Veterans Employment Rights Realignment Act of 2009

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3219, as amended, the Veterans' Benefits Act of 2010.

This is an omnibus benefit and health bill that contains many provisions to help veterans and their families. I am glad that we were finally able to work this out with the Senate and, really, pass many of the provisions that the House had passed previously in the summer of 2009.

This bill contains many provisions authored also by my Republican colleagues, including:

The Pat Tillman Scholarship Initiative that would require the VA to publish a list of college scholarship opportunities for veterans on their Web site. This initiative grew from a meeting that my staff had with the family of the U.S. Army Ranger and former NFL star, Pat Tillman.

After Tillman's death in Afghanistan, his family and friends founded the Pat Tillman Foundation. Foundation staff informed my staff that they were having problems educating and reaching potential veterans for college scholarships they were awarding. This provision will assist groups like the Pat Tillman Foundation by informing veterans of scholarship opportunities for veterans by placing them on their Web site.

We also have the reauthorization of the Homeless Veteran Reintegration Program. This program is run by the Department of Labor's Veterans Employment and Training Service and provides grants to local homeless veteran providers for job-skill training and counseling. This program has been lauded as one of the most successful programs in the Federal Government in combating homelessness.

I am also pleased that we were able to include an expansion of this program to local homeless providers that offer job skill training for homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children. This is an initiative that I have worked on, and I appreciate the cooperation of the majority to make this, in fact, a reality.

I took up a cause with regard to addressing this in the 1990s, when the Clinton administration went into a lot of the inner cities and wanted to help recruit women with children, as we were doing the welfare reform initiatives, and bring them into the military. So they joined the military and then they also brought their children. When they left the military, some actually returned to welfare and some became homeless. The fact that we have women with children in America who are homeless, I could not stand that thought.

So I want to thank the majority for working with us in making these provisions a reality.

This expansion was originally drafted as H.R. 293 and was part of the Nobel Warrior Initiatives that I introduced in January of 2009. Unfortunately, this program is needed, as I said, because recent reports also by the VA indicate 9 percent of the homeless veteran population is women, many of whom have children. These individuals obviously require a safe and supportive environment in a private setting in which they can regain their footing and acquire skills which will lead them to meaningful employment. Once that occurs, they become self-enriched, and they also become better mentors to their children.

I hope that this expansion, more homeless veteran providers, will expand beyond their normal male-dominated services to assist women as well as homeless veterans with children.

Another one of my provisions in H.R. 3219, as amended, would allow veterans to purchase additional amounts of Veterans Group Life Insurance coverage. Currently the amount of VGLI coverage that a veteran can have cannot be changed. Because the level of coverage must be made within the first year of a servicemember's discharge, and because most of the separating servicemembers are young and single, many select levels that become insufficient as they age and have families. The provision would allow veterans to purchase up to $400,000 of VGLI coverage in $25,000 increments every 5 years until age 60. The cost of such increases would be offset by premiums, so there would be no direct cost to taxpayers.

This provision would also allow veterans to tailor their life insurance coverage to fit their current needs and provide greater security for their families, and I am glad it was included in the bill.

The final provision I would like to highlight was introduced by the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, John Boozman. This provision would establish a program to make grants of up to $200,000 to encourage the development of new assistive technologies for specifically adaptive housing.

The goal of this provision is to encourage the development of technology to provide the maximum level of independence to severely disabled veterans in their daily living. This includes emerging technologies such as voice command operations, integrated computer- managed functions, and fall prevention devices, and I am pleased this measure will also authorize much of the needed funding for this goal.

I am also pleased this bill includes many other improvements for veterans and their families, such as creating a new veterans energy- related employment program; increasing training for veteran employment specialists; increasing protections for deployed servicemembers under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act in regard to cell phone contracts; providing numerous VA life insurance program improvements; increasing the plot and burial allowance for deceased veterans; authorizing aid and attendance benefits for veterans with traumatic brain injury; increasing the number of veterans who can begin receiving independent living services; expanding eligibility for adaptive auto grants to disabled veterans and servicemembers with severe burn injuries; and requiring a National Academies study of best treatments for chronic multisymptom illness in Persian Gulf veterans.

