Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs Approporations Act, 2006
MILITARY QUALITY OF LIFE AND VETERANS AFFAIRS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - May 26, 2005)
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman very much for yielding me this time. I would like to congratulate the gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards) for a fine job, with limited resources, in producing, I think, a very good work product.
I know that the gentleman from New York shares my concern for our service men and women who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with the adverse psychological effects of combat. Many of the difficulties experienced by these brave men and women can be classified as post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. As you are aware, the GAO report on VA and defense health care dated September 2004 has highlighted the lack of services at the Department of Defense military treatment facilities and VA hospitals to address the needs of these former and active duty personnel. The report language and various initiatives that you have included in our bill address this problem, and I want to thank you for your leadership.
However, the lack of services available demands that we take immediate steps to increase psychological screening and treatment for our returning troops. PTSD cannot be just a Veterans' Administration problem. The needs of our active duty men and women have to be at the forefront of our agenda, meaning that it is wrong simply to discharge service men and women because we do not have the capacity to treat them while they are on active duty.
Since most of our military hospitals lack the expertise to deal with a large influx of such patients, I would like to urge the chairman, as the bill goes to conference, to consider allowing the creation of regional centers across our country located at private hospitals or available military clinics to help meet these increasing needs.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
http://thomas.loc.gov/