Remarks by the President, Senator Bob Dole and Secretary Donna Shalala on Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors Report Implementation

Business Wire, Oct 16, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The Rose Garden

4:25 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. Thanks for coming. Welcome to the Rose Garden. I appreciate Senator Dole and Secretary Shalala and other members of their commission for joining me today. Welcome.

I just finished an inspiring meeting -- with Secretary Gates and Acting Secretary Mansfield -- with service members who were rebuilding their lives after being severely wounded in the service of our country. I wish all Americans could hear the service members talk about their strong desire to not only rehabilitate, but to enter -- be productive citizens here in America. I was most impressed by your spirit and your courage, and I -- welcome here to the White House.

I appreciate the fact that they are helping to find a -- to define a culture that says we're going to judge people by their potential, not their disabilities. I appreciate the fact that they are demonstrating the great breakthroughs in technologies that are now available for the wounded. I don't know if you noticed, two of them came in on a Segway.

Medical advances have enabled battlefield medics and hospitals to provide our wounded warriors with care that would have been unimaginable just a decade ago. Yet our system for managing this care has fallen behind; it's an old system, it's an antiquated system, it's an outdated system that needs to be changed.

You know, that's what happened at Walter Reed Army Medical Center earlier this year. First of all, the care that's provided there is magnificent. Our doctors and nurses at Walter Reed are great healers and care givers, and they've saved a lot of lives. But there were serious problems caused by bureaucratic delays and administrative failures. And we're not going to let those problems continue.

We took immediate steps to address the problems at Walter Reed. The building where out-patients were living that was substandard was shut down. They were moved to high-quality housing, and those responsible were held to account. And to ensure wounded troops at Walter Reed and other facilities across America get the care they deserve, I asked Senator Dole and Secretary Shalala to chair a bipartisan presidential commission. The commission conducted a comprehensive review of the care provided to service members returning from the global war on terror from the time they leave the battlefield through their return to civilian life.

At the end of this review, the commission submitted specific recommendations for modernizing and improving our system of care. My administration strongly supports the commission's recommendations. We've taken steps to implement them where we can through administrative action. And today we're sending Congress legislation to implement the recommendations that require legislative action.

The legislation will help us achieve three important goals. First, this legislation will modernize and improve the way we evaluate disabilities and award compensation for injured service members. Right now the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs both have their own systems for making these determinations. The commission found that this process is difficult to navigate and confusing for service members and their families. We need to streamline the system.

So this legislation will assign both departments clear and separate roles. The Defense Department will determine whether wounded warriors are still fit for service. Those unable to serve will receive a pension from the Defense Department based on their rank and length of service. Then they will move directly into the Veterans Affairs system, where they will receive compensation for their disabilities. This compensation will take into account both loss of earnings and the overall impact on the quality of life resulting from a service member's injury or disability.

This new system will also emphasize rehabilitation and retraining. It will provide new support and financial incentives for therapy and education. It will help our wounded warriors rejoin their communities. These men and women want to be productive, and they want to be active members of our society, and this legislation will help them achieve that goal.

Secondly, this legislation will strengthen support for families during the recovery process. When our service members suffer wounds, their families suffer with them. They pray beside hospital beds, they discuss the options with the doctors, and they help injured loved ones readjust to everyday life. These commitments often require family members to take long leaves of absence from work, yet many family members cannot get this time off without losing their jobs.

Our military families deserve better. So this legislation will give many parents and spouses the opportunity to take up to six months of unpaid leave when their loved ones are seriously wounded in combat. It provides severely wounded service members with aid and attended care services -- for instance, up to 40 hours per week of in-home help from an assistant -- so their families do not have to shoulder the responsibilities of caring alone.