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Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank Mr. McKeon and obviously Mr. Andrews for their great stewardship of this important legislation and say the real Don't Ask, Don't Tell question that we have for our military is don't ask how many antidepressants you are on because this Nation had to call you up, not once, not twice, but three and four times.

The real Don't Ask, Don't Tell question is don't ask how many parents or how many wives are at home waiting with their children, worried about their families getting called up over and over and over again because we won't up the standing military so that we don't have to overextend these tours of duty over and over and over again, creating the largest generation of military men and women who are going to be permanently scarred because of their overextension of service of duty. That is the real Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

The Don't Ask, Don't Tell is what is the long-term cost to this country, mental health-wise, for this terrible neglect of our men and women in uniform.

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