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Chairman Specter, Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Graham, Ranking Member Evans and members of the Senate and House Veterans’ Affairs Committees, I am John Sisler, national commander of AMVETS, and it is my honor to appear before this joint session to present AMVETS’ legislative agenda. On behalf of AMVETS, the AMVETS Ladies Auxiliary, Sons of AMVETS and our other related organizations, I thank you for giving us this opportunity.
As you know, AMVETS has been a leader since 1944 in helping to preserve the freedoms secured by America's Armed Forces. Today, our organization continues its proud tradition, providing, not only support for veterans and the active military in procuring their earned entitlements, but also an array of community services that enhance the quality of life for our nation's citizens.
Mr. Chairman, for the second time since it started conferring the honor in 1927, Time magazine selected the American soldier, who bears the duty of “living with and dying for a country’s most fateful decision,” as its Person of the Year.
In making their selection, the magazine’s editors said the soldier was singled out “for uncommon skills and service, for the choices each one of them has made and the ones still ahead, for the challenge of defending not only our freedoms but those barely stirring half a world away.”
At a time when we are dealing with threats to our security and freedoms in the global war on terrorism, as well as challenges in Iraq and elsewhere around the globe, Time’s tribute and the well-recognized gratitude of the American people are a fitting and appropriate tribute to this generation of soldiers, sailors, airmen, coast guardsmen, and marines.
These military men and women are making a real difference. They are changing the world for the better, exactly as America’s military men and women have done for generations. And, I ask you to remind your fellow colleagues that one day these men and women will put down their military uniforms and take up the honor of being American veterans.
In keeping with our heritage and principles, it is important that we focus on the fact that America does not seek war but rather a true and lasting peace with all nations. We remember the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack. We have awakened to new challenges to the freedoms we cherish.
Networks of terrorists have already declared the United States and our allies as their main enemy. The threat is real and the target is our freedom, our citizens and our way of life. We cannot simply wish the threat away. We need our soldiers ready to answer the terrorist threat because we know that unanswered terrorism threatens to defeat every sacrifice generations of veterans have made to the defense of freedom and country.
Defending the United States homeland and the cause of freedom means that our Armed Forces must have access to every tool to counter such threats. It means that the dangers we face must be confronted. And it means that the men and women who put on the military uniform deserve the very best weapons, the best training and the best care we can give them.
We are all clearly aware that the terrorists who struck America were ruthless and they acted without regard for the lives of innocent men, women and children. There is no doubt that if given the chance they will strike again. We witnessed the March 11 attacks in Spain, and we are warned that terrorist thugs continue to plan what the Central Intelligence Agency calls “chilling plots” against our allies and ourselves.
While there are clearly dangers in rooting out those determined to kill Americans, there is far greater danger in simply not doing anything. Those who would do us harm have shown their intentions, and we cannot forget and move on. As the president has said, “This great nation cannot live in freedom at the mercy of any foreign plot or power.”
AMVETS firmly believes that to defend America and the cause of freedom we need to take special care of one of America’s greatest assets: our men and women in uniform. I think most Americans realize how vital these defenders are to our national security and the debt we owe them. I also believe it is important to think about the daily sacrifices made by those who serve. Every day they risk their lives. Every day they miss loved ones, thousands of miles away. In today’s voluntary service, every man and woman does it by choice. We should be very proud of the service they give to America every day.
In this regard, the members of AMVETS applaud Congress for the actions taken over the last three years to increase pay, improve the overall quality of life for our troops and provide the means necessary for their support.
The members of AMVETS, however, are concerned about increasing restrictions on the U.S. military’s ability to train. To win any war against terrorism and prepare for future conflicts, the United States military must be trained and ready. The cornerstone to military readiness is realistic training; America’s soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines must be able to train as they fight.
While AMVETS certainly supports our country’s long-term environmental stewardship responsibilities, we believe that protecting natural resources is not incompatible with providing land, air and sea space for realistic combat training. And we urge that Congress make commonsense changes to existing laws to ensure that operational readiness is not diminished. For example, at Ft. Hood, 150,000 acres of the Army’s 213, 000 are unavailable for realistic training due to a variety of environment restrictions. At Camp Pendleton, the Marines are restricted to practice landing on only 1 mile of the 17 miles of beachfront. It is true that we fight as we train, and the loss in critical training space poses a serious threat to the health and welfare of our defenders who one day will be veterans.
