Kay Bailey Hutchison: “Of course they get health care--treatment for their injury. But assume their injury then keeps them from being able to…”

“Of course they get health care--treatment for their injury. But assume their injury then keeps them from being able to stay at the academy; they have to be let go because they no longer can perform the physical functions. Then they go into the private sector and their health care continuity would be assured under this amendment as they would get a small disability as well because they were in training. ROTC, today, does give health care benefits if they are injured in training, but it is under the Department of Labor, and it is under workers' compensation. There has been a dissatisfaction with the kind of treatment they have been able to receive, and the Department of Labor and workers' compensation doesn't have the same understanding of a military injury. All we are doing--and this costs absolutely nothing--we are just transferring the benefit from the Department of Labor to the Department of Defense so these young people would be able to get continued health care for whatever their injury was when it was in the line of duty.”