Byron Dorgan: “I have cosponsored the amendment offered by my colleague from Washington. I want to make a couple comments. It seems to…”

“I have cosponsored the amendment offered by my colleague from Washington. I want to make a couple comments. It seems to me, on the question of what the priorities are around here, what are the right choices, veterans health care has to rank right up at the top. We had a hearing at one point. We had Secretary Rumsfeld come, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. We asked a lot of questions about this issue because I think everyone wants the same thing. We want to say to young men and women who wear the uniform of this country: Please support this country's efforts. Go fight for freedom. Answer your country's call. And when they do, and put themselves in harm's way--and most of us understand what ``harm's way'' means because we have been over to Walter Reed, we have been out to Bethesda Naval Hospital. We have seen these young men and women with lost limbs, limbs that have been blown off, and all kinds of other wounds. We understand the sacrifice that is made. We asked the Secretary about the difference between someone who is a soldier on active duty and someone who has come home to a hospital to be treated for a lost leg or a lost limb or other devastating injuries and then is moved out of the service with a discharge--what is the difference between the level of health care for an active-duty soldier at Walter Reed or Bethesda and a veteran in a veterans hospital setting? Should there be a difference? No, there should not be.…”