On the recordJune 27, 2019
I approach to say how much I appreciate my colleagues, Senator Merkley and Senator Kaine, for their eloquent thoughts on an important issue of our time. Let me also now rise in total frustration on a completely different issue--but total frustration, bafflement, and, quite frankly, just angry and disappointed in this body. I am angry because we have turned our back for over 40 years on military families. We have turned our backs on the widows of the very men and women who have given their lives to protect this country, to uphold our democratic ideals, and to make possible the very work that we are doing in the Senate and the very work that we, as Members of the Senate and as Members of Congress, are charged to do every day on behalf of the American people and, particularly, on behalf of veterans and their families. I am talking about this body's refusal to bring up the Military Widow's Tax Elimination Act--the refusal to bring it up for a single floor vote--despite the fact that we have 75 cosponsors--75 cosponsors of this bill. It is the most bipartisan legislation, except for the robocall bill, which everybody could agree on. And we can't get that to a vote in this body? Where have we gone wrong? Where have the rules of the body--the rules that the leadership of both parties are operating under--gone off the rails that we can't bring this to a vote, to just get a simple up-or- down vote, on a process that is ripe, and that is the NDAA?…
