Pete Sessions: “I share Senator Durbin's respect for our men and women in uniform. I served over 10 years in the Army Reserve. I have…”

“I share Senator Durbin's respect for our men and women in uniform. I served over 10 years in the Army Reserve. I have made three trips to Iraq as a member of the Armed Services Committee. We work on those issues on a daily basis. The last time I was in Iraq we were meeting with soldiers, and I had one tell me his business had been hurt by him being there. He lost income, and he was worried about it. We discussed that with the soldiers there. Then later he came up to me and said: I want you to know, Senator, one hour from now I am signing up for another 7 years. It made me proud to know that we have that kind of service personnel who are serving their country well. How we ought to compensate them, how we ought to benefit them is something all of us need to consider. We are having increased compensation plans, increased bonuses for reenlistment, and other increasing benefits for our personnel because we love them. We respect them. We want to affirm them. We want to carry our part of the burden that they are carrying as they serve us in dangerous areas of the globe today. I want to point out, though, and bring ourselves back to where we are, this is not a bill that deals with American health insurance. It is not a bill that deals with compensation for the military. It is not legislation that should set bank lending rates. That is a Banking Committee issue, and it has been raised against this bill on a number of occasions.”