OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Providing for Consideration of H.R. 1268, Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, 2005

Date: March 15, 2005
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Defense


PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 1268, EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT FOR DEFENSE, THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR, AND TSUNAMI RELIEF, 2005 -- (House of Representatives - March 15, 2005)

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the rule, but because it is important to get our troops in the field the equipment that they need I will support the supplemental legislation that also includes desperately needed aid to Sudan and the victims of the tsunami and provides economic development funding for projects in Palestinian controlled areas of the West Bank.

Yet I remain concerned that the legislation provides no funding for immediate mental health needs of our troops. The House is not even being given a chance to consider an amendment that I wanted to offer that would have added $263 million in DOD and VA funding for this issue. This at a time when the Army tells us that as many as one in six returning soldiers suffer from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. If that is not an emergency, then I do not know what is.

Providing badly needed funding for the Defense Department to improve its training programs for military families on the detection of mental health problems in service members returning from combat is an issue this committee agreed the Defense Department should consider in the 2005 Defense appropriations bill. As such, this amendment would have increased by 20 percent our spending on specialized PTSD programs within the DOD, within the Veterans Administration, and go to treating the symptoms of PTSD such as substance abuse and homelessness. It would have embraced new technology in the Veterans Administration, promoted the use of private sector mental health professionals and students to be able to reach more troops and their families, especially in rural and underserved areas.

More than 500 soldiers have been evacuated from Iraq for mental health reasons since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom. We know the damage PTSD can do away from the battlefield, ruining families, causing alcoholism, drug abuse, and homelessness. Our men and women in uniform deserve a better homecoming than that.

Let us do the right thing for our troops, address this issue soon, and give our soldiers the mental health services that they have earned.

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