It seems worth noting that on two major issues which Senator Whitehouse spoke on the Senate floor about, there was a great deal of media attention and some immediate action. The first issue is the firing of US Attorney Iglesias, which Whitehouse spoke about on Wednesday, and which got media coverage in The New York Times and elsewhere (including on this blog) on Thursday.

The second issue which Whitehouse has recently spoken forcefully about is the medical neglect of our Veterans, an issue which I also raised concerns about with Senator Jack Reed in an interview earlier this month. Specifically, Senator Whitehouse spoke about the case of Walter Reed Hospital. News comes today that the General in charge of Walter Reed Hospital has been fired. Here is what Whitehouse said yesterday:

Mr. President, I rise this morning because in recent days, we have learned to our great dismay that this administration has let one of our most sacred promises go unfulfilled.

In Rhode Island last week, I visited veterans convalescing at our VA hospital in Providence. On Tuesday, I talked with members of Rhode Island’s branch of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), who came to Washington to appeal for those returning from the war in Iraq.

And then of course are the many brave veterans I met throughout my state over the past several years – at American Legion posts, at senior centers, at Fourth of July and Memorial Day parades, and at our many community dinners in towns all over Rhode Island. They were men and women, young and old. They had served in our nation’s wars from World War II to Vietnam to the conflict in Iraq. And like the DAV members I met yesterday, they wanted us to hear what they had to tell us: the infuriating truth that we are failing to support our troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

When we ask ordinary men and women to do the extraordinary, and stand up and serve in harm’s way, we know we can never fully repay what they and their families have given us. But we can surely pledge to them that we will give them what they need in the field, and that when their service has ended, we will care for them adequately. Breaking that promise is a dishonor to them and their sacrifice, and it is not supporting our troops.

I believe – as do many of my colleagues – that the best way to support our troops would be to deploy them out of Iraq, and define a more sensible and responsible strategy against terror. Some on the other side of the aisle have claimed our calls for a new strategy in Iraq mean we do not support our troops. This argument is truly horrible, thoroughly false, and shows the depths to which this debate has plummeted.

Mr. President, let’s judge support for our troops within this chamber and in the Administration by real actions, not inflammatory and phony rhetoric. By that measure, it’s fair to question whether the Bush administration and those in this Chamber who support the President’s Iraq policy truly understand the needs of America’s veterans, the men and women fighting in Iraq, and those who will soon join them as this President escalates the conflict.

We want our troops now in Iraq to come home safely. They want to send tens of thousands more there. They have sent them without adequate support personnel, equipment, or armor; and without adequate assurance that, should they be injured in the line of duty, they will be properly cared for when they return.

That is not supporting the troops.

In America we have the best doctors, nurses, facilities, and medical equipment. From combat medics to VA hospitals, the military can provide our active duty military personnel and veterans with medical care that’s second to none. But despite all this, our military and veterans’ health care system has a crushing, all-encompassing problem, and that is access to care.

When servicemen and women enter the VA system, in too many cases, they begin a long, uphill battle for access to the care and benefits they need to get well and rebuild their lives. The war in Iraq triggered a flood of new veterans that risks overwhelming the VA’s system – 700,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are expected to enter the military and VA health care systems in the coming years, at a projected cost of as much as $600 billion.

According to the Army Times, the number of service members being approved for permanent disability retirement has “plunged� by more than two-thirds since 2001. The Army’s physical disability caseload has increased by 80 percent since 2001. As it attempts to process new benefits claims in fiscal year 2006, the VA is experiencing a 400,000 case backlog. Veterans frequently wait six months to two years before they begin to receive monthly benefits.

These problems are especially acute in the area of mental health. More than 73,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan treated by the VA since 2002 have been diagnosed with a potential mental disorder; more than 39,000 have been tentatively diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. 35 percent of Iraq veterans have sought psychological counseling within one year of returning home. But where the VA spent over $3,500 per veteran on mental health care in 1995, it spends just over $2,500 today – a drop of close to $1,000 per veteran.

These are troubling statistics. But they fail utterly to capture our dismay at the reports, published over the past several days in the Washington Post and Newsweek, of unacceptable living conditions for outpatients at Walter Reed Medical Center and stifling bureaucracy that blockades many veterans’ access to care.

The Washington Post wrote of soldiers living in Walter Reed facilities infested with mold and mice, unable to get new uniforms to replace those cut from their bodies by military doctors in the field, forced to bring photos and even their own Purple Hearts to prove to file clerks that they served in Iraq. Waiting months as the VA processes benefit claims in what Marine Sgt. Ryan Groves called “a nonstop process of stalling,� these soldiers and their families move from appointment to appointment and submit form after form – often to replace earlier forms already lost by the system. Many suffer from brain injuries, PTSD, or other mental health conditions, but Walter Reed’s outpatient facilities lack sufficient mental health counselors and social workers to help them navigate the system.

The Post tells us many Walter Reed outpatients now face “teams of Army doctors scrutinizing their injuries for signs of preexisting conditions, lessening their chance for disability benefits.� Veterans often must navigate the convoluted system alone, carrying stacks of medical records from appointment to appointment. The Post quoted Vera Heron, who lived on the post for over a year helping care for her son. “You are talking about guys and girls whose lives are disrupted for the rest of their lives, and they don’t put any priority on it.�

Mr. President, the care of our veterans returning home from Iraq should be among our nation’s highest priorities. For these soldiers and their families to feel as forgotten and abandoned as they do means, simply, that this administration is not serving them as it should – it is not serving them as they served us. It’s not supporting our troops.

The Air Force Times just reported that soldiers at Walter Reed have now been told not to speak to the media, and that the Pentagon has:

“clamped down on media coverage of any and all Defense Department medical facilities … saying in an email to spokespeople: ‘It will be in most cases not appropriate to engage the media while this review takes place,’ referring to an investigation of the problems at Walter Reed.�

The administration cannot, and must not, just bury its failure to support our troops. I commend our Armed Services Committee, including my senior Senator Jack Reed, for that committee’s announced hearing on conditions at Walter Reed. I hope they will be relentless in their investigation.

Mr. President, my colleagues and the constituents we represent wholeheartedly support our troops and our veterans. Anything else you hear is a lie. We believe it’s time for our soldiers to redeploy out of Iraq, because we believe that is our nation’s best strategy forward in the Middle East and to combat terror. But we also believe that as they serve and when they get home, we must make good on our promises to train and equip them in their service, and to care for them in their injury and illness. It is our obligation to do this. In the face of all we have heard and seen, that obligation, like so many others, has been failed by this administration.

…And today, the person in charge of Walter Reed is out of a job.

That’s what I call action. Thank you, Senator Whitehouse. You are coming through.