It authorizes the funding for construction of medical facilities and/ or community outpatient clinics in Long Beach, California; Billings, Montana; Boston, Massachusetts; San Francisco, California; and San Juan, Puerto Rico. We also have an increase in here with regard to the hospital in New Orleans.

Under section 902 of title IX under ``construction,'' the modification of authorization for the amount of medical facility construction projects previously authorized for the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, increases from $625 million to $995 million.

The reason I stopped to highlight that is I am going to exercise some disappointment, because we were never able to achieve a joint facility and agreement to actually save money by having some jointness here between Tulane and LSU and another one of the hospitals. This is a lost opportunity. It is really unfortunate. So we are going to be building another one of these big state-of-the-art VA hospitals, and it costs now about $1 billion.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I reserve my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank the highly capable staff of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, not only the full committee, but also the subcommittees. It seems that each session of Congress both bodies pass so many different individual pieces of legislation that we have picked up as a now regular course of doing business creating an omnibus bill.

So we do a puts and takes, back and forth between the House and the Senate, and we actually then create a much larger bill that we then bring to the floor that can best serve the interests of America's veterans.

And that's in fact what we have here. This is really a very good bill. I couldn't begin to tell you, Mr. Speaker, how many hours have gone into the development of this bill. It is a bipartisan bill. I really appreciate the work of not only my colleagues in the Senate, but also their staff.

At this time I would specifically like to mention the leadership of Colonel Malcom Shorter. I would like to thank you for your leadership, sir, on the committee. I recognize it and it is appreciated. And to your counterpart, your pilot, an Air Force colonel himself, Kingston Smith, the Republican House staff director. The two staff directors I think worked very well together, both having worn the uniform. You don't get caught down in the fights between political parties. You think about serving the men and women in uniform. And for that I want to congratulate both of you for keeping everyone focused.

I also want to thank David Tucker. David is someone that I have known for a lot of years on the committee. I find him to be a man of distinct honor and integrity. You have always been a very straight shooter, David. Also, he is one whereby if in fact you raise an issue of law or I have raised an issue of law, we diligently dive into it and we get our interpretations and we also get Kingston Smith for his read. But I have had a distinct pleasure, David, of working with you over the years, and I want to recognize your valuable contribution not only in this bill, but what you have done over the years. I consider your talent valuable, but I consider your friendship even more.

To Juan Lara, the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, the staff director, thank you very much for your work with Mike Brinck on the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity. Not only do you two work together, but you also take the leads of Stephanie Herseth Sandlin and Dr. Boozman. And, as I said many times, this subcommittee sets the pace not only for the House Veterans' Affairs Committee itself, but I think you set the pace for the entire Congress. This little subcommittee, how you work together interoperably, you can't even tell who is a Republican and who is a Democrat. For that, I congratulate you. I think America would rejoice and may even be surprised that somebody in this town thinks about being an American first. So I want to thank you for your leadership and being a pacesetter.

Kimberly Ross, the Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs staff director, along with Brian Lawrence, the Subcommittee on Disability Assistance Republican Staff Director, both are also pacesetters and don't always get all the attention that they should. Brian, along with Mike Brinck, these are two individuals that are also incredibly talented. Mike, I really appreciate all the years that I have had the opportunity to work with you. And, Jon, I would say for you, you're an individual for whom much is expected. I truly believe that.

I guess I am at that point in my career, Mr. Speaker, that I am being a little nostalgic because I recognize individuals, that their diligence, hard work, it's invaluable to the committee; it's invaluable to Congress. There's a reason that we call them professional staff, because that's exactly what they are. They are very professional in their work. Both committees can actually go to a professional staffer and they're going to tell them exactly the read or give them the recommendation for the best interest in how to serve the Nation. And so these individuals whom I have read truly live up to the status of being a professional staffer here in Congress.

