On the recordMay 21, 2013
I appreciate you yielding on this. And I appreciate not only the gentlewoman from Indiana, but the gentlewoman from Hawaii for bringing this legislation. I bring a little bit different perspective to this. As a chaplain in the military and working with our heroes who have been wounded and coming from bodies that were strong and healthy and vibrant to a situation in which now they're put in a position that they've never been in, in some ways a dependency, and counseling in those roles and seeing them having to go through this process, which is inconsistent and frankly unfair, I think this is the reason I strongly support this legislation. But I also support it from a different perspective. Having a daughter who has been in a wheelchair since she was able to walk--as we call it, ``roll''--she's never known anything different. And so we've had to adjust over time, and she's adjusted in ways of going through screenings and going through processes like that. But when you balance what our wounded warriors have done, heroes who came home who had healthy bodies and now have bodies that are not healthy, this is something that will provide them a measure of dignity--and it is an honor to stand here and support this legislation--because I believe that an inconsistency in this area is an inconsistency in what we believe as Americans in what those men and women have done for us.…
