The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“MEMORIAL DAY 1996--ANOTHER VIEWPOINT” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E893-E894 on May 23, 1996.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
MEMORIAL DAY 1996--ANOTHER VIEWPOINT
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HON. BOB FILNER
of california
in the house of representatives
Thursday, May 23, 1996
Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to place into the Congressional Record the following thoughts by Robert Sniffen, a U.S. Navy veteran who has served as a veteran's advocate for the past 27 years. He has held veteran-related positions in the U.S. Department of Labor and in the Center administration. He has also served as the national service and legislative director of AMVETS. Currently, Mr. Sniffen is chairman of the board for San Diego Veterans' Service, a southern California nonprofit organization dedicated to the needs and concerns of California's veterans.
Memorial Day will soon signal the traditional salute to pay homage, tribute, and honor to our nation's men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifices on behalf of the freedoms we all enjoy. Beautiful, emotion charged ceremonies, largely attended by veterans and their families, will be encapsulated into micro-second broadcast news clips and short print articles including photos for public consumption.
For those who deal daily with the survivors of military service, Memorial Day is also an appropriate date on which to inform and educate the public as to the status of the needs, issues, and concerns of veterans who have survived military service.
To date, potential legislation is floating upward in Congress to establish a Commission to evaluate programs of the federal government that assist members of the armed forces and veterans in readjusting to civilian life. It will be known as the ``Commission on Service Members and Veterans Transition Assistance''. Of the hundreds of pages of veteran legislation introduced before Congress, this ``Commission on Veterans'' is the most vital. Veteran organizations and veteran advocates must hold both presidential candidates responsible for obtaining such a commitment, before the November elections. Veterans must demand action now, or this landmark legislation will never see the light of day.
If fully enacted, the Commission will conduct a bottom-up review of programs intended to assist veterans. Veteran advocates view this potential landmark legislation as a G.I. Bill of Rights review, as well as the reading of the fine print that violates the Sacred Government Contract made with each military inductee. Those who support veteran entitlements should contact their Congressional representatives and seek their support in creating this new Commission, which will evaluate and upgrade the earned entitlements of our military personnel and our veterans.
Across America, our military personnel and veterans are disproportionately suffering the ill effects of military down-sizing, base closures, industry collapses in the defense and aerospace industries, and corporate down-sizing to increase profits. Military families and veterans are receiving food stamps; homeless veterans continue to roam the streets they fought to protect; thousands of fully qualified veterans are grossly disadvantaged economically, facing the ravages of unemployment and under-employment. Still others are shut out of the market place due to lack of re-training. There is little call for infantry or weapons skills in the high-tech information era. Training and re-training veterans must be a top priority.
Meanwhile, only three million of the twenty-eight million living veterans actually access medical treatment from the veterans medical system. Budget and deficit reductions and streamlining of the VA programs through reorganization will adversely impact senior veterans, whose numbers will grow as rapidly as their current and future medical needs explode.
While most veterans are successful and arise each day to run America, some veterans need help to reintegrate into a civilian society, as well as to overcome adverse economic factors.
Thousands, currently in the military, are shifted daily from the military pay line, to the unemployment line, becoming a family ``at risk'' who, then, may soon become the
``new'' homeless.
Veterans are being told by the Washington beancounters and Congress that veterans must sustain their share of budget cuts. It is believed that most Americans would agree that our veterans ``paid in full'' at the entry and exit doors of military service.
As the American public makes way for the beaches, mountains, and resorts on Memorial Day, veterans and their families will pause to salute our fallen heroes. Veteran organizations and their leaders will ensure that the tributes occur as their solemn duty. It is these Americans who will give appropriate thought to the survivors and non-survivors. All Americans should give greater reflection to questioning our nation's commitment, to those who have contributed most to America's ongoing survival.
Many this Memorial Day will be asking, ``Why has the contract with America's veterans been broken?'' ``How do we reinstate adequate programs for veterans in a country that now seems to approve the popular notion of budget cuts, even at great expense to those who served, survived, and now, more than ever, need our help?''
America is Number One, Thanks to Veterans, and other governmental agency slogans, such as Putting Veterans First are again singing, ``When Johnny Comes Marching Home,'' while the budget cut ``ax murderers'' blindly cut veterans' programs.
Thus, wherever one finds themselves this Memorial Day, these are thoughts worth considering--and acting upon. As Memorial Day proceeds, veterans not active in a veteran's organization may wish to consider membership in a group of their choice, and thought should be given as to methods of citizen support for veteran programs, i.e., through volunteer participation, assistance with monetary needs for local veteran organizations that serve veterans, and letting the appropriate political leaders know that veteran programs should be the first saved--and the last cut--in current and future budget considerations.
We need to remember those men and women who are in eminent danger in Bosnia, Korea, Liberia and other potential conflict sites for future veterans that will need to be honored at future Memorial Day ceremonies.
Amidst the flood of broadcast and newspaper media of the business world's ``tribute'' to another holiday sales/marketing opportunity, American needs to ``refocus'' its moral compass, directly upon those political leaders and candidates, to determine who will recognize and reverse the governmental failures over the many years before the next veteran-related holiday arrives in November of this year.
Memorial Day 1996 is, indeed, an excellent occasion to remind ourselves that this year we should salute our fallen dead and also pay a living tribute to those who did survive--only to return at a time when most Americans had lost respect and support for those who make democracy possible, worldwide and locally.
Thoughts, ideas, suggestions, and rejoinders that ``Freedom is not Free'' is designed to provoke countrymen to take positive addition to reverse the demise of the importance of protecting, rather than slashing costs--that are the aftermath of this Memorial Day * * * and future Memorial Days to come.
Let us all utilize this sacred, heartfelt day of tribute as the starting point in reinitiating dedication to keeping our commitments to veterans and their families, by insisting that government revitalize, not kill veteran's programs, as Memorial Day 1996 approaches.
The very future of America may depend upon these veteran-related issues.
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