I also recognize that this is probably the last markup I will have with the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. I want to share this. It has truly been a distinct honor to serve the Nation's veterans, Mr. Speaker. I serve the men and women who wear the military uniform. I help take care of their families, the spouses, the children, the widows, the orphans, the consequences of war, the consequences of their service; and it has been a distinct honor to work with a lot of very talented people to do that.

I get upset at times in the committee, and I can have disagreements even with my friends in the veterans service organizations when individuals play their politics or they don't follow the rules or they don't follow the process. And we're meant to be a bipartisan committee. When that doesn't happen, I can get really upset pretty quick.

So I'll end with saying that, Mr. Speaker, it has been a distinct honor. I have also enjoyed serving with you, Jesse.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and concur in the Senate amendments to the bill (H.R. 3219) to amend title 38, United States Code, to make certain improvements in the laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs relating to insurance and health care, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 3219.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, as chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, I rise in strong support of what is now entitled the Veterans' Benefits Act of 2010, H.R. 3219, the title being amended in the Senate.

This is an omnibus benefits bill jointly assembled by both the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs and the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs. It is comprehensive. It is bipartisan. It is bicameral. In fact, and we can rarely say this, Mr. Speaker, it has already been approved by the Senate by unanimous consent.

The critical bill would greatly enhance, expand, and modernize many of the benefits afforded to our veterans, particularly disabled veterans, their families, and survivors.

The provisions in this bill are the culminating result of numerous productive hearings and markups, meaningful oversight and bipartisan compromise, all to ensure that those who are willing to lay down their lives for our country and their families and survivors receive meaningful, world-class, 21st century benefits from their Nation.

I want to thank the chairman of the Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs, John Hall of New York; Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, the chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity; and their respective ranking members, Mr. Lamborn and Mr. Boozman, for shepherding many of these provisions through their committees. It will do a great deal of good for our veterans, their families, and survivors.

For example, section 101 includes language originally sponsored by Congresswoman Herseth Sandlin of South Dakota that would reauthorize the recently expired VA work-study program and expand the type of work available for veterans participating in the program. In the last fiscal year of 2009, a little over 17,000 veterans participated in this important program.

Section 102 incorporates legislation championed by Mrs. Kirkpatrick of Arizona, which would reauthorize the VA Veterans' Advisory Committee on Education. The committee would provide the VA Secretary with a knowledgeable group of experts to give feedback on existing education benefits and information on ways to improve current programs.

Section 106 includes language championed by a new but very active member of our committee, Congressman Harry Teague of New Mexico. Congressman Teague's bipartisan work in advancing this pilot program, which seeks to employ our Nation's veterans while addressing the growing need for an energy-related workforce, is to be strongly commended.

Mr. Teague also championed section 204, which would provide injured servicemembers returning to active duty a waiver for the VA's home loan funding fees, keeping it in line with the intent of the waiver, which is to assist our injured servicemembers and veterans. I applaud Congressman Teague for his leadership.

Sections 201 and 202 include provisions championed by Congressman Boozman, which seek to reauthorize the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program and create a similar program to focus on homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children.

Sections 301 through 303 incorporate provisions that I and Congressman Connolly of Virginia have worked on during this Congress. These sections seek to strengthen the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act by permitting the cancellation of motor vehicle leases, prohibiting early termination penalties, and allowing servicemembers the option to cancel certain phone and service contracts.

Sections 401, 402, 404, 405, and 407 represent the great work of Mr. Donnelly of Indiana; Mrs. Halvorson of Illinois; Mr. Buyer, who is retiring; Mrs. Kirkpatrick of Arizona; and Mr. Perriello. These provisions increase many of the outdated insurance policy amounts and terms for our veterans, many of whom are severely disabled or who have suffered traumatic injury.

