Mitch Landrieu: “I would like to cosponsor this amendment because it helps our veterans and Guard and Reserve in two very important ways.…”

“I would like to cosponsor this amendment because it helps our veterans and Guard and Reserve in two very important ways. The Senator's portion of this helps to extend the TRICARE piece and extends also in this amendment the GI benefits for the Guard and Reserve. As I have said many times, the Guard and Reserve that is protecting us today, that is serving as the core in many instances of our Armed Forces, is not the Guard and Reserve of our fathers' or grandfathers' generations. They are citizen soldiers. They are professional soldiers. Because of policy changes we put into place, the Guard and Reserve now are picking up about 40 percent of the battlefield burdens, and they deserve a greater portion of the overall budget to support them. Do our active troops deserve support? Absolutely. But our Guard and Reserve, because they are picking up an ever-increasing responsibility regarding this war against terrorism, the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq, and even right here on the homefront, deserve more help and support.”