Wounded Warrior Assistance Act Of 2007
Floor Speech
WOUNDED WARRIOR ASSISTANCE ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - March 28, 2007)
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Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of H.R. 1538, Wounded Warrior Assistance Act of 2007, and I urge my colleagues to join me in voting in favor of it.
I support H.R. 1538 because I believe our men and women in uniform who have served our country deserve the best possible care when they return home. The conditions that were recently uncovered at Walter Reed Army Medical Center were disturbing and unacceptable. In addition, thousands of soldiers are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and we need to further improve the conditions of the Department of Defense and Veterans Administration health care systems in order to meet this need. As the Representative for Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base, and as a veteran myself, I have always made the needs of our soldiers and veteran and their families high on the priority list.
H.R. 1538 is a bipartisan bill that improves the lives of our veterans in several ways. This legislation will improve the access to quality medical care for service members who are outpatients at military health care facilities, restore efficiency to the disability evaluation system, and streamline the transition of wounded service members from the Armed Forces to the Veterans Administration. By establishing a system or patient advocates and independent medical advocates, and improving the system of case managers for wounded service members, H.R. 1538 makes sure that veterans are getting the care that they need. In addition, this bill improves training and reduces caseloads for these managers so that service members and their families can get more individual attention. Finally, H.R. 1538 establishes a national toll-free hotline so that service members and families have a mechanism for reporting problems and deficiencies in their treatment.
I urge my colleagues to join me in voting for H.R. 1538, Wounded Warrior Assistance Act of 2007, and improving the quality of care for our Nation's veterans.
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