Sections 501, 502, and 503 represent burial and cemetery matters put forth by Ms. Berkley of Nevada, Mr. Frank of Massachusetts, and Mr. Salazar of Colorado.

Ms. Berkley and Mr. Salazar are both former members of our Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Ms. Berkley has been a longtime champion of increasing funeral benefits and plot allowances to reflect modern costs. Mr. Salazar has worked tirelessly to ensure that the veterans in the southern Colorado region would be served by a national cemetery. Now, both of these goals are set for enactment.

Mr. Frank's provision is known as the Corey Shea Act and would allow parents of our fallen servicemembers to be laid to rest with their son or daughter if there are no other eligible survivors.

The bill contains a host of upgraded benefits, including:

Section 604, championed by Mr. Higgins of New York, which would allow our low-income pensioners to receive payments of up to $5,000 from States or municipalities without offset;

Section 803 would provide greater automobile and adaptive equipment to veterans with severe burn injuries;

Section 804 would increase the automobile allowance for disabled veterans from $11,000 to almost $19,000; and

Sections 805 and 806 would allow the Institute of Medicine to take a closer look at those veterans who suffer from illnesses associated with service in the Persian Gulf wars.

This bill enjoys resounding support from the veterans service organizations, including Gold Star Wives, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Veterans of Foreign Wars, AMVETS, Blinded Veterans Association, the American Legion, and the Military Order of the Purple Heart.

I thank all the Members of the House who have contributed to and worked on this comprehensive bill. On behalf of our 24 million veterans and their families and survivors and as chairman of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, I thank all of you for your input.

Of course, none of this would have come to fruition without the hard work of our committee staff. I thank those on both sides of the aisle and their counterparts in the Senate. I want to especially thank the staff from the House Legislative Counsel and the Congressional Budget Office.

Finally, I want to thank our staff director, Malcom Shorter; our staff director for disability, Kimberly Ross; and her colleague, Juan Lara, for their tireless work to see this great effort through to finality.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms. Berkley), who is a former member of our committee and whom we miss very, very, very much.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I just wanted to thank the gentlelady, frankly, for not only her persistence in this particular benefit that is so important but, as I understand it, the Las Vegas veterans hospital is under construction.

You fought for that for more than a decade and it is finally going to be built. When does it open?

I yield to the gentlewoman.

We applaud again your persistence for that. We know the veterans in Las Vegas and surroundings are going to be well served.

I thank the gentlewoman.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I don't know that we'll be in session again before Veterans Day on November 11. This is a bill that will really raise the level of standards for all of our Nation's veterans; and we can look at it as, I think, a perfect gift that can be delivered on Veterans Day. So I ask my colleagues to unanimously support H.R. 3219.

I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. President, I am pleased that the Senate is acting on H.R. 3219, the proposed ``Veterans' Benefits Act of 2010.'' The bill, as it comes before the Senate, is a compromise agreement developed with our counterparts on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. I thank Chairman Filner and Ranking Member Buyer of the House Committee for their cooperation on this legislation. I also thank my good friend, the committee's ranking member, Senator Burr, for his cooperation as we have developed this bill. A full explanation of the Senate and House negotiated agreement can be found in the Joint Explanatory Statement, which I will ask be printed in the Record at the conclusion of my remarks.

The amended bill, which I will refer to as the ``compromise agreement,'' contains ten titles that are designed to enhance compensation, housing, labor and education, burial, and insurance benefits for veterans. I will highlight a few of the provisions.

The compromise agreement would make several important improvements in insurance programs for disabled veterans. It would increase the maximum amount of veterans' mortgage life insurance that a service-connected disabled veteran may purchase from the current maximum of $90,000 up to $200,000. In the event of the veteran's death, the veteran's family would be protected because VA will pay the balance of the mortgage owed up to the maximum amount of insurance purchased. The need for this increase is obvious in today's housing market.

