Homeless Women Veterans and Homeless Veterans with Children Reintegration Grant 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. Speaker, I rise to express my strong support for another bipartisan bill H.R. 5360, despite my deep disappointment that certain veteran-friendly small business provisions passed unanimously by the Veterans Affairs Committee have been stricken from the bill before us today. Those provisions directly would have improved opportunities for small businesses owned and controlled by service disabled veterans.

H.R. 5360, is a bill that is a compilation of several bills reported to the Veterans Affairs Committee by the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity under the leadership of the distinguished Chairwoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin and I appreciate her work and that of Ranking Member Boozman and Chairman Filner for bringing this bill to the floor.

At a time when small businesses are facing a continuing shortage of credit, I am delighted to see that the bill includes section five which I introduced to reestablish the VA's small business loan program that expired in 1986. Under section five, VA would be authorized to guarantee small business loans up to $200,000 made by financial institutions. VA would also be required to contract with a financial institution experienced in this field to manage the program. I had originally introduced a similar provision in H.R. 293 and H.R. 4220.

However, I am deeply disappointed that the Democrats on the Small Business Committee led by Chairwoman Nadia Velazquez once again chose to favor other small business set aside groups over service disabled veteran-owned small business by objecting to section 21 which I also included in this bill by amendment at the Full Committee markup. Section 21 would have merely leveled the playing field for service disabled veteran-owned small businesses when competing with other set aside groups for VA contracts by changing the word ``may'' to ``shall'' when awarding sole source contracts to service disabled veteran-owned small businesses.

The Veterans Affairs Committee unanimously passed both of these provisions in hope that an additional source of credit backed by the VA will encourage lenders to increase the amount of credit and that a level playing field is the right thing to do for small businesses owned and controlled by service disabled veterans. It is truly unfortunate that Chairwoman Velazquez and Speaker Pelosi continue their history of opposing provisions that would benefit disabled veteran- owned small business.

Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate indeed that about 10 percent of homeless veterans are women and a significant percentage of those veterans bring children with them. So I am also pleased that the bill includes another provision which I introduced to establish a Homeless Veteran Reintegration Program for Women or HVRP-W. This program will focus on homeless programs specially designed to serve homeless women veterans and veterans with children. A veteran, especially one with children at their side should never be homeless.

Section 13 of the bill contains a provision introduced by Mr. Boozman to encourage research and development in the field of assistive technologibs used to adapt the homes of severely injured veterans. This authority will make a disabled veterans' homes just a bit more livable.

Mr. Speaker, it is no secret that our young people need positive role models. That is why the provisions I introduced as part of H.R. 4220 are an important part in this bill. Section 19 would provide a small temporary stipend to veterans who are new teachers in rural areas. Therefore, we are not only helping veterans to become teachers in rural areas, but we are also showing our next generation of America's what it means to make a commitment to the nation.

Section 20 would also provide one-year internship jobs at VA for up to 2,000 graduates of the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment program. These positions will provide service disabled veterans with work experience while helping VA meet the needs of their fellow veterans.

Anyone who has renovated a home recently knows the cost of construction continues to climb more rapidly that the overall inflation rate. Severely disabled veteran often need their homes adapted to make them more livable. That is why Mr. Boozman introduced provisions to make a small increase in the grants made under VA's Specially Adapted Home program. These provisions would increase the existing small grant to $13,756 and the large grant to $65,780.

Mr. Speaker, section 24 contains provisions also introduced by Mr. Boozman as H.R. 4259 known as the WARMER Act. This bill updates the types and maximum values of energy efficiency loans that VA may guarantee while directing VA to standardize its appraisal process to ensure energy efficiency improvements are properly valued.

Finally, section 25 is a provision introduced by Mr. Moran of Kansas to make it easier for severely disabled veterans to use the Temporary Residence Adaptation or TRA grant. TRA grants make small grants up to $12,000 available to adapt the homes of family members with whom a severely injured veteran is living. Normally, TRA grants are deducted from the veterans overall grant, thus reducing subsequent grants. The provision would allow VA to issue up to 25 grants in Fiscal Year 2011 without reducing the veterans total award. This will help determine whether disabled veterans would be more likely to use the TRA grant.

Mr. Speaker, I want to ensure the Members of my support for this excellent bill despite the removal of several provisions that would benefit veteran-owned small businesses at this critical time and urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5360.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5360, the Housing, Employment and Living Programs (HELP) for Veterans Act of 2010, which the Veterans Affairs Committee approved with bipartisan support on Sept. 15, 2010.

I would like to thank Veterans Affairs Chairman Filner and Ranking Member Buyer for their leadership on the committee and their support of this legislation.

