To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide for the eligibility of parents of certain deceased veterans for interment in national cemeteries.

Mr. Speaker, this is a sad day for me because it is close to the anniversary of the death in Iraq of a very brave young man, Corey Shea, whose picture is here.

He was killed in Iraq just the day after Veterans Day of last year, and I went to the funeral, along with my colleague Senator Kerry, to the town of Mansfield, Massachusetts. Like I think most Members, I try very hard to attend the funeral of every young man and woman who is killed in the service of the country. It's the least we can do. It's not a great deal, but it's the least we can do to show a small piece of the gratitude we feel to those people and our obligation to their families.

Also, it seems to me, anybody in our position who has to vote on going to war needs to fully understand the consequences of those votes, and going to the funerals of the young people killed in those wars ought to be mandatory for any of us who vote. That doesn't mean you don't vote for the war. I voted for the war in Afghanistan. I've been to funerals of people killed there. But it is an important thing to hammer home.

In this case at the funeral I met an extraordinary woman, Denise Anderson, the mother of Corey Shea, who was, in her grief at the loss of her wonderful young son, further concerned because he would be buried alone.

His country took him when he was too young to have married or raised a family. So under the rules of eligibility for burial at a veterans cemetery, he was to be buried alone. His mother said as bad as it was for her to lose her son, the thought that he would be alone forever added greatly to her pain. So she had asked if she could be buried with him, and she was turned down.

Now, under the rules a member of the military eligible to be buried in a national cemetery who has a spouse with children can have up to three parts used. So we're not taking anything away from someone. In Corey Shea's case, this wonderful young man who lost his life has three parts available, and his mother simply asked to be allowed to use one of them. She was turned down.

At that point Senator Kerry and I decided to see what we could do. So we filed legislation to alleviate that, and I am enormously grateful to all members from both parties in the Committee on Veterans' Affairs for the speed with which they acted and the grace they showed to this brave, grieving mother. And I am very pleased that the bill which we would dare concur in, called the Corey Shea Act, is going to be included in this package.

Mr. Speaker, rather than go further myself, I'm going to read the testimony that Denise Anderson, the mother of Corey Shea, presented to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. We obviously exhausted our remedies, I should say. She applied. Only after it was clear that only legislation would work did we file a bill.

And, of course, I should point out, as a tribute to Denise Anderson, this isn't a bill just for her and her son who lost his life. It's a bill for any parent of any young member of the military who will know at least that that's available to him or to her.

So nearly a year after her son was killed in Iraq, she had the opportunity to address the committee, and here's what she said:

``I stand before you humbly asking you to pass or amend this bill number H.R. 761. This would allow me to be interred with my son, who was killed in action in Mosul, Iraq on November 12, 2008. He sacrificed his life for his country, and I sacrifice every day being without him.

``My son, Corey, had a heart as big as the world. He would be the first one to volunteer or help someone in need. But he would always hesitate to ask for help. He was a lot like me in that way, but today I show my passion for this bill by standing in front of you asking for your help. If you knew my son, you would understand what kind of person he was. He was a very respectful young man who would do anything for anybody. He was my heart and soul, and I cannot express the bond between us. If you have children, you might understand, but losing a child is against nature and he should be burying me.

``I was a single parent until Corey was about 8 years old. His biological father was not around. In fact, he was in prison. He never paid child support, and I worked over 60 hours a week just to support him and make sure he had everything he needed. Jeff took over the job of stepfather and Corey gladly accepted him. When he came home on leave, we would stay up until the sun came up. I did not want to miss a minute with him.

``My son was killed by an Iraqi soldier. These soldiers are supposed to be working with our troops over in Iraq. He was an Iraqi soldier for 4 years before turning on our soldiers. On that terrible day, he killed two soldiers, including my son, and wounded six other American soldiers.

``I was not home when the Army came to my door, but my 18-year-old

daughter was there. She is a very intelligent person and knew why they were there. She called me, not telling me what was going on, which was probably a good thing. But when I arrived home, the Mansfield police and the Army vehicle were parked in front of my home. My son had only a month left on his first tour, and he would have been home. After passing out, the police called the paramedics, who took me to the hospital.

``The whole town came together for Corey. They were so involved with his funeral, and it was very heartfelt. My son was the only and hopefully the only soldier who passed away during this war in Mansfield. He is a Mansfield hero. I belong to the VFW in Mansfield, Massachusetts, and I have spoken to many veterans that are members there, and they don't have a problem with me being interred with my son. In fact, everyone I spoke with doesn't haven't a problem.

