Mitch Landrieu: “On behalf of myself, Senator Murray, Senator Mikulski, Senator Lincoln, Senator Daschle, Senator Reid of Nevada, Senator…”

“On behalf of myself, Senator Murray, Senator Mikulski, Senator Lincoln, Senator Daschle, Senator Reid of Nevada, Senator Nelson of Florida, Senator Johnson, Senator Clinton, and on behalf of 5.5 million members of the military coalition and their families, I ask my colleagues to consider giving us the 51 votes necessary to pass this important amendment tonight. This amendment will restore the full pension promised and counted on by widows and widowers of our military personnel. This particular group of patriots is ironically the only group of Federal employees to see their pension plan reduced by an average of 37 percent. If we receive 51 votes in this Chamber tonight, there will be 250,000 widows, primarily, some widowers, who will see their pensions increased, and over a million potential widows and widowers will see their pension increased. If we do not pass this amendment, all of these families and widows will receive hundreds of dollars less per month than they were counting on and we promised.”