Byron Dorgan: “first let me say a special thank you to my colleagues from the State of Washington and the State of Texas. They have…”

“first let me say a special thank you to my colleagues from the State of Washington and the State of Texas. They have said it well. Again, I am enormously proud our bill has carried this $1.5 billion for veterans health care. There is a verse that goes: When the night is full of knives, and the lightning is seen, and the drums are heard, the patriots are always there, ready to fight and ready to die, if necessary, for freedom. Our soldiers are our patriots and when they come back from duty, duty our country called them for, we must keep our promise for veterans health care and that is what this $1.5 billion helps to do. Let me for a moment talk about the underlying bill again. There are some good things and some things I wish were better in this bill. I compliment my colleague, Senator Burns from Montana and his staff: Bruce Evans, Virginia James, Leif Fonnesbeck, Ryan Thomas, Rebecca Benn; and also on this side, Peter Kiefhaber and Rachel Taylor. We worked very hard to put a bill together with over $500 million less money than in the past year. That was not easy. Indian Health Service--I regret to say, we are still underfunded. I am told we are funding about 60 percent of the need in Indian Health Service. We just must do better in the years ahead. We have responsibility for Federal prisoners' health care. We also have trust responsibility for the health of American Indians.…”