Senate Floor Speech
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
November 18, 2005 -- Page: S13300

MRS. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I believe what we bring before the Senate today is a product worthy of our support. The conference report has been crafted under two different approaches. What I believe has emerged is not only a good compromise but also makes strides in both oversight and policy. What has emerged is a solid recommendation.

I thank my chairman, Senator Cochran, for his leadership. This subcommittee faced some extreme budgetary shortfalls, and without his leadership, and basically allocating more resources to this committee, we would not be able to bring this conference report to the Senate today.

I also especially thank my ranking member, Senator Feinstein, for her constant support and willingness to work together. I thank her staff as well: Christian Evans, B.G. Wright, and Chad Schulken for their hard work and professionalism, along with my great staff, Tammy Cameron, Dennis Balkham, and Sean Knowles. It has been a team effort and I appreciate that so much.

The military construction portion of our bill provides $6.2 billion for military construction, $5.1 billion of which is for Active Component construction, and $1.1 billion for Reserve Component construction. It also includes $4 billion for family housing. There is $1.75 billion for BRAC implementation and cleanup for both 2005 and prior rounds. The conference agreement also provides necessary services for our service men and women and their families, not only enabling them to effectively do their jobs, but also providing an improved quality of life in our military communities. This is important for many reasons. Of course, it is the right thing to do for our military. It is also the smart thing to do with our tax dollars. In this time of war and frequent deployments, recruiting and retention, maintaining a ready and available workforce is very much on the minds of our military leaders. We often say, in this era of an All Volunteer Force: You recruit individuals, but you retain families. The quality-of-life improvements that make our military communities great places to live are crucial in the retention of military families. Within this conference report before you, we fund projects that will improve the lives of those families. We fund 11 family housing privatization projects, which will provide high-quality, market-standard housing for nearly 15,000 military families; 39 barracks projects that will get our single soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines out of substandard living conditions, or, in some cases, off ships and into first-rate facilities; and schools, child development centers, and family support centers that will ensure our servicemembers' children and spouses are cared for, are included in this bill.

These improvements make it easier for troops to deploy, to focus on their day-to-day jobs, while giving them the peace of mind that comes with knowing their families and homes are taken care of, so they can give their attention to the job we are asking them to do--protecting America. The conference report provides the first piece to the most recent BRAC round. With the funds provided, it places priority on those funds which are critical to carrying out BRAC, while providing the necessary financial oversight of the resources provided.

For our veterans, we have fully funded the President's request for veterans benefits and health care. This has not been easy. House and Senate conferees have provided $22.547 billion for medical services, which includes $1.225 billion in emergency funding to fully meet the President's amended request for medical care for the country's veterans. This conference has strongly responded to the VA's recent budgetary shortfall by putting in place stringent financial reporting requirements in an effort to avoid the repeat of budget crises witnessed this summer in VA health care.

We have fully funded the request for medical facilities and infrastructure, totaling $3.3 billion for fiscal year 2006. We have created three Centers of Excellence for mental health care, while at the same time fully funding health care for post traumatic stress disorder and other mental health care throughout the VA.

The conference has funded medical and prosthetic research at $412 million, which is $19 million more than the President's request. This is important because we know many of our troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from loss of limbs, to a greater extent than we have seen before. So we want the research to make sure the prostheses they have make them fully ambulatory and able to function in the rest of their lives.

The conference takes the unprecedented step of providing $15 million specifically dedicated to Gulf War Illness research for this year and the next 4 fiscal years, fulfilling the Research Advisory Commission's recommendations on Gulf War Illness. This is a disease for which we must determine the cause so we can treat the one in six who returned from the Gulf War with these symptoms and protect future service men and women from contracting this disorder.

The conference report before you today establishes a new account within the VA dedicated to information technology systems. Not only does this new account provide for increased oversight and consolidated information technology efforts within the VA, it codifies the new position of a VA Chief Information Officer and subsequent reorganization. I believe this is a critical step toward helping the VA achieve success in medical recordkeeping and medical record availability. Its HealtheVet-electronic patient records project paid great dividends during the recent hurricanes.

In fact, the conference report has also responded to the recent hurricanes by providing the VA authority to establish an Assistant Secretary for Disaster Preparedness, something which will enable the VA to better respond to future disaster situations.

Finally, we have provided $1 million over the President's request for the American Battle Monuments Commission for an environmental study to save the eroding monument at Normandy Cemetery.

All in all, I believe the conference report before the Senate provides much-needed resources and does so while maximizing our limited resources in meeting the greatest needs of our military, their families, and our veterans.

On a personal note, I want to say I have worked very closely with Secretary Jim Nicholson of the VA, and I know of his dedication to doing what is right for our veterans, something we all wish to do. I appreciate his leadership. We owe our active-duty military, our Guard and Reserves, who stand ready to serve, and our veterans, who have served, the care of our country. We have achieved these goals in the conference report today.

Therefore, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this conference report.