We Must Do More for Our Veterans

Floor Speech

Mr. HIMES. Mr. Speaker, in my 16 months in Congress, the most challenging thing I have had to do has not had to do with energy or health care or our economy. The hardest thing I have had to do has been to stand in front of 700 Connecticut National Guard troops who are deploying to Afghanistan, 18, 19, 20, 21 years old, young people who had raised their hand and said, I will serve my country. I will die for you and for your freedoms. And I thought, how can we thank a young person who will say that and who will do that? The answer is we can't, we can't possibly. But we can thank them through our actions. We can do what we did in passing the GI Bill to provide college education to our troops, to give businesses a $2,400 tax credit for hiring unemployment veterans, providing nearly 2 million disabled veterans with a $250 economic recovery payment.

I am proud of what this House has done for our veterans in the last 16 months and, as we approach Memorial Day, remind my colleagues of the need to do more for those who say that they will sacrifice for us.

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