Published: 09-11-08
Introduces Amendments to Improve Military Voting Strengthen Safety Standards at Overseas Military Facilities & Address Energy Conservation
WASHINGTON—As the Senate continues debate this week on the FY 2009 Department of Defense Authorization Bill U.S. Sen. John Cornyn a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee is calling on the Senate Democratic leadership to include several amendments aimed at strengthening the legislation in key areas including safeguarding the voting rights of our troops overseas.
One amendment introduced by Senator Cornyn is based on the Military Voting Protection Act of 2008 (MVP Act) S. 3073 which he originally introduced in May. His bill currently has 30 Senate co-sponsors but to date Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid has not indicated he will allow it to move forward. Among other things it attempts to reduce delays and red tape in the absentee voting system currently in place for our overseas troops by requiring DoD to collect and provide for express shipping of their completed absentee ballots.
The amendment directly addresses problems that the Election Assistance Commission identified in its 2007 survey report which suggested that out of the 992034 military and overseas absentee ballots requested for the 2006 election over 660000 of these ballots never reached election officials to be counted. Of the marked ballots that reached election officials but were rejected for various reasons nearly 10 percent of these were refused because they were received after the deadline. Sen. Cornyn’s amendment will address that problem head-on.
In a speech on the Senate floor announcing his amendment this morning Sen. Cornyn said “The right to vote is one of the most precious civil rights that we have as American citizens. Yet the scandalous fact is that in the last election only 5.5 of eligible overseas military and civilian voters actually voted. If this were to happen in any city any town any state here in our country there would be a public outcry. I hope I will ultimately be given an opportunity to call this amendment up and have it voted on.”
A second amendment introduced today by Sen. Cornyn would strengthen safety standards for facilities infrastructure and equipment supporting operations of U.S. military forces overseas. Sen. Cornyn first recognized the need for this legislation in a July 9th constituent meeting with Larraine McGee of Huntsville TX. Her son Staff Sergeant Christopher Lee Everett was tragically killed in central Iraq on September 7 2005 as a result of being electrocuted while power-washing a Humvee in his unit’s motor pool at Camp Taqaddum. To date 16 troops and two contractors have been killed by electrocution while deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan in the Global War on Terror.
“This amendment seeks to ensure that the lessons DoD has learned from these tragic deaths are not lost over time” Sen. Cornyn said today. “Our troops worldwide have a reasonable expectation that their equipment and facilities will be safe. Their work environments in places like Afghanistan and Iraq are dangerous enough without added hazards ones which are clearly preventable.”
Finally Senator Cornyn said he will introduce a third amendment to promote energy conservation and reduce energy costs within the Department of Defense. The conservation of oils and lubricants can provide energy environmental and economic benefits. There are processes available to recycle used fluids or sell them to a business that can re-refine the contaminated product and use it has another energy source or for its original purpose.
The purpose of the amendment is to have the Department of Defense conduct a review of its used petroleum and lubricating oil programs and implement the measures needed to increase conservation of energy natural resources and other environmental benefits reduce the waste of used motor vehicle and other lubricating oils and maximize cost savings.
“The Department of Defense is the largest consumer of fuels in the United States. As the price of oil has continued to rise in recent years the DOD has spent a significant amount of dollars -- $12.6 billion -- to purchase the necessary petroleum oil and lubricants needed to support their missions. Reducing the amount of energy DoD needs to operate is smart policy with energy environmental and economic benefits” Sen. Cornyn concluded.