In addition, this legislation would increase the amount of supplemental life insurance available to totally disabled veterans from $20,000 to $30,000. Many totally disabled veterans find it difficult to obtain commercial life insurance. This legislation would provide these veterans with a reasonable amount of life insurance coverage.

This benefits package also includes a provision that will expand eligibility for retroactive benefits from traumatic injury protection coverage under the Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance program, commonly referred to as TSGLI. Section 1032 of Public Law 109-13, the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, 2005, established traumatic injury protection under the SGLI program. TSGLI went into effect on December 1, 2005. Therefore, all insured servicemembers under SGLI from that point forward are also insured under TSGLI and their injuries are covered regardless of where they occur. In order to provide assistance to those servicemembers who suffered traumatic injuries on or between October 7, 2001, and November 30, 2005, retroactive TSGLI payments were authorized under section 1032(c) of the Supplemental Appropriations Act to individuals whose qualifying losses were sustained ``as a direct result of injuries incurred in Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom.'' Under section 501(b) of Public Law 109-233, the Veterans' Housing Opportunity and Benefits Improvement Act of 2006, this definition was amended to allow retroactive payments to individuals whose qualifying losses were sustained ``as a direct result of a traumatic injury incurred in the theater of operations for Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.''

However, without corrective action, men and women who were traumatically injured on or between October 7, 2001, and November 30, 2005, but were not in the OIF or OEF theaters of operation, will continue to be denied the same retroactive payment given to their wounded comrades. This legislation would correct that inequity.

This bill also modifies programs that provide adaptive assistance to veterans. It would increase and provide an index for an existing VA grant program, which provides funds to assist severely disabled veterans in purchasing automobiles or other conveyances that can accommodate their disabilities. The increase to $18,900 would help prevent erosion of the value and effectiveness of this benefit.

Another provision included in this bill would expand this grant program to provide automobile and adaptive equipment assistance to disabled veterans and servicemembers with severe burn injuries. Due to the severe damage done to their skin, individuals with these disabilities experience difficulty operating a standard automobile not equipped to accommodate their disabilities. This legislation would help them obtain vehicles with special adaptations for assistance in and out of the vehicle, seat comfort, and climate control.

Another key part of this legislation is a provision to help homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children. The majority of programs and service providers currently available to homeless veterans have historically

been designed to assist male veterans. However, due to the increasing number of women serving in the Armed Forces, more than 5 percent of veterans requesting assistance from VA and community-based homeless veteran service providers are women. More than 10 percent of these women have dependent children. In addition, there are reports of a significant number of male homeless veterans who have dependent children as well. To meet these changing needs of our Nation's veterans and correct this inequity, this bill will establish a grant program for the reintegration of homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children into the labor force.

This bill would also increase to 2,700 the number of veterans who are authorized to enroll annually in a program of independent living services. This important program is designed to meet the needs of the most severely service-connected disabled veterans and more of those returning from combat have suffered the kind of devastating injuries that may make employment not reasonably feasible for extended periods of time.

This is not a comprehensive recitation of all the provisions within this legislation. However, I hope that I have provided an appropriate overview of the major benefits this legislation would provide for America's veterans and servicemembers. I urge our colleagues to support this important legislation that would benefit many of this Nation's more than 23 million veterans and their families. I also urge the House of Representatives to work on this matter expeditiously so that this may be sent to the President for his signature.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Joint Explanatory Statement, which was developed with our colleagues in the House, be printed in the Record.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, you are moving fast today. Had I known, I would have been here for the first bill. And I am serious about that comment. You have to give us adequate time to get to the floor so we can respond to the bills.

I am recognized, and I am making a statement, because I am really upset. I am upset because this is the way the majority has been running the Congress, Mr. Speaker.

If you want to know why the American people are upset with the majority, it is because of this. If you don't give adequate notice to even a ranking member to be on the floor on bills, people are going to know. Do you know why they are going to know? Because I am going to tell the story. Rules matter around this place.

