Patty Murray

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, that article states: The Army National Guard . . . missed its recruiting goal for at least the ninth straight month in June and is nearly 19,000 soldiers below its authorized strength, military officials said Monday. Further, the Army Guard: . . . is more than 10,000 soldiers behind its year-to-date goal of almost 45,000 recruits and has missed its recruiting target during at least 17 of the last 18 months. Many factors, as we all know, affect recruiting, but how we care for our veterans is absolutely one of them. As George Washington said: The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their country. That was George Washington back in 1789. It is still true today. We need to show our veterans--today's veterans and those considering military service--we will be there for them. If the Senate retreats from what we agreed to 2 weeks ago, it will tell potential recruits the VA will have a hiring freeze and the VA will not have new clinics and we will not be there for them. That is the wrong message to send. The Senate agreed our veterans need $1.5 billion. We agreed on a bipartisan basis. I am offering this amendment today to make sure there is no backtracking and that our veterans get the help they need, they deserve, and they were promised. This is a basic American issue we can and must all support. If Members vote for this amendment, we are giving the VA money to lift the hiring freeze to hire the medical staff it needs and to open new clinics. We are telling today's soldiers and tomorrow's recruits we will be there for them. But if members choose to vote against my amendment, they are simply voting to keep their local VA hospital overwhelmed and understaffed, telling veterans in your State that they will not get the new clinics they were promised. This vote will send a strong message to today's veterans and tomorrow's recruits. This Senate needs to make sure we will show those who serve our country that we will be there for them just as they have been there for us. My colleague from Hawaii is here. He has been a tremendous advocate for veterans. I thank him for all his work. I yield 5 minutes to the Senator from Hawaii.

Mrs. MURRAY. I thank my colleague from Illinois, and I also thank my colleague from Texas. Mr. President, I saw the Washington Post article yesterday on ``VA Hospital in Texas Fights to Stay Open.'' I ask unanimous consent that the article be printed in the Record.

Mrs. MURRAY. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I would ask if the other side would mind, if they have no other speakers, yielding Senator Durbin 2\1/2\ minutes of their time or if they want to continue.

Mrs. MURRAY. How much does the other side control?

Mrs. MURRAY. How much time remains?

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, how much time remains?

Mrs. MURRAY. I know the Senator from Texas was there and was quite startled to hear about the blind rehab unit at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Texas and how they have been serving older veterans, but in fact this year they are begining to see a new type of patient-- veterans in their early 20s with macular degeneration or diabetes- induced vision problems. I think it goes to the point of exactly why we are seeing such a tremendous shortfall in the VA today--because of the types of injuries our returning soldiers are having. I welcome my colleague's cosponsorship, and I agree we do need to look at 2006. We will work with her and the VA Secretary and all Senators on making up the shortfall. But we are here today with the Murray amendment because there has been some confusion in the Senate about how much aid we are going to send to the Veterans Department. We have heard a lot of numbers thrown around and a lot of discussion, but I think why I am here today and why it is so critical is because in the early morning hours just before our July 4 recess, some Senate leaders moved we lay down in deference to the House of Representatives' lower number. I think in the Senate we need to say there is no confusion. On a unanimous vote we supported $1.5 billion. The Appropriations Committee, hours after the House tried to limit funding for veterans, unanimously affirmed our support for $1.5 billion and now the Senate has an opportunity before us to tell our veterans we will do all we can, all we promised, to support and care for them when they return home. Make no mistake, this Department needs the money. Even before the dramatic, unconscionable shortfall at the Department was revealed, veterans around the country were facing long lines and crumbling facilities. We know the promised clinics are not there, and we know the soldiers returning with posttraumatic syndrome are not being served. The money is critical. I ask the Senate this morning to say we are sticking with the $1.5 billion shortfall. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Feinstein be added as a cosponsor.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, 2 weeks ago the Senate came together, not as Republicans and Democrats, but as Americans, to do what is right for our Nation's veterans. By a vote of 96-0, we all agreed to increase veterans funding by $1.5 billion. We agreed to fill the appalling shortfall the VA faces this year by agreeing to that amendment for $1.5 billion. It was a very clear message that we will be there for the people who have served our country. I was very proud of the Senate when we passed that amendment to do the right thing. Shortly following that unanimous vote, the majority leader stood on the Senate floor and moved to have the Senate yield to the House of Representatives' lower figure of $975 million. That would have gone against what this Senate had just agreed to. That proposal by the majority leader also went against what the Senate Appropriations Committee had agreed to earlier that very same day. On a bipartisan and unanimous basis, the Senate Appropriations Committee members reaffirmed that the Senate should approve the full $1.5 billion in immediate funding for the VA. The Appropriations Committee and the full Senate unanimously agreed that America's veterans deserve the full $1.5 billion for this fiscal year. Then there was an attempt to accept a lower number. We need to make sure in this Senate there is no backtracking and that veterans in this country who have served us honorably do not get shortchanged. To make it clear to our Nation's veterans and to the American public, I am here with my colleague Senator Akaka and others in the Senate, offering an amendment that clears up this confusion. It clearly says the Senate stands firmly behind our unanimous vote of $1.5 billion in emergency spending for veterans health care. If we backtrack, if we walk away from the $1.5 billion we promised this year for our veterans, our men and women who have served this country honorably will be hurt. If we yield to the House's $975 million, the VA hiring freeze will remain in place. That means no new mental health specialists will be hired to help our veterans who are dealing with posttraumatic stress disorder. If any of my colleagues went home as I did last week and talked to returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan, they will know as I do that these mental health specialists are absolutely needed for our men and women who are serving America today. If we yield to the House's $975 million, the VA will not be able to build any of the new clinics our veterans have been promised. That means inconvenience and less access to care for the people who have sacrificed for our country. That is not what we promised our veterans. This is a critical priority. We have a huge problem right now in this fiscal year 2005. Secretary Nicholson has made it very clear that the VA is at least $1 billion short this year. My colleagues know I have been here since the beginning of the year warning that this problem goes much deeper. Go out to any of your VA facilities and talk to any veterans who are trying to get access and Members will know as I do that veterans are waiting today 3 years for surgery. The Associated Press reported in the papers today that the Army National Guard is having trouble recruiting the soldiers it needs. I ask unanimous consent to have that article printed in the Record.

