Evan Bayh: “I rise today for a cause that is essential to preserving our Nation's security by ensuring the Guard and Reserve remain…”

“I rise today for a cause that is essential to preserving our Nation's security by ensuring the Guard and Reserve remain a vital component of our national security structure. I also rise to defend our moral obligation to do right by our fellow citizens who bear the burden of battle and by their loved ones who make it possible for them to do that by supporting them here at home. No one should be forced to choose between doing right by their family and their loved ones and doing right by their country, but too often today we have placed thousands of our fellow citizens in exactly that position. That is what this amendment is designed to correct. We now have 145,000 guardsmen and reservists serving who have been called to active duty. Fully 35 percent of our troops in Iraq are guardsmen and reservists, many of them putting their lives in harm's way. Just this last week, I took the liberty of spending a couple of hours out at Walter Reed Army Hospital. Many of the most grievously injured there have served in the Guard and Reserve. We owe it to do right by them. Their deployments are lasting longer than before. Since the Korean War, it is our practice to only have them called to active duty for no more than 6 months. But today, it is routine, not at all uncommon, for them to be called to active duty for more than a year and sometimes multiple calls. Mr.…”