Byron Dorgan: “the Bond-Mikulski amendment described by the Senator from Missouri makes a great deal of sense to me. It seems to me…”

“the Bond-Mikulski amendment described by the Senator from Missouri makes a great deal of sense to me. It seems to me that keeping our promise to our veterans is also a part of national security and national defense. We have a very serious problem in the VA health care system. It is going to grow worse, not better, and we need to add these resources. As we know, the number of people who have been wounded in Iraq and are going to come back home and justifiably lay claim to the health care they were promised in our VA system, we must provide the funding for that. I think all of us in this Chamber have had the experience of visiting with veterans with respect to their experience in the VA health care system. They will tell us of seeing the posters of Uncle Sam pointing at them saying, Uncle Sam wants you, and on the bottom of the poster it said, free health care for life. Many of our veterans have experienced something substantially less than that when they come home from having served our country, and that is why I think it is very important for us to provide the funding that is needed in the VA health care system.”