Here, I would like to make special mention of the tremendous contribution the National Guard and Reserves have made to the defense of our nation.
Since the end of the Cold War, and especially since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, National Guard and Reserve personnel have seen an upward spiral in the rate of deployment and mobilizations. Clearly the mission of the Reserve Components has changed as they account for increasingly more of our national defense and homeland security responsibilities.
Without these Americans who make up the Guard and Reserve team, our nation’s military capability would be seriously diminished. The increased reliance on these citizen-soldiers and their performance on active duty demonstrate that if force becomes necessary, they are ready. Operational experience, combined with deployment training, has increased their readiness and built confidence in their abilities to respond to crises quickly and effectively.
On the other hand, this reliance places a lot of pressure, not only on those who serve, but also on employers and families. With operational tempos increasing significantly in all areas of competency, it is essential that our national government’s commitment to these volunteers and their families keep pace.
As such, Congress needs to realistically understand the changes that have occurred in the use of the Reserve Components and continue efforts to upgrade and update protections and benefits for those called away from family, home and employment to active duty.
While your committees have done a good job in reauthorizing and revitalizing training, education and jobs programs, I encourage you to continue close oversight of the Transition Assistance Program and related programs to ensure an appropriate balance of aid and effective assistance for our returning troops, including Guard and Reserve.
In addition, though it is not under your committee’s jurisdiction, I urge you to do all you can to provide permanent authority for cost-share access to TRICARE, the military healthcare system, for all members of the Selected Reserve and their families in order to ensure medical readiness and continuity of care.
When mobilized, these citizen soldiers have enough to worry about. The last thing they need to be concerned about is the situation their families face in leaving their private-sector health plan and entering a military plan. Frankly, for family members of those deployed for long durations, the challenge of maintaining continuity of health care for spouse and dependents can be daunting. We cannot afford to take their military service for granted or let it go unnoticed. We can help and we should.
Mr. Chairman, the sacrifice of our men and women in military uniform is a recurring theme in our history. There’s a story of a World War I soldier who saw in horror his lifelong friend fall in battle. Crouched in a trench under continuous gunfire, he asked his lieutenant if he could go out into “no man’s land” and bring back his fallen friend. Though the lieutenant told him it wouldn’t be worth it because his buddy was likely already gone, the soldier went out anyway. He reached his friend, hoisted him onto his shoulders and brought him back to his company’s trench. As the two tumbled together to the bottom of the trench, the lieutenant checked the wounded soldier, then looked kindly at his friend. “I told you it wouldn’t be worth it,” he said. “Your friend is dead and you are mortally wounded.” “Yes, Sir,” said the soldier, “but it was worth it because when I got to him, he was still alive and I had the satisfaction of hearing him say: ‘My friend … I knew you’d be here for me.’”
It is incumbent on us to ask ourselves, Will we come to the aid of those who have worn the military uniform? Will we be ready to deliver the benefits and services they earned and deserve? Will we understand why these benefits are in place, and will we honor the brave and dedicated men and women who once wore the uniform? I hope we never forget and will always hear our veterans say, “I knew you’d be here for me.”
As President Bush said, “A grateful nation must keep faith with veterans and military retirees – treating them with the care they have been promised, and the dignity they have earned.” It would be unconscionable should we fail in that regard. Though I never want to learn the truth in President Abraham Lincoln’s statement, it is important to be ever mindful of what he once said: “Any nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure.”
Clearly, the members of these committees on veterans’ affairs have not forgotten to honor America’s defenders. Your record is a story of accomplishment. Throughout the past Congress, you served with passion and with care. And AMVETS says, “Thank you.”
Thank you for your work to achieve significant victories on behalf of veterans and their families. You have advanced job training and placement for our nation’s veterans; worked to overcome resistance to the provision of adequate funding of VA health care; gained substantial ground on reforming a century-old policy that denies military retirement pay to veterans who also receive disability compensation; enhanced the Montgomery G.I. Bill to the benefit of our veterans and the nation; supported programs to end chronic homelessness among veterans; boosted compensation benefits to help veterans keep pace with the increased costs of living; extended healthcare benefits to surviving spouses; expanded assistance to Gulf War and Vietnam veterans; assisted those with hearing losses; and recommended realistic, sustainable budgets for current services healthcare spending.
