Making Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for the Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 2014 -- Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

Mr. McCONNELL. America makes a promise to every man and woman who puts on the uniform. In exchange for their service, our country pledges they will be well trained, well equipped, and treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.

It is the least we can offer to the brave soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who put everything on the line so we can live in freedom. It is a solemn pact, and that is why the American people were so shocked to read some of the headlines we have seen over the past few months, headlines such as: ``Veterans languish and die on a VA hospital's secret list.'' Then, as the Obama administration tried to cover its tracks, a headline such as: ``Veterans Affairs spies, stonewalls on people investigating it.''

It is a national disgrace, ailing veterans being put off for months by a hospital system that should be rushing to their aid, and veterans dying while waiting for care.

According to the government's own report on these failures, we also know these problems were so systemic that they spread to more than three-quarters of the VA facilities surveyed, literally to every corner of the country, including Kentucky.

Kentuckians heard shocking news stories such as the one about a Harrodsburg veteran who was being treated at the VA facility in Lexington. The staff there declared him dead. Yet when the veteran's wife came to say her final good-byes, she found her husband breathing--with a pulse.

I was glad to hear this veteran is now back home with his family and recovering. But no veteran and no spouse should ever have to go through such a horrific ordeal. Yet I continue to receive letters from Kentucky veterans who have been denied the care they deserve, such as this one from a disabled veteran in Gradyville. This is what he had to say:

I have had some of the most frustrating of times trying to receive the quality of health care that anyone deserves.

Not only has it taken me months to be seen, but I have been told by a primary care physician that ``He did not need to see me until my 6 month checkup''. ..... I simply no longer have the time and money to invest in the run around I receive in trying to make an appeal. ..... I gave up 4 years of my life and proper use of my right arm in this nation's defense. I would have given my life without question to protect a country that I love. It breaks my heart to no longer be a part of an institution I so lovingly became a member [of]. Our nation's veterans deserve so much more.

Well, he is certainly right. Thousands of Kentuckians have had to wait for more than a month at VA facilities in Louisville and Lexington.

So the Obama administration needs to use every tool available to address the systemic failures of the VA, and it needs to work with Congress on reforms that can help address these challenges too.

Initially, the Obama administration was slow to respond to the crisis. The White House tried to treat it as some PR predicament to get beyond rather than the true tragedy that it was--a tragedy that required bipartisan action to investigate and address.

Ultimately, pressure from Republicans and revulsion from the American people forced the White House to take this crisis seriously. Audits were conducted. Management changes were undertaken. And the necessity of serious reform was accepted--eventually.

I was proud to support bipartisan VA reform legislation that passed the Senate last month, and I am encouraged by the progress of the conference committee toward completing a final compromise that can pass Congress and be signed into law. The compromise legislation would introduce some much-needed accountability into the VA system and help increase patient choice. In fact, the compromise appears to include two initiatives I specifically pressed with the President's nominee to head the Veterans Affairs Department when I recently met with him.

One, I said we need to make it easier to fire VA bureaucrats who fail our veterans; and, two, I said we need to allow veterans to seek care outside the VA if they face long wait times or if they do not live near a VA facility.

The conference report, fortunately, appears to include both. I thank Senators Burr, McCain, and Coburn for steadfastly fighting for the veterans choice part of the conference agreement that will allow our deserving veterans the option of accessing care in hospitals when VA facilities are not available.

As for the President's nominee to run the VA Bob McDonald, we all know he has a tough job ahead of him after his confirmation. I made clear my expectations for dramatic change when I met him. But if Mr. McDonald is willing to work in a collaborative and open manner with Congress--and I expect he will--he will find a constructive partner on this side of the aisle.

Look, we know there is much we can and should do to address this crisis together. So I am hopeful because when veterans are denied care, it is a priority deserving of bipartisan attention, and the government needs to start living up again to the promises it made to our veterans. We certainly owe them no less.

EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATION

Mr. President, Israel's military campaign against the terrorist organization Hamas has a clear-cut objective: to restore Israel's security by eliminating rockets, shut down these infiltration tunnels from which Hamas is launching its attacks against Israel, and, indeed, to demilitarize Gaza. That is Israel's objective.

This is clearly justified in the face of more than 2,300 rocket attacks into
Israel from Gaza since early July. I strongly support Israel's recent efforts through Operation Protective Edge to defend itself and to end the threat of additional rocket and infiltration attacks by Hamas. Operation Protective Edge also serves a larger purpose, and its resolution has broader implications for the future of the Palestinian people.

If Hamas declares victory by keeping its weapons stockpile, by continuing to undermine Israel's security, and by turning away from Egypt's efforts to forge a reasonable cease-fire, the net result will be a relative weakening of the Palestinian Authority and of those in the West Bank who have worked toward a peaceful resolution of the overall conflict.

So I support any effort which brings this campaign to an end in a manner that increases Israel's security. That means specifically that Hamas cannot be left with a large stockpile of missiles and rockets and cannot be left with infiltration tunnels. They must be destroyed. Hamas cannot be allowed to aggressively rest, refit, and build up a weapons stockpile. That weakens Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Here is what I oppose. I oppose any efforts--any efforts by the international community, especially the United Nations--to impose a cease-fire on Israel that does not meet these military objectives and that therefore risks actually rewarding Hamas for a campaign of terror and that seeks to make additional concessions to Hamas such as easing security along the borders of Gaza.

An unfavorable settlement, especially one that left the terrorist group Hamas with a stockpile of weaponry, would create incentives for Hamas to continue smuggling arms from Iran and, of course, to return to violence. An unfavorable settlement would also undermine the leadership of the Palestinian Authority, which has attempted to negotiate with Israel through peaceful means.

So let's be clear. The terror tactics employed by Hamas show contempt for human life, whether Israeli or Palestinian. By employing rockets and mortars as weapons of terror against Israel's civilian population or by using its own schools within Gaza as weapon depots, Hamas has shown a gross disregard for civilians.

The Prime Minister of Israel put it very well when he said: ``[Israel] uses missiles to protect our people. They (Hamas) use their people to protect their missiles.''

There is no moral equivalency--none whatsoever. These tactics should be loudly and widely condemned, and Israel's right to defend itself should be affirmed.

As I noted last week, Secretary Hagel wrote to the majority leader seeking urgent funding for components of the Iron Dome missile defense system. I and others support this request, as Iron Dome has afforded Israel some real protection from these indiscriminate rockets.

This morning some of my colleagues will further explain the importance of Iron Dome and the need for the Israeli Defense Forces to press on and finish the job in destroying the infiltration tunnels and weapons stockpiles. Republicans are united in our support of Israel's defense, and this morning my colleagues will explain our opposition to any effort to force a cease-fire on Israel that does not further its security objectives.

In a situation such as this, Israel only has one dependable friend. The United States should not be trying to pressure Israel to make a bad deal that leaves Hamas in a position to continue these attacks against Israeli civilians.

No one has been more active on this issue than my colleague from South Carolina. I see him on the floor now. Therefore, I yield the floor.

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