[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 8] [House] [Pages 10248-10249] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]HELPING OUR VETERANS Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to go out of order. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from Ohio is recognized for 5 minutes. There was no objection. Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, Ohio is home to one million veterans and servicemembers. On May 22, a couple, 3 weeks ago, the Pentagon announced that the names, the Social Security numbers and other personal information of 26.5 million veterans and their spouses, including most of the 1 million in Ohio, across the country, including every living veteran discharged since 1975, had been stolen from the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs data analyst. Now, this is a department, the VA, which has a leader, a political appointee, who was rewarded for his service as a national party chair for one of the two political parties, not someone who was put in place because of his lifetime dedication to veterans. This breach of confidence at the VA is unacceptable. To fix this, our government owes to veterans, we should offer veterans free credit reports and work with America's credit bureaus to waive fees associated with placing security alerts on their credit accounts. We should be willing to reimburse veterans for costs caused by identity theft resulting from this scandal, and we should amend the bankruptcy law passed by this body last year. When the bill was then considered, I opposed it, as did many in this body, in part because it did not extend bankruptcy protections to victims of identity theft, which is what could happen to many of these veterans. Veterans trusted that their government would protect this personal information. They did not think this Department of Veterans Affairs would be run by a political operative. We must regain that trust by taking the important steps I just mentioned. Ten days ago, we all honored our veterans and honored those who died in the line of duty on Memorial Day. Once the parades were completed, once the graveside ceremonies were finished, too many politicians came back to Washington, simply not concerned about [[Page 10249]] what happens to veterans in this country. Negligent policy and irresponsible budgets have endangered the care available to veterans. We have failed to adequately fund the VA health care system to improve the quality of health care, to reduce the wait times for all veterans. As good as the service is at VA hospitals like Brexfield, like Wade Park in greater Cleveland, all over Ohio, and all the VA clinics all over our State, veterans too often have to wait too long for care. We need to provide enhanced mental health care service for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Returning veterans should have access to first-rate education benefits through an enhanced 21st century GI bill and job training programs. Current benefits for vets with 4 years of active duty military service cover less than two-thirds of the average cost of tuition and fees at a 4-year public college. We should be covering more of that cost. We must not forget, it is not just the veterans; it is the families and children of servicemembers and veterans who also are sacrificing for their country. We should recognize and reward their sacrifices by helping to ease the burden they carry while their loved ones are deployed. We should protect family budgets by giving tax breaks to maintain reservists' family income. We should support tax incentives to help ensure that reservists called up for active duty do not suffer a pay cut. We should offer financial incentives to small businesses that want to do the right thing and be patriotic, that allow activated reservists to return to their good jobs. No other group of Americans has stood stronger, has stood braver for our democracy, for our way of life than our servicemembers and veterans. They deserve a government for a change, not one that has shortchanged them, not one that celebrates Memorial Day and Veterans Day and then turns its back on veterans, like far too many people in this body that would rather give tax breaks to the rich and then cut veterans' benefits. That is not what we need. Veterans deserve, all of us deserve, a government that is committed to the same values that those soldiers, those Marines, those veterans fought to preserve. ____________________