``This amendment would not be taking up any other deserving space for other veterans. My son has three extra plots, but he was not married nor did he have any dependents. He did not have time, since, like I said, he was a child himself.

``I could speak all day regarding my son and what a wonderful and respectful young man he was. But I am here to ask you to amend the bill number H.R. 761. If you decide to pass this, it would give me some peace in my life to which I can pay more attention to my husband and daughter, whom I feel I have been neglecting. I could finally be able to move forward in my life just knowing I can spend eternity with my son.

``Please listen with your hearts and amend this bill. I appreciate your time listening to me today. This may be a minimal issue with you, but it means everything to me.

``Thank you for your attention in this matter.

``Denise Anderson, proud mother of Specialist Corey Shea, my warrior hero and wonderful son.''

I would only say the one difference I would have with Mrs. Anderson is no one here takes this as a minimal issue. We are grateful to her for giving us one more chance to show in a small way how much we honor those who have lost their lives.

I will just repeat one thing I said, Mr. Speaker, in the testimony. I cannot think of a greater disproportion than what Denise Anderson gave to us, her son, and what she has asked us to give in return. I am pleased that at least the House will be doing that today.

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

It appears this legislation has a lot of wonderful components in it. It represents about seven individual bills. It would amend title 38 of the United States Code and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to make certain improvements in the laws relating to benefits administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.

The bill, H.R. 3949, is designed to continue the Veterans' Advisory Committee on Education, improve protections under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, improve VA outreach programs, establish a VA scholarship program, and expand eligibility for burial in a national cemetery.

Public Law 109-461 requires VA to maintain a database of veteran- and disabled veteran-owned small businesses and to validate the ownership and control any business included in the database. Implementing those provisions, VA has allowed any business that applies for inclusion in the database to be listed prior to being validated. The bill would require VA to list only those businesses that have been validated. This will prevent nonveteran-owned businesses from misrepresenting themselves as veteran-owned.

Mr. Speaker, I did want to bring to my colleagues' attention the disappointment on this side of the aisle that the amended bill we are considering drops section 102 from H.R. 3949, which was unanimously reported by the Veterans' Affairs Committee. Section 102 would clarify that Congress intends to allow VA contracting officers at the Department of Veterans Affairs to award sole source contracts to service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses on the same basis as so-called 8(a) businesses under the Small Business Act. VA contracting officers often interpret the Small Business Act as giving 8(a) firms a higher priority than service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, which we do not believe is consistent with congressional intent. All this provision would do is to give veterans a level playing field with 8(a), women- and minority-owned small businesses. So obviously we're disappointed. We're not clear why this happened, but we wanted to bring that to the attention of my colleagues.

Furthermore, service-connected disabled veteran small business owners have earned and deserve an equal level of priority for VA contracts. Unfortunately, the Small Business Committee majority and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee majority have asserted jurisdiction and are holding up this important provision to help service-disabled veteran-owned small business, and this is just a week before Veterans Day, I might add.

Service-disabled veteran-owned small business owners are men and women of all races and economic groups from all over the country. In these difficult economic times, they need the help section 102 would have provided. While I regret that this important provision isn't in the bill today, we hope to work with the Small Business Committee and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee to ultimately reach an agreement on a way to allow service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses just simply a fair opportunity to obtain sole source contracts from the Veterans Administration. Servicemembers continue to experience service contract and lease difficulties that are related to permanent change of duty stations and deployments. H.R. 3949 would clarify the member's rights and obligations under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, or SCRA, when terminating a service contract or lease due to military orders.

The bill also contains provisions that would authorize the United States Attorney General to initiate action in a U.S. district court on behalf of a veteran whose rights under SCRA may have been violated and allows courts to provide relief to the member, including monetary damages, and assess civil penalties up to $110,000. Unfortunately, courts sometimes fail to recognize the individual right of action that is implicit in the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. As one hearing witness noted, it makes no sense to provide a right and then deny the individual the ability to enforce that right. Therefore, the legislation would also codify a private right of action to make it clear to all courts that an individual has a right to bring legal action to protect rights granted under SCRA.

Title 3 of the bill includes an authorization to allow VA to provide up to $25 million in grants to State veterans agencies and to allow these agencies to provide all or a portion of these grants to county veterans service agencies to increase outreach to veterans.

Such grants carry with them significant responsibility for the VA and State and local veterans agencies to ensure simply these funds are properly accounted for and to measure the results of this provision.

