Honor America's Guard-Reserve Retirees Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. WALZ. I thank the subcommittee chairman and the ranking member for the time. More importantly, I thank both of them and their respective staffs for the bipartisan and continuously exceptional effort to serve our veterans. I thank them for the opportunity to move this forward.

Mr. Speaker, this bill has passed the House multiple times over the last 8 years. It is very simple. It is less than 150 words, and it is very rare in that it costs nothing, but I would argue that it is very important. The men and women of the Reserve component, as you so eloquently heard by my colleagues who spoke prior, take the exact same oath of office and are held to the exact same standards as the Active component. They sacrifice their time and energy. They stand at the ready if called upon, whether it is assisting flood victims in Minnesota, fighting wildfires across the Western United States, or fighting overseas in the protection of our freedoms.

For those who have completed 20 years or more in the Guard or Reserve but who have not served a qualifying period of Title X Active Duty, we honor their service with health care benefits and monetary benefits, with one notable exception--they must call themselves ``military retirees'' and not ``veterans.'' As the gentleman from Pennsylvania noted, I think most Americans, when I talk to them, are unaware of this. Once they find out, they are appalled that we don't do it. This bill closes the loophole.

There are about 280,000 Americans who fall into this category. They have devoted their lives to our Nation--they have served honorably for 20 or 20-plus years--and this bill will recognize their service. It might be as simple as buying a hat that reads ``Army veteran'' or getting a license place for your car. It bestows no monetary benefits to these brave men and women, merely the title. Again, my colleague from Pennsylvania, I think, said it right in that it is a pretty important title--a veteran of the United States military.

It also does something else very important. In doing so, we recognize the integral role our National Guard and Reserve play in our Nation's defense. There is nothing quite so unifying or quintessentially American as the citizen soldier. Dating back to the founding of our Nation or serving overseas at a time of fighting terrorism, it is the mother who leaves her family and her law firm to serve her Nation, and it is the father who leaves his teaching job and his family to serve his Nation.

It is about recognizing that our All Volunteer Force would be unsustainable if it were not for the men and women who dedicated 20 years of their lives. And one of the most important things they did, most of those are cold war warriors who were responsible for the training of the current force that protects us.

So I thank the gentleman and the ranking member again for their commitment to our veterans.

I ask my colleagues--we are on the heels of Veterans Day here--to add these 280,000. Let's do what is right. Let's call them veterans and honor their service.

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