I would also add that AMVETS strongly supports your efforts to improve on the administration’s budget recommendations for fiscal year 2005. Your budget recommendation for $29.0 billion for medical care—an increase of $2.35 billion over the president’s figures—is greatly appreciated.
Mr. Chairman, AMVETS recognizes the VA healthcare system as the primary source of health care for our nation’s veterans, especially those with service-connected injuries, those in need of specialized care, and those who are indigent. It is a unique and irreplaceable national investment, critical to the nation and its veterans. In fact, many veterans consider access to high quality health care to be one of their most important benefits.
If we are to honor our obligation to the brave and dedicated men and women who have worn this nation’s military uniform, we should clearly understand their legacy – which is freedom. And in this understanding, we must come to grips with the fact that freedom is not free. Its costs are measured in terms of lives lost and disabilities suffered. Indeed, the citizen soldiers who, together with their families, bear the scars and injuries of their service will do so throughout the remainder of their adult lives, long after the guns have fallen silent.
Over the years, AMVETS has reported on chronic funding shortfalls that have resulted in denial, delay and rationing of veterans healthcare. We do not believe these circumstances represent what you and your full committees have collectively fought for on behalf of veterans. And we truly appreciate the support you have provided in your recommendations to fund the Department of Veterans Affairs at levels necessary to allow the healthcare system to deliver the world-class services of which it is capable.
The members of AMVETS remain, however, deeply troubled in the current policy banning access to VA healthcare for certain veterans. Naturally, we continue, as always, to support generous assistance to those who have special needs arising from service in the Armed Forces, particularly combat service. We want to ensure that severely disabled veterans receive prompt care. But denying access only devalues the service of those who seek care with VA.
Instead of discouraging veterans from seeking health care, AMVETS would like to see VA operate with a budget sufficient to cover its true costs. We realize, however, that some in government place a higher priority on expanding the funding stream for a host of non-veteran, non-defense programs that compete for available federal resources with those for veterans.
Also AMVETS would like to see VA begin the process of restoring Priority 8 access, which could be started with the consideration of enrolling those veterans who can identify their private or public health insurers and make certain that VA is eligible for medical reimbursement. The secretary has this discretionary authority under statute and, for our friends who hinge veterans’ access to their ability to pay for it, this type of enrollment would ensure that appropriated dollars would be minimized to the fullest extent.
To augment direct appropriations, which are clearly needed, AMVETS also supports Medicare subvention as a way to enhance funding of VA health care. Medicare subvention could prove beneficial to veterans and the government. For veterans who have paid into Medicare throughout their working lives, VA subvention would mean greater access to care. And for the government, there would be savings, since nearly 60 percent of enrolled veterans are Medicare-eligible and, according to VA, Medicare services can be delivered at less expense than in the private sector.
Mr. Chairman, one of our greatest presidents once said, “It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another, but above all try something.”
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s advice is an important reason I’m here today; because it is time to try something different. AMVETS urges Congress to bring a ray of hope to veterans seeking access to VA’s healthcare system. We urge you to recognize that the current system of funding veterans health care is broken. It simply doesn’t work. Too many sick and disabled veterans either cannot enroll in the system or wait too long for care.
In the area of VA healthcare delivery, AMVETS supports trying something else. And we lay on the table our call for mandatory funding for veterans health care. We urge you to enact legislation to make medical funding mandatory rather than discretionary.
The members of AMVETS believe mandatory funding of VA health care would provide a comprehensive solution to the current funding problem. Once healthcare funding matches the actual average cost of care for the veterans enrolled in the system, with annual indexing for inflation, VA can truly fulfill its mission.
Mr. Chairman, the sustained availability of quality health care is central to VA’s mission. As we continue on the current system of discretionary funding, AMVETS calls on the administration and Congress to provide the resources needed to care for America’s veterans. Such action is central to VA’s ability to sustain the timely delivery of quality health care to the men and women who have sacrificed and served in the military.
In this regard, we recommend an increase of $3.1 billion over last year’s VA medical-care spending. This amount would ensure that the health and care-taking of our veterans would be answered with timely medical treatment, not delay of care. AMVETS—together with the Disabled American Veterans, the Paralyzed Veterans of America and the Veterans of Foreign Wars—makes this recommendation in our 18th annual publication of The Independent Budget.