Mrs. MURRAY. I thank my colleague from Texas. I remind all of our colleagues we should not be nickling and diming the Department of Veterans Affairs today. For all of us who have been out on the ground visiting our VA clinics, talking to our soldiers who are returning, it is very clear this war has created a need and demand for us to be there. When we call up our soldiers, we promise them we will be there for health care. It is not right that we sit in hearings and community meetings as I did last week and hear veterans saying: I finally gave up; I went and paid for health care out of my own pocket. That is not what we promised them and that is not a way to get new soldiers which we obviously need to do today. A train wreck is coming in 2006. I will work with all of my colleagues. I know the administration is looking at sending over a budget amendment and I agree we need to find the money. But for right now we need to pass an emergency supplemental. This Senate has gone on record in the full Appropriations Committee and in this full body and we should have no backtracking. That is why we are voting on this amendment today, once again, to reaffirm our commitment and tell all the men and women who have served us both in this war and in previous wars that we will be there for them. I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, would you state the pending amendment?

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, how much time is left?

Mrs. MURRAY. I assure the Senator from Illinois that it is my understanding that this money in the amendment that has been offered by the Senator from Pennsylvania is specifically for medical services provided by the Veterans Health Administration which does include mental health services and post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Mrs. MURRAY. I am happy to yield.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I have said throughout this debate--as I spoke on the supplemental, as I have been out here on the floor many times and in our committee--veterans are not a Republican issue; they are not a Democratic issue; they are an American issue. I think what you see happening on the floor this afternoon is exactly to that point. I congratulate the Senator from Pennsylvania, as well as the Senator from Idaho, Larry Craig, and the Senator from Texas, Mrs. Hutchison, who have been working diligently with us in a nonpartisan way to address a real need, and that is to take care of the men and women who have served us so nobly in previous wars and in the current conflicts in which we are engaged. From my side, I thank Senator Byrd, who stood with me valiantly as we have worked to provide the funds for the men and women who are serving us overseas. I thank him for his leadership on this issue. I thank Senator Akaka, ranking member on the Veterans Committee, who has worked with us to make sure that on our side we are provided with accurate statistics and are moving forward. At the end of the day who win are the men and women who serve us. It is a real tribute to this Senate that we are now standing here today with the amendment offered by the Senator from Pennsylvania to add $80 million to our amendment, to now be providing $1.5 billion for veterans services. We are here because we know when we ask men and women to serve us overseas, we tell them we will be there for them when they come home. What you see on the floor this afternoon is Republicans and Democrats standing together shoulder to shoulder to say in this body, we will be there for our men and women who serve us overseas. There is going to be a lot of blame to go around. I have been asked: How did you know 2 months ago when no one else did? I started working with our veterans who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan late last year, beginning in January, and hearing the same stories that Senator Santorum just talked about of how our VA facilities were turning vets away, how there wasn't enough care, particularly for post-traumatic stress syndrome. I think we all know that in the conflict that is before us today in Iraq, it being a 360-degree war where there is no front line to return back from, we are going to see a number of our service men and women increasingly needing that kind of care. We are also seeing that facilities that have not been maintained well were counting on the appropriations that we had this year. We are talking about veterans from previous wars who are now turning 60 and needing more health care being turned away. I think I began to look realistically at the numbers from the VA and became concerned that their projections were not based on the reality of what was occurring, which is why I offered my amendment to the supplemental. I especially pay tribute to Senator Larry Craig from Idaho. When Senator Akaka and I offered the emergency supplemental bill, he was given a letter from the VA that said: We don't need any money. This is not a crisis. Our projections say that we are just fine. So Senator Craig and others from the other side opposed us on that amendment at that time. But Senator Craig said to me on the floor, if I am proved wrong, I will stand with you to make sure we provide the dollars for our veterans that are required. Since he was told by the Veterans' Administration last Thursday that there is, indeed, a shortfall of $1.5 billion or more--I hope it is not more, but at least that much--he said that he would work with me, and he has kept to his word. This is a real tribute to this country that we can come together on an issue such as this, recognize that errors have been made, but it is time to move on, time to provide the dollars. I see Senator Hutchison from Texas who has been working with us as well. I want my colleagues to know we are going to stand shoulder to shoulder to meet this debt in front of us. I want to work with all of you so we have the right projections for next year as Senator Hutchison puts her 2006 appropriations bill together so we are not sitting here 6 months from now, a year from now, 2 years from now saying we were wrong again. This has given us a tremendous opportunity to get it right. I can't think of anybody it is more important to get it right for than those who serve our country.

Mrs. MURRAY. I yield to the Senator from Nevada. I believe the Senator from Colorado will be here for a couple of minutes. I will use the last 2, and we will be done on our side. I yield to the minority leader.

Mrs. MURRAY. How much time do we have remaining on our side?

