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

Floor Speech

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Mr. BOOKER. Madam President, I rise today to urge support for a successful veterans health care program that will be extended if we pass this bipartisan package of Veterans Affairs reforms.

My colleague across the aisle Senator Heller and I have joined to introduce legislation to extend the Assisted Living Program for Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injury, or AL-TBI, and give it the kind of support veterans with these severe brain injuries deserve.

I am grateful for the leadership of Senator Heller and his partnership on this very important critical issue. I am proud to work with him, and I am hopeful all of our colleagues will join to pass the bipartisan package of VA reforms which now includes our legislation.

I thank Senator Sanders, Ranking Member Burr, along with Senators McCain, Pryor, Murkowski, Landrieu, Johanns, and Baldwin for joining with us in this important effort.

This program places veterans suffering from moderate to severe traumatic brain injury, or TBI, in privately run facilities where they receive 24-hour team-based attention.

These are our veterans who stood for us, who answered the call to service, who went into harm's way, and have suffered traumatic brain injury, who now need to get the kind of care and attention they deserve.

They are immersed in this therapy that helps them with their movement, their memory, their speech, their gradual community integration. That last point is actually the key. This program does not just prepare veterans for transition from one health care setting to another health care setting; it is about giving them the practical skills they need to return to their communities and live independently.

That is what is so special about this program.

This is the kind of innovative work that Senator Heller stands for in his community and I in New Jersey and that all of our veterans across the country should have. Congress should support this kind of work more often.

This past week I had the opportunity to visit a facility in Plainsboro, NJ--one of several facilities using this program. While I was there, I spoke with an incredible veteran named Gary.

Gary first enlisted in the military and completed his tour in the Navy after graduating from high school. Then 9/11 happened, and Gary stood up, reenlisted, this time with the National Guard, and served in Iraq.

During his time there he suffered a traumatic brain injury. Upon return home, Gary was confined to a wheelchair and the doctors told him he would never ever walk again. But then he began treatments through this program that Senator Heller, myself, and others are trying to extend.

Now, because of this program, Gary can walk again. He, himself, and his family called it a miracle. He is now using a cane. When he is indoors he can walk without assistance.

Gary's sister told me that before receiving this unique care through the program, Gary was very negative, often depressed, often angry. But now that he has made progress, Gary's whole attitude has changed. He is more than upbeat. He is social and enjoys cooking. In fact, he offered to cook me a meal, which, I say to Senator Heller, as a bachelor, I take all the meals I can get.

Another veteran named Duane sustained a traumatic brain injury in 2003 while serving our country in the Navy. Unable to live independently or get around without the aid of a wheelchair, this gentleman, this honorable veteran, who was not even 25 years old, found himself living in a nursing home alongside a population many decades his senior.

In 2011, through this program in our legislation, his life was changed. He moved into a specialized facility in New Jersey, where he still lives today and receives a range of treatments, including physical, occupational, speech therapies, as well as psychological counseling and residential assistance.

He is making incredible progress. I saw it with my own eyes, heard it from his family and his care workers. He has actually also traded his wheelchair for a cane and manages a regime of his own chores, adding more dignity to his already exemplary life of courage. He has an active social life. He has friends and comrades, and he believes he has a country that has been there for him when he is in need.

These are the heroes who stepped up to serve our country when we needed them most, and now it is our responsibility to serve them with the extension of this incredible program.

This program means independence for these veterans with severe brain injuries. We cannot cut their or any other veterans' care short. This is a cost of war. We should not just be there to spend resources when we are sending them off; we should be there with open arms and support when we are welcoming them home.

The VA now offers no alternative program to the one I have described--no alternative program--that provides the same kind of comprehensive, rehabilitative, long-term care in a residential setting. These brave men and women who are benefiting from this specialized care were willing to put their lives on the line for our country. It should not be an option; it should be our obligation to take care of them when they return home.

I strongly urge my colleagues in the Senate to do their duty, to pass this reform package, and extend this life-changing program.

I want to again thank Senator Heller.

If I may yield to him, he has been a stalwart partner, a leader on this issue. I have been encouraged by this opportunity to work together with him. I am only disappointed that he would not shave his head, as I have. That would have shown true bipartisan camaraderie. But despite that, I look forward to his continued leadership on issues for our veterans, and now I look forward to his remarks.

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