Good morning.  Let me begin by thanking Ms Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, the Chair of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, for holding this hearing.  You hear a lot in the press these days about partisan bickering and how Congress isn’t capable of anything.  I am very fortunate that when I was chair of the subcommittee, Ms. Herseth Sandlin was my Ranking Member.  I would like to have kept the job, but I cannot ask for a better Chair who works in a bipartisan manner and looks to do both good things for veterans and is mindful of how we spend our tax dollars.

Members of the National Guard and Reserves continue to bear a significant load in the War on Terror.  In Arkansas alone, the over 11,200 member of the National Guard have been mobilized since 9/11/01 and there are over 3,000 currently deployed overseas.  They have conducted the full spectrum of operations in the War on Terror.  For example, the 213th Area Support Medical Company treated over 20,000 patients in Iraq and the 875th Engineer Battalion cleared 1244 explosive devices.  Our aviation units performed every kind of mission from medivac to air control  Our military police and related units provided security and civil support.  They are warriors all and I thank them for their service.

Fortunately, we have laws like the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act or USERRA, meant to ensure that when someone returns from military service, they find their job waiting for them.  We also have a law called the Service Members Civil Relief Act meant to protect veterans and their families in a wide variety of ways ranging from interest rates to auto leases and taxes.

Unfortunately, sometimes there are violations of these laws – usually through ignorance of the law and occasionally through outright willful disobedience.  We are here today to listen to several witnesses who will describe the effectiveness of these laws and hopefully to offer suggestions on how we might improve them.

Finally Madam Chair, I’m sure you will agree that we seldom recognize the contributions of the spouses who keep the home running while the service member is called away.  In the face of great uncertainty, our military spouses provide the members with the strength to do their duty and the faith that they will be welcomed home once their service is done.  We cannot ask for more, but they always seem to exceed our expectations.  Therefore Madam Chair, I think DoD should develop a Spouses Service Medal in recognition of their contributions to the nation’s defense.

Once again, I thank the chair for her consideration and I look forward to hearing from our witnesses.