Barbara Mikulski: “I support our troops and their families. I am behind them 100 percent. They deserve our gratitude, not just with words…”

“I support our troops and their families. I am behind them 100 percent. They deserve our gratitude, not just with words but with deeds. We must do right by our troops and their families. This strong emergency supplemental appropriations bill helps us do just that. In this bill we have provided $5.4 billion to fix or replace equipment that has been damaged during combat operations. We have also added $3.3 billion to add armor to all convoy trucks, buy more armored vehicles and provide helicopter survivability systems. To help protect our troops from deadly improvised explosive devices, IEDs, I supported the addition of $60 million for the Army to purchase field jamming systems $213 million for the Army to purchase Up-Armored Humvees. We have preserved support for C130J aircraft, so vital to transporting troops and materiel around the world. To ensure that we do all we can to care for soldiers when they are injured, this bill includes an additional $275 million for the Defense Health program. It also eliminates a petty charge to some service members recuperating from combat injuries in military facilities who are being asked to pay for their own meals. More than 1,700 servicemen and -women have made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan. Part of the debt of gratitude we owe the families they leave behind is to ensure that they do not have to face a financial crisis at the same time that they are dealing with the loss of a loved one.…”