To amend title 38, United States Code, to extend the eligibility period for veterans to enroll in certain vocational rehabilitation programs.

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

I thank my colleague, Mrs. Biggert, for her support of this legislation as well as many other pieces of legislation that we've had the privilege of working together on.

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to thank you, as well, for your cosponsorship of the legislation. It means a lot to have bipartisan support for our warriors, those who are willing to go to distant places and risk their lives such that we may have better lives.

Many of them do not return home as they left. Many of them find themselves living on the streets of life. As a result, we believe it's necessary for us to do all that we can to help them secure the kind of homes, the kind of housing, the kinds of services that they need so that they can reintegrate themselves into American life. This bill, the Homes for Heroes bill, will help to some degree with our goals and ambitions of helping them to have a place to call home.

The bill does place a person in HUD whose sole responsibility it will be to monitor homelessness among our veterans. This person is to file an annual report with Congress on the status of homelessness among the veterans in this country and to give us some insight as to how we are progressing in eliminating and abolishing homelessness among our veterans. It's not going to do everything that we need to do, but it is a step in the right direction.

If I may say so, I would like to commend HUD for what has been done thus far, because there is a person who does this sort of thing with HUD currently. But what we're trying to do now is institutionalize the position such that administrations may come and go, but the position will still be there, and our veterans will receive the kind of help that they merit and deserve.

Mr. Speaker, in our country in 2009, approximately 136,334 people who self-identified themselves as veterans spent at least one night in an emergency shelter or a transitional-housing program. That speaks volumes about the amount of work that we have to do.

While 136,000 may not seem like a lot to some people, I contend, if we have but one veteran who is finding himself or herself in transitional housing or sleeping in a shelter or sleeping on the streets of life, I think we have work to do. This bill will help us with our veterans who are doing this, who are sleeping in this transitional housing.

I would also add that our veterans compose about 16 percent of the homeless adults while they are 8 percent of the American population. They are 8 percent of the population, but of those who are homeless, they are 16 percent.

This, of course, is something that we cannot continue to tolerate. So I'm going to beg all of my colleagues: please, give serious consideration to this piece of legislation. It will not break the bank. It may not do all that we'd like to have done, but it's a step in the right direction, and somebody will be helped as a result of what we do today. I beg to my colleagues, please support this legislation.

I thank Mrs. Biggert for the outstanding work that she has done. I again especially thank staffers who worked with us on this piece of legislation. And I can say candidly, Mr. Speaker, that but for the assistance of our staffers, we might not be standing here today. They do make a difference. And I would have the veterans know that behind every Member, we have staffers who are working to help them return to our homeland and reintegrate them into our society.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I would simply close by saying this: Mr. Speaker, thank you again for your support of this legislation. I would hope that my colleagues will give it the kind of consideration that our warriors are giving us when they decide that they're willing to go to distant places and make great sacrifices for us. Please give it consideration.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3298) to establish the position of Special Assistant for Veterans Affairs in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, 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 to add extraneous material on this bill.

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

Today I rise in support of H.R. 3298, the Homes for Heroes Act of 2011.

Sadly, approximately one-fifth of our country's homeless population consists of veterans. In part, that's because readapting to civilian life is not always easy even for some of our country's true heroes. But research shows that with a stable living situation, our veterans are far more likely to overcome other challenges. These are men and women who braved bullets and basic training to protect our country and our freedom. They have the will and the strength to overcome any obstacle, but it is our job to give them the tools.

That is why it's essential that HUD and the VA work hand in hand to help our veterans get the housing assistance they have earned.

The Homes for Heroes Act of 2011, of which I'm a cosponsor and which was introduced by my colleague from Texas (Mr. Al Green) and my colleague from New York (Mr. Grimm), establishes the position of Special Assistant for Veterans Affairs within HUD to effectively coordinate services among veterans and to serve as HUD's liaison to the Department of Veterans Affairs' U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, State and local officials, and nonprofit service organizations.

The bill also requires HUD to submit a comprehensive annual report to Congress on the housing needs of homeless veterans and the steps undertaken by HUD to meet those needs, and H.R. 3298 takes these steps within existing budgetary constraints at no additional cost to taxpayers.

Similar to H.R. 403 and H.R. 3329, which are the Homes for Heroes Acts of 2008 and 2009, both of which passed this House, H.R. 3298 has strong bipartisan support. Once enacted, this legislation will help us better understand the needs of homeless veterans while fostering a better working relationship between HUD and the VA. The result will be better services for our heroes; and while we can never repay our veterans for the selfless sacrifices they've made, we can work to ensure that they have a place to call home when they come home.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

We have no further speakers on this side of the aisle if the gentleman would like to close.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to commend the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Al Green) for all of his hard work on this issue.

It is really nice to have these bills that are bipartisan in nature, and certainly homelessness is something that we all hear about and would like to find a way to end. There are different categories in that, and I think the veterans certainly are very important.

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

Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in support of H.R. 3298, ``The Homes for Heroes Act of 2011.''

As a Marine combat veteran, I am strongly committed to assisting our young men and women as they return home from protecting our freedom overseas.

I am honored to have been able to work with my colleague and friend Mr. Green of Texas on this legislation. Our veterans have no greater friend in Congress than Mr. Green and I am honored to have had this opportunity to join him in fighting for our heroes.

Veteran's homelessness is a serious issue and, sadly, one that gets overlooked far too often. Currently veterans make up approximately 8 percent of the U.S. population, however they are 17 percent of the homeless population.

Clearly something is wrong with our ability to transition these brave men and women from military service to civilian life.

Recent circumstances have only served to exacerbate these problems. Our new veterans are returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan to find an economy with very limited employment opportunities. While these economic problems are affecting all Americans, veterans looking to move from military service to civilian life are finding themselves competing with an already over-supplied labor market.

Furthermore, the extraordinarily long deployments that our service members have been facing place an enormous mental strain on our new veterans. This burden has made it difficult for many to easily transition back into normal civilian life.

In order to combat veteran's homelessness this bill would create a Special Assistant for Veterans Affairs within the Department of Housing and Urban Development to co-ordinate homeless veteran's benefits with the VA. In addition, this bill will require HUD to prepare a report to Congress on the progress that has been made in ending homelessness amongst our veterans.

Again, it has been an honor to work on such an important piece of legislation and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting its passage.