Political Quotes

“Let me begin my thanking my colleagues on both the minority and majority sides for their support of this amendment. I rise on behalf of military retirees, all of whom are due a pension and medical benefits at age 60, as all of my colleagues are well aware. This amendment directs the Secretary of the Army to eliminate by the end of this calendar year a serious backlog that has developed in the processing of pension applications by Army personnel. My awareness of this problem began, as I think my colleagues will appreciate, with a letter that I received from a constituent, Mr. Arthur Greenberg, of Hamden, CT. Mr. Greenberg, a Vietnam veteran, retired from the military in 1984. Mr. Greenberg submitted his pension application back in February, 6 months before his 60th birthday. Recently, he called to check on the status of his claim and was told that his pension claim would not be processed until 9 months after his 60th birthday. I assumed that this was just an isolated case and merely a problem to be corrected through the normal corrections in the bureaucracy. The Army informed me, however, that this is not an isolated case, and that its retirement benefits office presently holds a backlog of 2,000 cases out of a total of 5,000. So Mr. Greenberg's situation is not the exception but fast becoming the majority of cases, in terms of pensions to be received.”