One of the least discussed injuries due to the traumatic effects of improvised explosive devices is the damage to the body's visual system. Unfortunately, these effects may be subtle at first or not occur immediately after the event. To accommodate the increasing number of visually impaired veterans whose sight has been affected either directly by combat or the effects of aging and disease, title III also would authorize the VA to grant scholarships to persons in educational programs relating to treating visual impairment and mobility issues.

Now persons receiving such scholarships would be required to commit to working within the VA health care system for a requisite number of years. The bill also stipulates conditions for repayment of the scholarships in the event that the individual fails to fulfill the conditions that are specified in this scholarship.

Finally, my colleagues, the bill would define the conditions under which the parents of a deceased veteran could be buried with the veteran in a national cemetery.

I support this bill. I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

If the gentleman will yield, I thank my colleague for his support, and I look forward to working with him.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Boozman).

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

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3949) to amend title 38, United States Code, and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, to make certain improvements in the laws relating to benefits administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes, as amended.

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

H.R. 3949, as amended, the Veterans' Small Business Assistance and Servicemembers Protection Act of 2009, is a necessary cornerstone to grant deserving heroes the protections and opportunities to succeed. This legislation includes several important provisions and would not be possible without the hard work of many members of this committee and of Congress as a whole.

H.R. 3949 addresses the needs of veteran-owned small businesses. A provision of the bill will require that all businesses listed in the Department of Veterans Affairs VetBiz Vendor Information Pages database have been confirmed as veteran-owned small businesses so our veterans are furnished the economic benefits that Congress intended them to receive through their military service and sacrifice. I would again like to thank Congresswoman Herseth Sandlin, chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, for her continued leadership on this issue.

H.R. 3949 also includes a timely bill, first introduced by one of our active committee members, Representative Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona. This provision seeks to reauthorize the Veterans' Advisory Committee on Education whose authorization is set to expire at the end of this year. Reauthorizing the advisory committee will provide the VA Secretary with a group of subject matter experts to help work to ensure our heroes have the educational opportunities they've earned.

Furthermore, this comprehensive bill includes important updates to the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. H.R. 3949 will strengthen our efforts nationally to support veterans, servicemembers and their families during deployment. The bill will allow greater flexibility for family cell phone plans, rental leases, and motor vehicle leases when servicemembers are deployed or required to change duty stations. The bill authorizes the U.S. Attorney General to bring a civil action in U.S. district courts to enforce provisions of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.

The provisions on the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act included in H.R. 3949 are a collaborative effort that includes bills introduced by Representatives Brad Miller of North Carolina, Representative Gerald Connolly of Virginia and Representative Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania, respectively. Their efforts to protect our deployed servicemembers are commendable.

Another important provision included in this legislation seeks to assist in VA's outreach efforts to improve coordination among the key offices within the Department of Veterans Affairs. This provision was originally introduced by my colleague, Representative Mike McIntyre of North Carolina.

To help the 160,000 legally blind veterans in the United States, a provision of this bill would establish a scholarship program for students seeking a degree or a certificate in the area of visual impairment, orientation and mobility. This would help our blind veterans by increasing the number of vision rehabilitation specialists with the appropriate education and training. I would like to thank Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas for her continued leadership on this issue and her dedication to the needs of our veterans.

Finally, the legislation honors our fallen American heroes by providing an eligible parent of a deceased veteran to be buried in a VA national cemetery when the deceased veteran does not have an immediate spouse or child. I want to thank Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts for introducing this incredibly important piece of legislation.

Mr. Speaker, this bipartisan legislation will provide needed changes for our veterans and their families while addressing the unique needs of veterans and servicemembers as they serve the country. I would like to thank the committee's ranking member, Representative Steve Buyer of Indiana, members of the committee and my colleagues for working in a bipartisan manner on H.R. 3949. Again, I would like to thank my colleagues who got this final bill here and for helping our veterans.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, before I yield time to my chairwoman, I would like to say I concur with the gentleman from Florida's assessment on section 102. And when we looked at this, one of the things we discussed was this was procedural because of the jurisdictional issues. And I would sure be willing to work with the gentleman to make sure we do bring that back up again. I think the issue here was all of the good in this bill would have been held back and we wouldn't have been able to move any of it forward as we worked out the jurisdictional issues.

So I do concur with your assessment that it is an important piece. We did vote on it unanimously, and I think down the road here we need to get it in.

At this time I yield 5 minutes to the chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, Ms. Herseth Sandlin.

Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank), who had an important piece of this bill incorporated in.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to my colleague from North Carolina, Mr. Miller.

Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of our time to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. McIntyre).

(Mr. McINTYRE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Veterans' Small Business Assistance and Servicemembers Protection Act of 2009, H.R. 3949, which includes provisions of a bill that I introduced on the very first day that this Congress was sworn in this year, the 111th Congress, which was H.R. 32, the Veterans Outreach Improvement Act of 2009. I want to thank Chairman Filner and Ranking Member Buyer for their support, as well as the many cosponsors from both sides of the aisle who have joined us in this effort to honor those who have put their lives on the line for our country, whom we will soon be honoring as a Nation on Veterans Day.

This important legislation, which passed the U.S. House unanimously during the last session of Congress, the 110th Congress, by a vote of 421-0, would improve the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs outreach activities by allowing the Department to partner with State and local governments to reach out to veterans and their families regarding benefits for which they are eligible and to assist them in developing a benefits claim package.

About a quarter of our Nation's population of veterans are potentially eligible for VA benefits and services. A quarter of our total Nation's population are potentially eligible for veterans benefits and services. This legislation will help reach out to those who are eligible and ensure the accuracy and completeness of their benefit claims. And under this legislation, the Secretary of the VA would be authorized to provide grants and assistance to State veterans agencies and to our county veterans service officers, those who are on the front lines every day working in counties throughout this entire Nation, to help that veteran when he or she walks through the door.

These activities would allow veterans and their families to be able to get the assistance they need in the development and the submittal of their benefits claims. The Secretary would direct grants to States with large and growing populations of veterans in order to increase the outreach where it is most needed. Grants could be used for education and training of State and county officials to gain accreditation for continuing education. The Secretary would also be required to ensure that the coordination of outreach activities occurred within the Department of the VA.

This bill would authorize $25 million annually, which is an average of $1 per veteran, for fiscal years 2011 through 2013 to improve outreach to veterans. That, I believe, is not too much to ask. That is something we can certainly afford to do, and it is the least we can do to reach out to those who put their very lives on the line for our great Nation.

This legislation is supported by the National Association of County Veterans Service Officers, which is officially recognized by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs for ``the purpose of preparation, presentation, and prosecution of claims.''

This bill has also been endorsed by the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Military Officers Association of America, the Paralyzed Veterans Association of America, and the National Organization for Veterans Advocacy.

As Veterans Day approaches in just a few days, it is important that we, as a Congress, demonstrate to our Nation's veterans our commitment to provide them with the benefits they deserve.

May God bless those who have served our country.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I rise today in strong support of H.R. 3949, the Veterans' Small Business Assistance and Servicemembers Protection Act of 2009, which the full Veterans' Affairs Committee approved with bipartisan support last week and which contains legislation I introduced, along with the ranking member of the Economic Opportunities Subcommittee, Mr. Boozman, to verify the veteran status of small businesses listed in the VetBiz Vendor Information Pages, known as the VIP database.

I would like to thank full committee Chairman Filner and Ranking Member Buyer for their leadership and support for this legislation.

The overall bill under consideration by the House combines the provisions from a number of other bills into strong legislation that will assist a broad array of veterans in a variety of ways, and I applaud Chairman Filner for moving this legislation forward.

The bill updates the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act and burial regulations for national cemeteries. It creates a scholarship program to improve the eye care available to veterans and improves the Department of Veterans Affairs' outreach efforts by improving coordination among key offices within the VA.

The Veterans Small Business Verification Act that Mr. Boozman and I introduced follows up on legislation Congress passed in 2006 requiring the VA to

maintain its VIP database and verify that applicants for inclusion in the database were veteran-owned small businesses or service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses. Once firms register in the VIP database, they qualify to receive set-aside or sole-source awards.

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. This voluntary process meant that while the VIP database included over 16,000 businesses, less than 1,000 had received verification of their veteran status or had voluntarily submitted information to be verified.

While I'm pleased that Veterans Affairs Secretary Shinseki has taken steps since these hearings over the past 6 months to improve the process by which businesses are verified, this bill will ensure our veterans are afforded the small business opportunities they're due.

The Veterans Small Business Verification Act would amend title XXXVIII to clarify current law and require the VA to verify that firms are veteran-owned small businesses or service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses in order to be listed in the VIP database. Furthermore, it requires that the VA notify small businesses already listed in the database of the need to verify their status.

In conclusion, H.R. 3949 takes important steps toward providing needed assistance in a number of areas to those veterans who have bravely served their country. I encourage my colleagues to support H.R. 3949.