House Passes Rest for Our Troops

The House has just passed H.R. 3159, Ensuring Military Readiness Through Stability and Predictability Deployment Policy Act by a vote of 229-194. The bill mandates troop rest times equal to their deployment times, similar to an amendment by Senator Jim Webb, D-Va supported by 56 Senators as an amendment to the defense authorization bill. It would require active duty forces to be guaranteed that their time at home match the length of their deployment. National Guard and reservists would be home for three times the length of the deployments. The bill would allow the President to waive these requirements to meet the national security needs of the country, and allow Service Chiefs of Staff to allow for the voluntary mobilization of members. These requirements would apply to those serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The bill also expresses a sense of the Congress that the goal for the time between deployments for regular components should be one year deployed to two years at home station, and the goal for the reserve components should be one year deployed to five years at home station.

Reps. Carol Shea-Porter (NH-02), Barbara Lee (CA-09), and David Scott (GA-13) spoke in favor:

Rep. Shea-Porter: "As a former military spouse and a proud wife of a veteran, I know how important this is to military families. The President's policies have failed on many levels, but they certainly have failed on the soldiers, the troops who are suffering this great strain right now. I find it ironic that the Iraqi parliament is on vacation for a month while we stand here and tell our troops that they cannot have a break..."

Rep. Joe Sestak (PA-07) spoke in favor of the bill:

Rep. Sestak: "We found out in World War II that on average a man in that combat did 182 days of combat. Horrific combat, but 182 days on average. In this war, in those 15 months, our men and women are overseas in Iraq, every day of those 15 months, those men and women go outside the wire into combat. This is a different war. I am taken first and foremost by the reports that more are coming home with post traumatic syndrome. I am second taken with our Constitutional responsibility to make rules for the government and regulation of our armed services. And then third, I am taken by the waiver, the national security waiver that is placed within this bill..."

Rep. Ellen Tauscher (CA-10), the primary sponsor of the bill, spoke in favor:

Rep. Tauscher: "The question for the Members of the House today is, who do you stand for? Do you stand for military planners or other members of the Pentagon who have the executive branch to speak for them, or do you stand with the American people, the families of our troops and the troops themselves to be sure that we increase our readiness, to make sure that we honor their service, and their valor, and their sacrifice by making sure that they are not only retrained and ready, but they have time to be home with their family before they are redeployed?"