2012 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill

Floor Speech

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise to express my support for the fiscal year 2012 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill.

As a nation we are dedicated to taking care of our troops, those same troops who deploy into harm's way regardless of whether we are able to come to an agreement on our debt ceiling.

We are also dedicated to upholding our commitment to our veterans who have fought past wars and did so because they believed in this country and the freedoms we all enjoy today.

This bill passed the Appropriations Committee unanimously on June 30, and I'm pleased the Senate moved quickly to bring this measure to the floor for debate.

Our Nation has been at war for almost a decade. We are involved in three wars. In support of our troops on the front lines, we need to make sure they have the infrastructure they need to train and the family housing facilities they deserve.

The bill includes $11.1 billion for military construction worldwide to provide for barracks, readiness centers, schools, hospitals and clinics.

In particular, it provides the entire requested amount, $1.2 billion, for reservist construction projects.

Several of these projects from the President's budget are in Illinois, totaling some $146 million. The bill provides for Army Reserve centers in Homewood and Rockford, IL. It also provides for an Army National Guard Readiness Center in Normal, IL, as well as renovations to the Great Lakes Naval Station.

The bill provides funding for necessary projects like these all across the country.

Without them, our Guard and Reserve would struggle to maintain the training and preparations necessary in a time of war.

The bill also keeps our commitment to our veterans, some of whose lives have changed forever as a result of their service.

We are all committed to providing our veterans with the care, services and facilities they deserve, even in tough budget years.

As such, the bill provides VA medical research at $72 million above the budget request for mental health, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, burns and sensory loss.

These are key areas for a cohort of veterans who are surviving in larger numbers than previous wars due to improved medical care.

To take one example: Our men and women on the front lines are increasingly suffering brain injuries from improvised explosive device, IED, blasts. While we have advanced our understanding of how traumatic brain injury, TBI, affects the brain, there is still a lot more to learn through this research.

This funding will also continue work with prosthetics. Walter Reed Army Medical Center has done amazing work with providing prosthetics that even help return some servicemembers to their pre-injury jobs in the military.

Many use their new prosthetics and relearn how to not only take care of themselves, but also ski, ride a bike, and even fish. Without this funding our troops and veterans would not have access to the amazing medical advances which make these activities possible.

Another key area of this bill fully funds the information technology infrastructure at the VA. This will allow the agency to continue developing and improving electronic health records, paperless claims systems, and implementing the seamless integration between the DOD and the VA.

These systems should help address the claims backlog--a problem our veterans deserve to have addressed.

Yes, the VA has expanded eligibility to include those exposed to Agent Orange, a policy long time coming. Yes, there are large numbers of OEF and OIF veterans submitting claims, an unfortunate state of events.

But not one of these veterans deserves to wait for months and years for a response to their disability claim. We can do better. And we must do better.

And for our veterans who have been severely injured as a result of their service and now require full-time care, the VA has already begun accepting applications for the Caregivers Program. Over 1,100 applications have been received nationwide by the end of last month.

I am proud to have helped create this program as part of the Caregiver and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2009.

The Caregiver Program helps keep the promise our country has made to our veterans by providing comfortable and dignified home care by a family member for post-9/11 veterans.

I have met several of these veterans and their caregivers in Illinois. It has been a long and winding road, but we are finally going in the right direction and supporting those families whose servicemember was severely injured.

This bill provides 100 percent of the President's request, $208 million, for implementation of the Caregivers Program, and our veterans and their families are depending on the passage of this bill.

Americans are counting on us to pass bills and legislate. Our servicemembers are counting on us to fund their needs so they can get on with the business of keeping us safe. And our veterans are expecting us to honor our commitment and honor their service by paying for the care and services they have so rightly earned.

Senator Johnson and Senator Kirk, the managers of this bill, have put a great deal of effort into creating a spending bill that is fiscally responsible without sacrificing the needs of our men and women in uniform. I look forward to the conclusion of debate on this bill and moving to final passage.

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