Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I rise to discuss my growing concern about the effects of our actions--or in this case inaction--in Washington on our military families and veterans in Virginia. As we all know, the Senate and House passed the Bipartisan Budget Act last month, which hopefully will be a first step toward getting us back on the right track toward a functioning Congress. But I was disappointed--and I know many of my colleagues were disappointed--that in that legislation was included a reduction in military pension cost-of-living adjustments for retired and medically retired servicemembers. Our service men and women deserve much better than seeing their pensions arbitrarily cut by lawmakers in Washington. What was particularly disappointing was that this action singled out our military families and veterans disproportionately.

Yesterday evening, the appropriations committees released their 2014 budget. I was pleased their omnibus budget proposal repeals the COLA cuts for a portion of those military families--for those disabled military retirees who are medically retired and for survivors of military retirees who elected to pay survivor benefit annuities to take care of their families after their deaths. This is progress. But I hope we can finish the job and pass an amendment I have been working on with Senators Shaheen and McCain and a series of other proposals to make sure we fully roll back this unfair cut to our military families and veterans.

We know over the last two decades our military has fought two wars. Their families have made unprecedented sacrifices. Unfortunately, this sacrifice was again brought home last week when a Navy MH-53E helicopter crashed off the coast of Virginia Beach. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the missing and fallen: LT Sean Christopher Snyder, LT Wesley Van Dorn, and Navy Aircrewman Brian Andrew Collins.

Virginia is home to one of the Nation's largest concentrations of Active-Duty and retired military personnel. I consider it an honor and a privilege to represent them in Congress. So while we are shutting down government and signing short-term CRs, the pensions of our service men and women are being unfairly singled out. This isn't right, this isn't fair, and my hope is that today and over the next few days we will fully correct the mistake we made in the Budget Act last month.

In my time in the Senate, working for our military families and veterans has been one of my top priorities. I am proud I have relentlessly worked across the aisle on this issue. I would like to point out one particular action where we have made dramatic progress.

I have worked with the Puller Clinic at William & Mary Law School in Hampton Roads to develop a model for veterans legal clinics to help solve the Nation's backlog of veterans' benefits claims. To my mind it is an embarrassment that our veterans sometimes have to wait for over 1 year to get their claims processed to receive the benefits they have already earned.

Working with the William & Mary Puller Law Clinic, we got the VA to accept this model and to be certified by the VA to become the first law school in the country to be able to complete fully developed claims. Now 19 universities in Virginia are committed to serving veterans and more than 15 law schools across the country have adopted the William & Mary model.

The incredible thing about this project--and we often use the term ``win-win-win''--is this truly is a win-win-win. It is a win for the taxpayers because there are no taxpayer funds involved, it is a win for our veterans who are able to get their claims processed in a more rapid and expeditious manner, and it is a win for the law students who gain valuable experience in both dealing with a large Federal agency--the VA--but, more importantly, being able to help one-on-one veterans who deserve to get their benefits.

I have also worked with my friends and former Virginia colleague Jim Webb to draft legislation for a complete comprehensive look at military compensation and retirement. We have worked with Chairman Levin as well, and this Commission will be reporting later this year. I look forward to the results because we do have to recognize our overall compensation and benefits packages need an overall review. I believe this Commission will make strong recommendations on how we can both modernize and achieve fiscal stability for our military.

I am proud of the work I have done on veterans' issues in terms of the Puller Clinic, in terms of the overall look at the military compensation package as part of an effort to make sure we honor our commitment to our military. But as we honor that commitment to our military, we have to recognize as well that threats to our Nation are not just those posed by outside forces but also the continuing threat of our increasing debt and deficit. I often like to cite former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mullen, who said the single largest threat to our Nation was not the threat of terrorists but the threat of that $17 trillion debt and deficit, which goes up by over $4 billion a night--a debt burden that may weigh down our ability to compete in the future.

I continue to come to the floor--not always successfully--to suggest to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle that we cannot continue to punt on this issue; that, ultimately, both political parties are going to have to give. We are going to have to find ways to generate additional revenues through a comprehensive reform of our Tax Code. We are going to have to find a way to make sure that not only the promise of military pensions and benefits but also the promise of Social Security and Medicare will be here for future generations. That means both political parties will have to be willing to give on their sacred cows.

We have to make sure as well, if we put together this comprehensive approach on debt and deficit, that it will provide the kind of financial stability to our military families, making sure those pensions, benefits, and other kinds of compensation packages will be there for themselves and for future people who serve. But that is for a future battle. Right now we have to finish the work the Appropriations Committee started on getting rid of this unfair attack on the military COLAs that was included in the Budget Act.

I hope my colleagues will join my friends, Senator Kaine and Senator Shaheen and others, to replace the cuts to the military COLAs. The approach we have taken would do this by closing a tax loophole that allows some corporations to actually avoid paying their fair share of taxes. There may be other alternatives as well. I will look at any that are fair and reasonable and make sure our military families don't get singled out.

Virginians have served with honor in our military for generations, and I want to assure our service men and women there is ample time to undo these changes before they take effect. I would remind those who are listening this decrease in the COLA doesn't actually take place until next year, so we still have time to rectify this.

I promise to continue using every tool I can to fight these unfair pension cuts and to make sure the promises we have made to our military families and these retirees gets honored.

With that, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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