Mrs. MURRAY. I yield to the Senator from West Virginia whatever time he may use.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senators Johnson, Kennedy, and Lincoln be listed as cosponsors.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, we have a number of colleagues who wanted to come and say a few words about this amendment and about service for veterans. I urge them to come to the floor, because it is clear we are ready to move at any time. If anybody has additional comments, please come. I have been out on the floor several times over the last several days and I have expressed my anger at the Veterans' Administration for not being up front and honest about the numbers in the projections, even though it was clear to those of us looking at the numbers that we were facing a very severe crisis in the VA. That was the reason I offered an amendment for the Veterans' Administration on the emergency supplemental. It is why I have repeatedly raised this issue throughout the budget process, appropriations process, and throughout the last several months. I think it is very clear that those of us who have been out on the ground talking to our veterans know this is a crisis. Yesterday, the VA came before the Veterans' Committee. Senator Craig had a hearing and had the Secretary before us. He was continuing to say we could fix this problem today by taking money from construction and maintenance projects that we had appropriated and allocated money for for 2005. I think it is very clear that the Senate now shortly will be on record saying we believe those maintenance projects need to go forward, that those construction projects need to go forward, and the medical equipment promised to our VA services needs to be in place. That is so important. I was in Iraq a couple months ago, and our service men and women from Washington State met with me there. The very first question they asked me was: Is my country going to be there for me when I get home? Will I have health care? I feel it is important that when we look our soldiers in the eye, we answer them honestly. Today, with the Senate going on record with an emergency supplemental to deal with this, we are going to be able to say we are doing the best we can to make sure the services are there. I urge the Veterans' Administration to do the same. I think it is disheartening and disconcerting to all of us when we rely on the Secretary and his agency to make sure they are honest about what the numbers are and they are incorrect. We need that so we can do our job in providing for our service men and women. We are doing that with this amendment today. We all know there is work to come, and with the 2006 budget and appropriations bill, we need to have an honest assessment. We cannot continue to project a 2-percent increase for veterans when we already know the number of men and women coming back is much higher than that. We already know that the service men and women, particularly from the Vietnam war, who are reaching the age of 60, are increasingly accessing our veterans facilities. We already know that the maintenance projects out there are critical. We have to do the right thing. We have to make sure the funding is there. Again, I commend Members on both sides of the aisle. I see the Senator from Idaho, Senator Craig, is here. I take this opportunity to thank him. He has been most generous in working with us, as we have moved this issue forward because information given to him that was erroneous at the time. He did give me his word that should things change, he would be there to work with us. He has kept his word in an admirable way, bringing the Secretary before the committee, working on this amendment on the floor, and he is here to speak as well. I tell him how much I appreciate his forthrightness and his willingness to work with us to solve this dilemma. We will be voting on the Santorum amendment, which adds $80 million to our amendment that has $1.42 billion, making sure we have a total of $1.5 billion to provide for our veterans services for the 2005 budget and make sure we don't have to go into funds for other projects and put them in a waiting line, which would be a disservice. I urge our Democratic colleagues who want to speak to this amendment to come to the floor as soon as they can. I thank my colleagues for working with us, the House, and the White House to hopefully have a supplemental in place before the July 4 recess. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, last night, when I listened to the President of the United States, he called on the American public--he called on all of us--asking our young men and women to consider service to our country overseas. Part of that commitment is not just asking them to serve but being there for them. He also called on all of us to put our flags up on the Fourth of July and to be proud as Americans and to honor those who are serving us and to tell them we are proud of them by raising our flags. The other thing we can do is adopt this amendment on the supplemental and get the White House to agree with us to make it an emergency to provide the services that are necessary. We will raise our flags, we will honor our veterans, we will be proud of our soldiers, but we will also be there to take care of them when they come home. That is what the Murray amendment will do today. I am proud to join with Senator Craig, Senator Hutchison, and others from the other side to do what is right. I call on the other Members of Congress, as well as the White House, to join us in this effort. Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise this morning to again talk about the situation facing our veterans. I thank my colleague from Illinois for his dedication to this issue and his tremendous work and support as we have tried to raise this issue for a number of months. So all of my colleagues know, I came to the floor of the Senate early this year to talk about the situation facing those soldiers who have worked so honorably for this country in past wars and for those who are returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan today and the need to keep the promise that we gave to all of them that when they return we will provide them with the health care they need. When I was in my State earlier this year, in January, I met with a number of the service organizations and the military to talk about reintegration, to talk about what happens to our soldiers when they return home, to make sure they have the services available to them, and to make sure they are taken care of. Many in those meetings were deeply concerned that we would not have the facilities available for them. They told me of already long waiting lines at our veterans clinics and our VA hospitals. They told me of soldiers who could not get appointments for as many as 6 months or 3 years. They told me of a looming budget crisis. When I heard that, I talked to other organizations across the country and realized that we were, indeed, facing a tremendous shortfall at the VA. That is why in the Committee on the Budget I offered an amendment to increase the funding for VA. It was rejected by those on the majority side by an almost party-line vote. That is why, throughout the appropriations process and then on the emergency supplemental, I continued to come to the Senate to say that this is a looming crisis that we need to deal with. In the Senate, I offered an amendment for $1.98 billion for an emergency supplemental, saying this is critical. Our soldiers are not getting the care they need. I was defeated on that amendment on an almost party-line vote because of the letter sent by the Secretary of VA to Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Senator who is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Military Construction, saying they do not indicate a dire emergency. He said: I can assure you that the VA does not need emergency supplemental funds in fiscal year 2005 to continue to provide the timely quality service that is always our goal. Based on that letter, many on the other side voted against my amendment because they believed the Secretary was being honest with them. Well, I continue to raise this specter saying we are going to face a crisis. Even several weeks ago, in a Committee on Veterans' Affairs hearing, the Secretary of the VA came before our committee and once again said there is no budget crisis. Well, last Thursday, finally the truth came out. The VA told us they were well over $1 billion short in funding for this year. What was their solution? Their solution was to go back into this year's appropriations that have already been approved by this body, for which we already have the money flowing to construction and maintenance projects throughout the country--these are projects for seismic upgrades in our VA facilities, for asbestos abatement, for hazardous waste cleanup, for clinics that are being built where contracts are already let--and the VA is saying: We are going to take money away from those projects. We cannot allow that to happen. These contracts are already being let. These facilities already need the maintenance. It has already been deferred for 2 years. We cannot go back to our States and tell these clinics: Gee, sorry. There was a mistake made at the VA. They didn't do the calculations correctly. You are not going to get the services. That is not the promise we made to our men and women when we sent them overseas. We said we will be there. We said we will be there. That is a promise we need to keep now, as we face this budget crisis. We looked at the VA and said, ``How could you make such a mistake?'' particularly when I was raising the specter of this for the past 6 months and knew from the ground, knew from looking at the VA's own numbers, that they were going to be facing this crisis. Yesterday, Secretary Nicholson came before the Committee on Veterans' Affairs and said they had assumed that only 25,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan would seek care at the VA in this fiscal year. Instead, what they have seen is 103,000 veterans already--already. And, as we know, many are still there, many more are to go, many more to be returning. So the Committee on Veterans' Affairs was basing their calculations on 2002 numbers rather than saying, as we all know, that we are at war, that over a million men and women have been sent to Iraq and Afghanistan. They are in what the generals call a 360-degree war, meaning there are intense times for each one of those soldiers, 24/7, knowing, when they return, they will need help for mental health care and post-traumatic stress disorder. The VA never took that into account. They never looked at the world of what was