Stand Behind Our Veterans

Floor Speech

Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Madam Speaker, I rise today to bring an important concern to my colleagues. Every one of us here has a sacred commitment to care for those warriors who are willing to serve us overseas, and one of our major concerns is making sure they're employed when they return back home.

What's alarming is the Department of Defense recently issued a change in their policy that will undermine our ability to do that. I'm referring to the Department of Defense Post-Deployment Mobilization Respite Account. This important policy is designed to give our brave warriors sufficient time to transition back into the private sector. PDMRA, as it's called, is an important tool that gives them that opportunity.

The change by the DOD reduces the number of paid transition days that were promised to our men and women after they deploy to the war zone. Halfway through, for many of them, their third or fourth deployment, DOD is now taking that back when their plans were set this spring when they returned home. While they're in Iraq and Afghanistan, that is certainly not the right thing to do.

Every single one of us wants to balance the budget and must focus us on that, simply not on the backs of veterans and warriors serving this Nation.

I ask my colleagues to join me in asking the Department of Defense to reverse course on this policy, hire our veterans, and keep our moral commitment to them.

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