Now, let me go back to the first bill. The only reason I mention this is because I want to thank--you just passed it, by voice vote.

Let me tell you what is upsetting, something else that matters around here, and it is the Parliamentarian. You drop that bill, and the Parliamentarian makes those bills go to the appropriate jurisdictions. Something may get added by amendment to a particular bill that some other committee thinks that they want a view on it. Then what happens is the majority, not giving a doggone about the minority, puts bills onto this floor, whatever they want to do, so long as it is in comfort with someone else. They don't care about the minority or what our views are, so they just put it on the floor.

So once again we try to change the ``may'' to ``shall'' language in the last bill. The Small Business Committee prevents it. Now, why would you do that? Why would the Small Business Committee, run by the Democrat majority, alienate the disabled veterans? Why do you keep doing this? We keep appealing to you to place the disabled veteran in a higher position with regard to other set-asides, and you won't do it.

Mr. President, don't stand up and tell the American people, well, now we are going to focus on small business. Or, Madam Speaker, don't stand up and say we are now going to focus on small business. What did you do at the moment of calling? At the moment of calling, when you had an opportunity to do something about it, what did you do? Don't give the American people rhetoric. What did you do at the moment of acting? Oh, no, no, no, we are not going to do it.

Oh, you do your stimulus bill. I want to respond to a $1 billion small business bill on veterans. No, we're not going to do that; we are going to do VA construction.

Now you say, oh, my gosh, what are we going to do to stimulate small business? You had your opportunity over and over and over.

So, yes, I am pretty upset, Mr. Speaker. I am really upset. I am upset at what happened on that last bill. I am retiring. I am leaving Congress. And I am hopeful that the chairman--that you are as pugnacious as you can be and focus on that to help that disabled veteran, and change that language, Mr. Filner, from ``may'' to ``shall,'' and I think it will go a very long way.

Mr. Speaker, with regard to the bill in front of us, I rise in support of it. It

is the Veterans Benefits and Economic Welfare Improvement Act of 2010. It is a bipartisan, omnibus veterans benefits bill that includes many provisions that help veterans and their families.

H.R. 6132 will assist transitioning servicemembers by creating a new program through the Veterans Employment and Training Service to assist unemployed veterans who are not eligible for other VA education programs by creating a new on-the-job training and apprenticeship program.

The bill also codifies programs that the VA is currently using to transform its disability claims processing system and provide veterans the right to equitable tolling when a claim reaches the Board of Veterans' Claims.

The bill would assist pensioners by excluding the repayment of medical expenses or medical insurance awards or settlements from the veteran's annual income when determining their pension amount.

I am also pleased and also appreciate the chairman's supporting of the provision by the ranking member, Henry Brown of the Subcommittee on Health to increase the pension for Medal of Honor recipients to $2,000 a month.

Mr. Speaker, while I am sure we all agree that the provisions in this bill are laudable, it is unfortunate that certain provisions have also been left out.

Ranking Member Boozman of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity was also successful at the full committee markup of this bill in adding a provision that would have protected the veteran's Second Amendment right to bear arms. His amendment would have prevented veterans from losing this right without a judicial decision or due process. The amendment was agreed to by voice vote.

The provision was supported by the American Legion, AMVETS, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the NRA, and the Gun Owners of America. Chairman Conyers of the Judiciary Committee raised questions on the jurisdictional issue regarding the provision and insisted that it be taken out.

Here we go again. So to America, bills are coming to the floor, people are yanking things out of the bill. So what is happening is we are rushing bills to the floor, rather than allow them to be properly vetted through all jurisdictions. We are not going to do that.

So what do we have? We have a bill now on the floor that had a gun provision taken out of it right before an election. That is great. I am not running again, so those of you who are pleased that I guess the gun provision was taken out of the bill, you can answer to your constituents about why that happened.

