Mitch Landrieu: “our Nation has always risen to the challenges of war. During such times, Congress has spared no expense to make sure…”

“our Nation has always risen to the challenges of war. During such times, Congress has spared no expense to make sure that our dedicated armed services personnel have everything they need to fight and win. We will always meet this obligation. But the men and women on the battlefield have families back home and there is more that we can do for them. I am talking about the families of the troops from Barksdale, Belle Chasse, and Fort Polk in Louisiana, as well as our guardsmen from all across the State. Every one of my colleagues represents military families. We need to make sure that we support them as well. That is why today I would like to add my voice of strong support for the Armed Forces Tax Fairness Act of 2003. I congratulate Senator Grassley, the Finance Committee chairman, and Senator Baucus, the ranking member, for bringing this bill to the floor today. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this legislation. This bill contains several provisions that would reduce taxes for members of our armed services. The bill would clarify that childcare benefits provided to military personnel are to be excluded from income, a provision based on legislation that I introduced earlier in this Congress, S. 235. In addition, the bill excludes all death gratuity payments from the income of surviving family members.”