Eva M. Clayton: “I also want to commend both sides of the House, both the majority and the minority on this issue, for allowing this to…”

“I also want to commend both sides of the House, both the majority and the minority on this issue, for allowing this to come up. I want to pay particular attention to the care and attention and the direction that the gentleman from California [Mr. Dellums] gave to this issue, and thank the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Bateman] for leading this effort on his side. We would not be here unless there was cooperation on both sides. I want to acknowledge that. This issue came to me because 125 National Guardsmen in eastern North Carolina had experience going at the direction of their country, serving their country they thought well, but also having to pay for that engagement. What it meant was they had to pay for the shipment of their personal goods back to the United States. Here before, military personnel would be reimbursed for the shipment of their personal goods. Why? Because there had been an administrative change or policy change within the administration of the Pentagon. When we brought that to them, they said unless we actually sought legislative remedy, they could not make this correction, which we thought was an issue of fairness for the 125 military personnel in eastern North Carolina. We did it for the whole. So this particular legislation now is going to enable more than 4,200 individuals to be reimbursed, as they should be, for the transfer of their personal goods back home.”