Some will say we can’t afford it; it costs too much. We believe the IB is a balanced and responsible analysis of VA’s funding requirements, and that the price is not too great for the value received.
Another of our top priorities is to bring a continuity of commitment to getting homeless veterans back on their feet and into the mainstream of our communities. AMVETS is pleased that at least in some measure many of VA’s current programs have helped former servicemen and women successfully reintegrate into their communities and the nation’s workforce.
While progress is clearly being made, AMVETS strongly supports your committees’ efforts to help defeat homelessness among veterans. Ending chronic homelessness among veterans within the decade is a goal we share. And though our organization runs many programs without federal government support, we look to our elected national leaders to help fill serious gaps in services for the men and women who have served this nation in our military.
Among other initiatives, AMVETS continues to support the overhaul of a disability-claims process in dire need of attention. Quality, timely decisions should be our aim. Today, it takes too long to settle a claim. The error rate remains too high. And veterans continue to face delays that effectively deny appropriate, legitimate compensation for disabilities resulting from military service. The challenges, which have historically plagued this system, are not insurmountable.
We applaud the job retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Daniel L. Cooper is doing. As VA undersecretary for benefits, he’s definitely making headway but requires a stronger budget than the one proposed by the administration. Failure to fully fund the department’s requirements would stall progress and likely fail veterans seeking resolution to their claims.
The members of AMVETS also urge Congress to exempt as eligibility criterion for all federal programs disability compensation, pension payments and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation Benefits (DIC). An elderly veteran should not be barred from senior assisted living because he receives a small pittance of pension. A veteran’s old-age pension should not push an individual over the allowable threshold criteria for admittance to an assistance program available to others who never served in the military.
In addition, AMVETS encourages Congress to review service-connected compensation and death benefits. We believe that our totally disabled veterans are under-compensated and would like to see a more liberal and generous benefit provided these individuals. It is our hope that the current commission taking a look at VA’s disability programs would conclude, as the Bradley Commission did in the 1950s, that we can do more for severely disabled American servicemen and women.
On the matter of homeland security, we recognize a role for VA in America’s preparations for and defense against terrorist attacks and threats. It seems to me that if we are to have a comprehensive national policy, we should give the department a role in that strategy. After all, VA operates the largest integrated healthcare network in the world, with more than 800 outpatient clinics and 160 medical centers. And Congress has already agreed in statute that an integral part of VA’s mission is to provide backup medical resources to the military healthcare system and local communities in case of emergency.
We also seek the end of the G.I. Bill tax. How can the Montgomery G.I. Bill remain an attractive recruitment tool when financial aid abounds for those who do not serve? The educational benefit should be part of an overall benefits package earned through military service.
In addition, we urge this Congress to look into the growing disparity of education benefits between active duty and Reserve personnel. Benefits for the Selected Reserve G.I. Bill, under Title 10, have not kept pace with benefits under Title 38. Though there has always been a disparity between these benefits, the percentage difference has been increasing. In 1985, Congress set Guard and Reserve benefits at 47 percent of the active duty benefit level. Since then, it has fallen to 28 percent. Our Total Force is using Guard and Reserves more than ever, and their contributions to our national defense should be recognized. They are away from home for longer periods, and we should provide them an earned benefits package that reflects the job they’re doing.
While speaking about returning troops, AMVETS urges your committees to keep a close eye on the implementation of Public Law 107-288, which provides the Department of Labor Veterans Employment and Training Service (DOL-VETS) a number of new tools to help servicemembers make the transition to the civilian job market following military service. As these former troops return home, the employment service dedicated especially for them needs to be primed for use and ready for delivery of service.
It is important, therefore, that your oversight responsibilities ensure that programs currently in force, as well as those in development, give priority to veterans. We ask you, as well, to remain vigilant in seeing that employment programs at all levels of government continue to help veterans on that basis.
We also encourage you to pursue additional avenues into the civilian job market for the tens of thousands of troops who demobilize yearly. In this regard, we believe that there is a place for first-rate, well-structured apprenticeship programs for separating service members that, hopefully, build on an individual’s military experience and would help lead to mainstream careers or satisfying self-employment.
