Pete Sessions: “I served as a reservist for over 10 years. Some of my best friends are reservists. My Army Reserve partner is now my…”

“I served as a reservist for over 10 years. Some of my best friends are reservists. My Army Reserve partner is now my chief of staff. I have a lot of good friends in the Army Reserve and National Guard. They have a lot of needs. There is much we can do for them. I have not specifically been hearing in my State this insurance question, although I can list half a dozen other items reservists have told me that are important to them. I do not think we have had the kind of serious study about what should be our priority in helping reservists be more willing to serve. They are doing a tremendous job at this point in time. We have had 400 special forces National Guardsmen from my State in Iraq and Afghanistan; several have been wounded. They are critical to our Nation. But we have not thought this through. We do not have the $2 billion to $3 billion to spend on this program at this time. I do not believe the conferees can take that much out of existing active-duty accounts to pay for this. At this point, it is unwise. What we need to do is continue to study this matter. I chair that subcommittee, and we can talk about it and come back with priorities that benefit all reservists in a fair and equitable way and fund those expenditures.”