We Must Serve Our Veterans as They Have Served Us

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor all the men and women who have courageously served this country and who continue to sacrifice in order to preserve the values and the freedoms of our great Nation.

In 1919, President Wilson spoke the following words as he commemorated Armistice Day, better known to us all as Veterans Day, for the very first time:

``To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory.''

Now, of course, that was 1919, and it was a day when Americans reflected on the lives which were lost during World War I, ``the war to end all wars.'' However, then came World War II and America's engagement in Korea. Congress voted to redesignate November 11 as Veterans Day in honor of all our veterans from all our wars.

Today, of course, there are over 1.4 million men and women in Active Duty, many of whom have completed multiple deployments in areas of the world where there is mass chaos, which is foreign to many of our young servicemembers. Unfortunately, these servicemembers bring this chaos home, both physically and mentally.

Here are some staggering numbers from a recent report by the University of Southern California:

Over two-thirds of today's veterans report difficulties adjusting to civilian life.

Nearly 8 in 10 servicemembers leave the military without a job lined up.

In the area I represent, in Orange County, nearly a quarter of the veterans with jobs are earning at or below the poverty level.

These numbers, quite frankly, are very unacceptable.

In 2014, an estimate of almost 50,000 veterans were living in shelters, on the streets, or in other places not meant for human population. This is 11 percent of the adult homeless population. According to a number of studies, both male and female veterans are more likely to be homeless than their nonveteran counterparts.

How does that make sense? These men and women are brave. They are skilled. They are critical thinkers. They are dedicated. They are loyal. They love their country.

So what has gone wrong? We must not only commit to figuring out how we are failing these young men and women, but once we do, we have to be held responsible for providing the necessary resources to help them succeed outside of the military.

I understand this is a significant commitment at a time of tight budgets and the changing nature of war, and that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. In California, for example, there are 1.8 million veterans. We make up 8 percent of the total U.S. veteran population.

According to the State of California, California anticipates receiving an additional 30,000 discharged members of the armed services each year for the next several years. We have to be ready. We have to be ready for those 30,000 veterans coming along and also with the 1.8 million who already exist in California.

As these members have served their country, so must we serve them. According to the Veterans Administration, there are 22 suicides a day of our veterans.

We must once again look at the causes of that staggering number. We have identified post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury as main triggers for suicide, et cetera, but we have got to do better.

Twenty percent of new recruits will also be women. Fifteen percent of the 14 million Active Duty forces are currently women. And over 280,000 women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have to do different things for women veterans because it is not the same as the needs of male veterans.

As we all know, the VA must be looked at and we must make appropriate changes to deal with the backlog, expedite disability claims, and to ensure that all veterans receive medical assistance in a timely manner.

Lastly, we must protect what we fought hard to achieved for them: education when they return back. We must ensure that military educational benefits do not go to waste.

Next Wednesday, once again, we celebrate Veterans Day, and I urge my colleagues to work with me to ensure that we can be proud in the services and the help that we give our veterans, just as they have been proud to serve all of us.

God bless.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source