In addition, Mr. Chairman, AMVETS stands solidly behind the right of Americans to protect their flag. This flag of ours is a symbol of all that is good about our country. It is also the symbol of a nation willing to sacrifice its most precious resource to be free. Though said nearly two centuries ago, Henry Ward Beecher, an American clergyman, was on target when he said, "A thoughtful mind when it sees a nation's flag, sees not the flag only, but the nation itself." The men and women gathered here understand this perfectly. We ought to honor it and protect it, if for no other reason than the fact that Americans throughout history have fought and died to keep it flying.
AMVETS will not waver in its effort to protect the flag of the United States. I would submit that were an individual or individuals to come to the U.S. Capitol building today and, under the protective mantle of their right to free speech, set about to deface the building as a protest to some current day policy, we would not tolerate it. Neither would authorities stand by and watch any other of our historic symbols defaced. There are laws against such acts. Why then would we accept the defacement of our flag as an expression of “free speech?”
On this issue we recognize and appreciate the members of the House who helped assure overwhelming passage of the flag protection amendment in the last session of this Congress.
And we ask our senators to stand up and be counted. I ask you to pause for a moment and think about our flag—the symbol of this great nation and an inspiration to Americans everywhere. To appreciate the honored place Old Glory has in our society, we only have to recall seeing her raised over the carnage at the World Trade Center; displayed beside the wounded face of the Pentagon; standing sentinel in a grassy field in Pennsylvania and flown proudly from millions of homes across the country.
For more than 200 years, the American flag has flown proudly here and around the world as a testimonial to freedom. As Martin Luther King once taught, “There is glory in citizenship. Our country may not be all we want it to be, but that will change. Respect your country. Honor its flag.”
We look for our elected officials to bring this issue to a vote as soon as possible. This is a high priority, and we ask senators and members of Congress to support us in allowing the American people an opportunity to debate overturning the 1989 Supreme Court decision that legalized flag desecration.
We also want the fullest possible accounting of our missing servicemen and ask for your support in the effort to find and identify their remains. This is important. It is a duty we owe the families of those still missing and unaccounted for as well as to those who served or who currently serve. As President Bush said, “It is a signal that those who wear our country’s military uniform will never be abandoned.”
We encourage Congress and the administration to take action that will lead to the firm cooperation of foreign governments in revealing the whereabouts or assisting in the recovery of our missing or captured from all conflicts and military operations worldwide.
In addition, we ask Congress to insist that Department of Defense officials continue to pursue every active lead no matter how small in the effort to find missing Navy pilot Capt. Michael Scott Speicher, who was reported missing on Jan. 17, 1991, after his F-18 Hornet was hit by a missile on the first night of the Persian Gulf war.
Additionally, as the committee is aware, there is a growing need for long-term care in VA. While the veterans population is projected to decline from 24.3 million to 20 million over the present decade, those aged 75 and older will increase from 4 million to 4.5 million and those over 85 will more than double, from about 640,000 currently to nearly 1.3 million in 2012.
Mr. Chairman, with the sharp increase in the projected number of elderly veterans, AMVETS believes that VA’s extended care services are indispensable to its overall mission in providing veterans health care.
We urge you to explore the challenge ahead for providing long-term assistance to veterans. And we seek action that will provide affordable access for enrolled veterans to a continuum of extended care services that include nursing home care, domiciliary care, as well as home and community-based extended care services. In this way, we can assure improved healthcare delivery and enhance the measure of care for elderly veteran patients.
Finally, a significant goal is a seamless transition to veteran’s status for those separating from the Armed Forces. Lessons learned from the first Gulf War have taught us that a better job must be done to collect, track and analyze exposure data. In order to provide quality health care, this information must be gathered by DoD and shared with VA. We urge your committees to work with the administration, DoD and VA to routinely assess the health of servicemembers throughout their military careers and after they leave service.
Mr. Chairman, great decisions and challenges await us in the months ahead. The membership of AMVETS is inspired by the work you have accomplished. You have established a clear policy of national recognition for those who serve. We look forward to working with you and others in the House and Senate to upgrade and update the benefits America’s veterans have earned and deserve.
We have much to do, but we are encouraged in knowing that our work will help determine the future of our nation and that of millions of others around the world who love freedom.
This concludes my testimony. Again, thank you for extending me the opportunity to appear before you today, and thank you for your support of veterans. I hope all of you will be able to join us tonight for our AMVETS congressional reception to be held here in the Cannon Caucus Room from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.