happening and said: We are going to have increased costs for Veterans Affairs because we have more veterans returning. So I find it appalling that the VA, the VA Secretary, and those who are required to be giving us honest numbers failed to look past their own desks and recognize what all of us throughout the country know; that is, we have a high number of veterans returning who need both physical care and mental health care. It is our job to appropriate the money to take care of them. So where are we today? Senator Byrd and I and others on this side are offering an amendment on the Interior appropriations bill that we will be debating later this afternoon to add, again, $1.42 billion as an emergency supplemental to provide the funding for this year. I am very proud of the Members of this Senate who have stood time and again to say we need to be there for our soldiers who are returning from war, and we need to do it responsibly. Senator Craig, the chairman of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, told me, when we were on the floor debating this during the supplemental, when he used Secretary Nicholson's letter to justify voting no against my amendment, that if he was proved wrong, he would be out here to work with me to provide the funds. I commend Senator Craig and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison for coming to the plate now and saying we need to deal with this, this year. They will be offering a second-degree amendment to my amendment this afternoon to add $80 million so we can provide the funds for this year. I am happy to join with them in making sure this body adopts that amendment, as well as the underlying Murray amendment, to the Interior bill so we can deal with this crisis today. That is the responsible thing to do. The irresponsible thing to do is to say we can take care of this by moving the budget numbers; we can take care of this with budget gimmicks; we can ignore this; we can paper this over. We have done that already for far too long. I commend my colleagues on the other side for now joining with us to say we need an emergency supplemental to provide the dollars for our veterans when they return home to make sure the facilities are there. No gimmicks, no just talking about it; we are going to do the right thing in the Senate body. We now have to follow that through. We will have to make sure the House of Representatives comes to the table in negotiations and works with us to get this done. And I call on the President and the White House now to recognize this crisis, as well, and to not gloss over it, not to paper it over but to work with us to pass an emergency supplemental. Every one of us is going to go home for the Fourth of July recess. Every one of us is either going to be in parades or talk to veterans or be out there making sure the country knows we are so proud of the men and women who are serving us regardless of how we voted on the war. Every Member of this body and every citizen in this country is proud of our soldiers and the work they have done for us. We can show them that we keep our promises, today on the floor of the Senate, by passing the Murray amendment and the second-degree amendment that is going to be offered by the Senators from the other side to keep that commitment. We then have the responsibility to make sure the House of Representatives works with us to pass this as well and that the White House takes it on as a priority. I listened to the President of the United States, last night, address this country. I listened to his impassioned plea to stay the course. What I did not hear was the President calling on the American public to make the sacrifice that is necessary in war. That sacrifice includes making sure we keep the promise to the men and women we are asking to serve in the war overseas, by being there to provide the health care services they will need when they come home and not in facilities that are falling down or crumbling, not with equipment that is failing, not with shortages and lines, but with real care and not just for the veterans who are returning home today but for the veterans who served us in prior conflicts. Today, we are seeing an increase in the number of veterans in our VA facilities because--no surprise--the veterans from the Vietnam war are now reaching the age where they need additional health care dollars. Those figures have to be taken into account at the VA. They cannot bury their heads in the sand and look at reports from 10 years ago. They need to be real about what the costs are today. When we pass this amendment, we will hopefully get the President to work with us on an emergency supplemental to provide those funds. I will work with any Senator on this floor to make sure our Committee on Veterans' Affairs looks at the real numbers we need so we can project into the future the real costs and make sure we are doing the right thing on this end of Pennsylvania Avenue, to make sure we are providing the funds that our service men and women need.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. I thank Chairman Burns and Senator Dorgan for their assistance in clarifying this matter. bia water technician training program

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Would the Presiding Officer indicate when 1 minute remains.

Mrs. MURRAY. How much time is left on our side?