Sen. Specter Supports Shinseki
Washington, D.C. – United States Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) expressed his support for retired General Eric Shinseki, Veterans Affairs Secretary-designate, at today’s Senate confirmation hearing. Senator Specter and General Shinseki also met in Senator Specter’s office on January 7, 2009 to discuss General Shinseki’s nomination, at which time Senator Specter and General Shinseki expressed their mutual desire to build a strong Veterans Affairs Department for the 21st century.
“We have a lot of work to do to provide adequate funding,” Senator Specter said during his opening statement. “We tend to forget about the veterans after they’ve done their job, and I’ve urged General Shinseki to be a tough advocate for the Office of Management and Budget. I’m pleased to support you, General.”
Senator Specter is the longest serving Republican member on the Veterans Affairs Committee. He has served on the committee during his entire tenure in the Senate, and has served three terms as chairman.
As a senior member of the Appropriations Committee and a former chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, Senator Specter has worked hard for our nation’s veterans. He has:
Consistently supported large increases for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ budget, including a $3.9 billion increase for the Veterans Health Administration for fiscal year (FY) 2009;
Recently helped secure $295 million between FY2004 and FY2009 for major construction associated with the consolidation of campuses at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System;
Recently helped secure over $40 million for the construction of a national veterans’ cemetery for Southeastern Pennsylvania;
Consistently fought for lower priced prescription drugs for our veterans, as well as improvements to veterans’ education, job training, employment preference, and transition assistance benefits.
Senator Specter’s full statement from the hearing follows:
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I am pleased to be here to join in the accolades for General Shinseki.
It was interesting to hear the opening statements of Senator Dole and Senator Inouye. Senator Dole and I have a common heritage coming from the same little town in Kansas, 4,998 people. It used to have 5,000 until Dole and I left town. I moved there when I was twelve. He was away at college; he was a much older man at that time. I’ve pretty much caught up with him.
To hear Senator Inouye’s recitation of General Shinseki’s illustrious career really tells it all. A West Point grad. I had the opportunity to meet General Shinseki about a decade ago in Bosnia. I was very much impressed with his record then and was impressed when I had a chance to sit down and talk to him a few days ago.
He has a very, very difficult job. The United States has become a great powerful nation because of what our fighting men and women have done, from the Revolutionary War on.
I had a special interest in Veterans Affairs which led me to select this as a first committee. I had the honor to chair it for some 6 years. My interest arose because of my father who was a veteran of World War I. My dad was born in Russia and he was 18 in 1911 and the Czar wanted to send him to Siberia. He didn’t want to go to Siberia; he heard it was cold there. He wanted to go to Kansas – it was a close call. But he got to Kansas, where I was born. He served in World War I and he was wounded in action. He carried shrapnel in his legs from the Argonne Forest until the day he died, including the days when he drove a big truck full of junk onto the scale of Doran Dole who ran the grain elevator in Russell, Kansas. Bob’s father – the only scale big enough to weigh the truck.
The federal government promised the veterans a bonus of $500 – a lot of money in those days, still a lot of money. The government broke the promise, which the government too often does to the veterans. There was a march on Washington. My father didn’t participate because he could not walk that far and he did not have the train fare. On that day they killed veterans right out here on the mall; one of the blackest days in American history. When I heard about that as a toddler - I think it’s hard to know what motivates a person – but that made up my mind to come to Washington to get my father’s bonus, figuratively speaking. I haven’t gotten it yet, so I’m running for reelection.
We have a lot of work to do to provide adequate funding. We tend to forget about the veterans after they have done their job, and I have urged General Shinseki to be a tough advocate for the Office of Management and Budget. I’m pleased to support you, General.
We have the Holder hearing tomorrow so, regrettably, I’m not going to be able to stay, but nothing would change my mind anyway. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
(Photo Courtesy of Sen. Specter's Office)
“We have a lot of work to do to provide adequate funding,” Senator Specter said during his opening statement. “We tend to forget about the veterans after they’ve done their job, and I’ve urged General Shinseki to be a tough advocate for the Office of Management and Budget. I’m pleased to support you, General.”
Senator Specter is the longest serving Republican member on the Veterans Affairs Committee. He has served on the committee during his entire tenure in the Senate, and has served three terms as chairman.
As a senior member of the Appropriations Committee and a former chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, Senator Specter has worked hard for our nation’s veterans. He has:
Consistently supported large increases for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ budget, including a $3.9 billion increase for the Veterans Health Administration for fiscal year (FY) 2009;
Recently helped secure $295 million between FY2004 and FY2009 for major construction associated with the consolidation of campuses at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System;
Recently helped secure over $40 million for the construction of a national veterans’ cemetery for Southeastern Pennsylvania;
Consistently fought for lower priced prescription drugs for our veterans, as well as improvements to veterans’ education, job training, employment preference, and transition assistance benefits.
Senator Specter’s full statement from the hearing follows:
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I am pleased to be here to join in the accolades for General Shinseki.
It was interesting to hear the opening statements of Senator Dole and Senator Inouye. Senator Dole and I have a common heritage coming from the same little town in Kansas, 4,998 people. It used to have 5,000 until Dole and I left town. I moved there when I was twelve. He was away at college; he was a much older man at that time. I’ve pretty much caught up with him.
To hear Senator Inouye’s recitation of General Shinseki’s illustrious career really tells it all. A West Point grad. I had the opportunity to meet General Shinseki about a decade ago in Bosnia. I was very much impressed with his record then and was impressed when I had a chance to sit down and talk to him a few days ago.
He has a very, very difficult job. The United States has become a great powerful nation because of what our fighting men and women have done, from the Revolutionary War on.
I had a special interest in Veterans Affairs which led me to select this as a first committee. I had the honor to chair it for some 6 years. My interest arose because of my father who was a veteran of World War I. My dad was born in Russia and he was 18 in 1911 and the Czar wanted to send him to Siberia. He didn’t want to go to Siberia; he heard it was cold there. He wanted to go to Kansas – it was a close call. But he got to Kansas, where I was born. He served in World War I and he was wounded in action. He carried shrapnel in his legs from the Argonne Forest until the day he died, including the days when he drove a big truck full of junk onto the scale of Doran Dole who ran the grain elevator in Russell, Kansas. Bob’s father – the only scale big enough to weigh the truck.
The federal government promised the veterans a bonus of $500 – a lot of money in those days, still a lot of money. The government broke the promise, which the government too often does to the veterans. There was a march on Washington. My father didn’t participate because he could not walk that far and he did not have the train fare. On that day they killed veterans right out here on the mall; one of the blackest days in American history. When I heard about that as a toddler - I think it’s hard to know what motivates a person – but that made up my mind to come to Washington to get my father’s bonus, figuratively speaking. I haven’t gotten it yet, so I’m running for reelection.
We have a lot of work to do to provide adequate funding. We tend to forget about the veterans after they have done their job, and I have urged General Shinseki to be a tough advocate for the Office of Management and Budget. I’m pleased to support you, General.
We have the Holder hearing tomorrow so, regrettably, I’m not going to be able to stay, but nothing would change my mind anyway. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
(Photo Courtesy of Sen. Specter's Office)
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