Bill Nelson: “I wish to commend him. I wish to say, first of all, he is an exceptionally passionate and knowledgeable source of…”

“I wish to commend him. I wish to say, first of all, he is an exceptionally passionate and knowledgeable source of valuable information to us on the Armed Services Committee. The proposal he has outlined, which will be in the form of an amendment to the Department of Defense authorization bill, has exceptional common sense attached to it--that you don't deploy troops unless they are trained and unless they have enough time to reevaluate, reequip, rearm, and retrain. I thank the Senator for his contribution. I am certainly inclined to support his amendment. This Senator from Florida will have an amendment that we have been trying for 7 years to pass to take care of the widows and orphans. Even President Lincoln, in his second inaugural address, said that one of the greatest obligations in war is to take care of the widow and the orphan. The U.S. Government ought to plan as an expense of the cost of a war taking care not only of the veterans but of their widows, widowers, and orphans. What we have done in law is, where we provide for a survivor's benefit plan that the military member pays for out of their check, that plan, in fact, is offset by the disability compensation that family member gets from the Veterans' Administration. This Senator is going to continue this quest until we finally prevail to get that offset removed. Of course, the objection to it is it costs $9 billion over 10 years.”