returning veterans a better chance to get a job. It is a disappointment--more than that, it is a disgrace--that many of these veterans come home and find themselves unemployed and sometimes even homeless. This Veterans Job Corps Act, which is coming before the Senate this afternoon, should pass with an overwhelming vote. This bill is fully paid for, and it is a bill Senator Murray has brought to the floor along with the leadership of Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, who has been especially dedicated to this proposal.
President Obama first mentioned it in his State of the Union Address. It includes several veterans employment initiatives such as the improved one-stop shop centers for job searching and smoother State certification and licensing. It authorizes $1 billion for the Veterans Job Corps over 5 years and $900 million to employ 20,000 veterans in conservation resource management, historic preservation projects and public lands, and $100 million for COPS and SAFER grants to hire veterans to serve in capacities as police and firemen. Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are given preference for all these positions.
The bill creates a pilot program to improve veteran job searches by providing veterans with access to the Internet and computers to assist them. It also provides military transition assistance programs to eligible veterans and their spouses at sites outside military installations to make it easier to find a job. Rather than the current uneven State-by-State approach, the bill requires all States, as a condition for receiving veteran employment and training funding, to consider military training and experience when granting State certifications and licensing.
How many times have we heard about this? I sure have. Someone who served in the military, driven vehicles, been involved in some technical capacity, and then they come out and have to start from scratch, all over again, in each of our States to qualify for certification for a good-paying job. Let's take into account that they have been trained by the best military in the world and give them credit for the experience and training they have in the military and this bill does that.
Also, the VA will ensure each State receives funding for at least one disabled veterans outreach program specialist and one local veterans unemployment representative for every 5,000 square miles. That is not too much. It is too little, frankly, but it is an important start.
This bill is paid for and it is a good bill. I hope we can pass it this afternoon in the spirit of 9/11, remembering, sadly, the victims who lost their lives that day and the first responders who gave everything they could give to try to save them; but also remembering those men and women, many of whom were inspired by 9/11 to enlist in our military, to risk their lives--and many gave their lives--over 6,500 to date. It is a reminder that we have an ongoing moral obligation to stand behind those veterans.
I might also add there is a lot of talk about the deficit and cutting spending, and I know that has to happen. I was on the Simpson-Bowles Commission and I understood that if we are going to bring our deficit under control, we have to cut spending, look to real entitlement reform, and raise revenue. If we don't do all three, then, frankly, we will not achieve our goal.
We have seen a budget proposed by the House Republican budget leader, Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the Republican nominee for Vice President, which, unfortunately, does not reach that goal because he preserves tax cuts for the highest income people in this country instead of asking for some sacrifice, some effort that they pay their fair share. He extends spending in the Department of Defense at beyond wartime levels, despite the fact that President Obama has successfully brought the war in Iraq to a close and is doing the same in Afghanistan. We can't do those two things and reach real deficit reduction in a meaningful way and in a timely way. Unfortunately, Congressman Ryan's budget does not pass the basic test of arithmetic.
When we consider important spending such as this veterans job corps bill, I hope we find ways to pay for them to offset, and that when we talk about deficit reduction, we never do it at the expense of our veterans and we never do it at the expense of our national security. I hope we do it honestly, acknowledging the fact that when it comes to the Pentagon, there are areas where we can save money and not compromise our security in any way whatsoever.
I thank the Presiding Officer for presiding at this historic moment. I will mention that at 11 o'clock the House and Senate Democrats and Republicans will gather on the east front for the commemoration of the 9/11 anniversary. We will be in session on the floor. I will be here asking for a moment of
silence as they will at the same time outside.
It is a somber day in Washington as we recall this great national tragedy, but it is a day of great hope because we saw how America responded on a bipartisan basis and the great people who stepped forward and showed such extraordinary acts of courage since that day.
I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, at this moment, the majority leader, Senator Harry Reid, and the Republican leader, Senator Mitch McConnell, are gathered on the east front steps of the U.S. Capitol along with Members of the House of Representatives. It is a bipartisan gathering to commemorate the 11th anniversary of the terrible tragedy of 9/11.
On that date the gathering was more spontaneous but reflected a feeling of unity, which all of us felt in light of that national tragedy. Toward the end of that gathering 11 years ago, Senator Barbara Mikulski suggested that Members sing ``God Bless America,'' and they did. Today, during the course of this ceremony, there will be a moment of silence, prayer, as well as the singing of ``God Bless America'' to celebrate the great effort that has been made by so many to keep America safe and to mourn the loss of those who lost their lives on 9/11.
We remember today all of those who were lost and all those who suffered in the terrorist attacks on America. In their honor may we work to keep alive that sense of unity we felt on that day, and may we do our best to serve the loved ones they left and the Nation they loved.
Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
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