So I'm, once again, bothered. It's unfortunate. I am leaving an institution that I love and respect, but, boy, am I bothered with the way it is being run.

I ask Members to support this bill.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 6132, the Veterans Benefits and Economic Welfare Improvement Act of 2010, which the Veterans Affairs Committee approved with bipartisan support on September 15th.

I would like to thank Veterans Affairs Chairman Filner for his leadership in introducing H.R. 6132, as well as the support and leadership of Ranking Member Buyer.

I am proud to be an original cosponsor of this legislation, which contains a number of important provisions that will directly improve the lives of veterans and the services available to those veterans and their families. Included among these provisions are four bills that I originally introduced. All four of these bills--H.R. 1088, H.R. 1089, H.R. 2461, and H.R. 1037--have previously passed the House, and I am pleased they have been included in this legislation.

H.R. 1089, the Veterans Employment Rights Realignment Act, originally passed the House without opposition by a vote of 423 to 0 on May 19, 2009. The provisions before us today create a three-year demonstration project to move the enforcement of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) protections of veterans and members of the Armed Services employed by Federal executive agencies to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC).

Under a previous demonstration project established by Public Law 108- 454, OSC investigated some federal sector USERRA claims from 2004 to 2007. This demonstration project showed that the OSC had the expertise and ability to quickly obtain corrective action for federally employed veterans, and that success warranted a further continuation of this study.

H.R. 1088, the Mandatory Veteran Specialist Training Act, originally passed the House by voice vote on May 19, 2009. The provisions before us today take an important step toward providing better employment assistance to those who have bravely served their country.

These provisions reduce from 3 years to 18 months the period during which Disabled Veterans' Outreach Program (DVOP) specialists or Local Veterans' Employment Representatives (LVER) with the Department of Labor (DOL) must complete the specialized veterans employment training program provided by the National Veterans' Training Institute (NVTI).

Through several Economic Opportunity Subcommittee hearings I chaired during the 110th Congress, I learned it was taking, on average, 2.5 years before DOL veterans employment specialists were completing the NVTI program. This leaves untrained specialists who don't have the necessary skills trying to help veterans with their employment needs, and this bill helps correct that situation.

H.R. 2461, the Veterans Small Business Verification Act, passed the House as part of

H.R. 3949 with overwhelming bipartisan support on November 3, 2009. The provisions before us today clarify the responsibility of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to verify the veteran status of owners of small businesses listed in the VetBiz Vendor Information Pages database. Furthermore, it requires that the VA notify small businesses already listed in the database of the need to verify their status.

The Economic Opportunity Subcommittee learned through hearings, and meetings with VA staff and the veterans community that the database contained firms that didn't qualify because the verification process was voluntary. Since firms registered in the database can qualify to receive set-aside or sole-source awards, this new legislation will help ensure our veterans are afforded the small business opportunities they are due.

H.R. 1037, the Pilot College Work Study Programs for Veterans Act of 2009, originally passed the House on July 14, 2009 without opposition by a vote of 422 to 0. The provisions before us today improve the educational benefits available to our country's veterans by expanding the scope of work-study activities available to veterans receiving educational benefits through the VA.

Currently, eligible student veterans enrolled in college degree programs, vocational programs or professional programs are eligible to participate in the work-study allowance program. However, they are limited to positions involving VA related work, such as processing VA paperwork, performing outreach services, and assisting staff at medical facilities or the offices of the National Cemetery Administration.

This legislation both reauthorizes the work-study program for 3 additional years and expands the list of qualifying work-study activities to include positions with State veterans agencies, Centers for Excellence for Veterans Student Success and other veterans-related positions at institutions of higher learning.

Given the wide variety of tasks our men and women in uniform perform while serving their country, our Nation should be capitalizing on the unique training and skill sets that veterans who are pursuing their degrees bring to their educational institutions.

In conclusion, H.R. 6132 takes a number of important steps toward helping veterans who have bravely served their country. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 6132.