I introduced the original version of H.R. 5360 on May 20, 2010, with the support of my colleague, Economic Opportunity Subcommittee Ranking Member Boozman. The bill, as introduced, was titled the ``Blinded Veterans Adaptive Housing Improvement Act of 2010.'' The Blinded Veterans Adaptive Housing Improvement Act aligns the VA's definition of blindness with existing federal laws with regards to eligibility criteria for Specially Adapted Housing Grants. The Economic Opportunity Subcommittee that I chair held a hearing in November 2009 that identified this excessively restrictive definition as having prevented some visually impaired veterans from qualifying for the assistance they need to modify their homes for their disability.

Thanks to a concerted bipartisan effort by Ranking Member Boozman, the other members of the Economic Opportunity Subcommittee, and other members of the full Veterans Affairs Committee, H.R. 5360 was improved and expanded throughout the legislative process to provide aid and assistance to many veterans beyond the visually impaired. I'm pleased the committee worked together in a bipartisan way to craft the final version of this legislation.

Importantly, these benefit improvements for veterans don't add a dime to the deficit. They are fully paid for by making a change that the VA requested to regulations regarding the VA's Home Loan Guarantee program.

H.R. 5360, now known as the HELP Veterans Act, improves benefits to veterans in a

number of areas in addition to the assistance for blinded veterans, including:

Increasing apprenticeship, on-the-job training and flight training educational benefits through the Montgomery G.I. Bill.

Extending authorization for the VA's work-study program for student veterans to 2020 and authorizing new program standards to allow these veterans to work in Congressional offices as part of their work-study.

Temporarily reducing, for the three years, the requirement for private employers to provide a wage increase for veterans participating in an approved on-the-job training program.

Reauthorizing the Veterans' Advisory Committee on Education.

Improving the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment program by providing reimbursement for certified child care assistance for single parents as well as increasing the subsistence allowance payable to veterans participating in VR&E by 5.2 percent.

Updating regulations for VA educational benefit programs to increase the reporting fees payable to educational institutions as well as modifying the rules for advance payment of educational assistance to prevent any break in educational benefits.

Giving the Department of Labor the authority to make grants to programs and facilities to provide services for homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children.

Again, I wish to thank Ranking Member Boozman and the rest of my colleagues on the committee for the cooperative and bipartisan spirit in which they worked to better serve our veterans through this legislation. I urge my colleagues to pass H.R. 5360, the HELP Veterans Act.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1171, as amended, the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program Reauthorization Act of 2009. Ranking Member John Boozman of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity introduced this bill to extend the Homeless Veteran Reintegration Program (HVRP) through fiscal year 2014, and I am proud to join him as an original cosponsor.

I would also like to thank Chairwoman Herseth Sandlin of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity and Chairman Filner of the Full Committee on Veterans' Affairs for moving this important measure with our first group of authorizing bills.

Madam Speaker, I am also proud that H.R. 1171, as amended, also includes an amendment that I offered in the full committee markup. My amendment is similar to H.R. 293, The Homeless Women Veterans and Veterans with Children Act of 2009, or what I refer to as HVRP-W.

H.R. 293 was one of several bills I suggested that House Leadership include in the original stimulus package and is part of what I call the Noble Warrior Initiative which has received widespread support from the VSO community. My amendment adds the provisions of H.R. 293 to H.R. 1171, as amended, to create a new grant program that complements the current HVRP program with a focus on homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children.

As amended, H.R. 1171 authorizes a separate appropriation of $10 million to fund grants to community organizations that provide services to homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children.

Today, VA estimates there are about 154,000 veterans counted among the homeless. With women comprising a larger percentage of our military, in addition to sexual trauma, women are increasingly exposed to the same stressors and dangers as the men and we are now seeing more women in need of homeless services including the training and employment services offered through HVRP.

Therefore, I believe we need to add the focus of the HVRP-W to make sure that job skill services are being provided to homeless women veterans and veterans with children. These two groups have separate and unique needs and wants from those of what we think of as the traditional homeless veteran population.

Here are a few facts from VA regarding homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children:

VA's March 2007 Northeast Program Evaluation Center (NEPEC) contacted 38,667 homeless veterans. About 4 percent were women.

In 2008 VA and communities held 157 Stand Downs and aided 2,347 homeless women veterans and 1,327 children.

Last year VA's community based Homeless Grant and Per Diem program served 19,345 veterans including 1,277 women veterans.

VA's Domiciliary Care for Homeless Veterans treated 5,905 veterans including 242 female veterans.

The HUD-VASH housing voucher program for homeless veterans referred 8,000 veterans of whom 880 were women. 1040 veterans (male and female) housed through HUD-VASH had dependent children.

Madam Speaker as you may know, despite the headway in reducing the number of homeless veterans, there is still much more work ahead of us to end homelessness among our nation's heroes. I believe H.R. 1171, as amended, will go a long way towards this goal and I urge my colleagues to support the bill.