Soda Ash Competition Act

Mr. President, today, as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, I am pleased to introduce the Veterans Programs Improvement Act of 2011.

The bill I am introducing today would allow the Department of Veterans Affairs to continue the important work of ending veteran homelessness, improve the quality of the fiduciary program administered by VA, improve claims processing and make a number of other improvements to VA programs. This statement is not a full summary of all the provisions within this legislation. However, I would like to provide an overview of the major benefits this legislation would provide.

The administration recently reported that as many as 76,000 veterans experienced homelessness on a given night in 2009. Many of these veterans face significant challenges such as mental illness, physical disability, and substance abuse. In order to heal and remain in stable housing, these veterans will need a great deal of support. I want to commend the VA for working tirelessly to reduce the number of veterans sleeping in the streets. We are certainly off to a good start, but I recognize that there is still much more work to be done.

This bill will extend the life and improve upon several critical programs in the ongoing effort to get homeless veterans off the streets and into secure housing. Current law requires that VA diagnose ``serious mental illness'' or a ``substance abuse issue'' before it can use its authority to contract for emergency shelter services. In the tough economic times this country is experiencing, homeless veterans in need of these services do not always suffer from serious mental illness or substance abuse issues, and would not be eligible. This legislation will ensure that these services are available to all homeless veterans who need them.

One of the keys to ending veteran homelessness is VA's Grant and Per Diem program, which was established to assist public and nonprofit private entities in furnishing services to homeless veterans. This bill will enhance this essential program by allowing grant funds to be used for new construction, in addition to currently approved uses such as expansion, remodeling, and acquisition. It will also allow grant funds to be used as a match for funding from other sources, and will require VA to take a hard look at how per diem payments are made in order to recommend improvements. This bill also seeks to include male homeless veterans with minor dependents as an additional population with special needs, for eligibility under VA's special needs grant program.

The unemployment rate for returning veterans has reached as high as high as one in five this year. Sadly, we are seeing some of these new veterans appearing in homeless shelters. This is not just a VA problem, nor is it just a HUD problem--we all have an obligation to collaborate and address these unmet needs. To better assist in the effort to end homelessness among veterans, Congress needs more details surrounding the plan to end veteran homelessness. This legislation would require the Administration to expand upon their existing plan and submit a plan that includes details, such as a timeline, benchmarks, and recommendations. We will only be successful if we can work together to provide the appropriate tools to ensure access to medical care, affordable housing, and education and jobs.

Committee oversight has identified claims where frustrated families of veterans and survivors with severe dementia, such as those who seek VA pension benefits for home or institutional care see months go by because VA refuses to accept signatures from representatives or family caregivers. The situation is sometimes resolved by having the claimant mark an ``X'' or sign a claims form even when the claimant lacks the ability to understand what is written on the form. In other cases, it appeared that the caregiver gave up and no benefits were paid to otherwise eligible beneficiaries. This is unacceptable treatment for some of our most vulnerable veterans, and my legislation would improve the quality of VA's fiduciary program.

This legislation would make a number of additional improvements to VA programs. It would grow certain servicemembers to be eligible for a VA guaranteed home loan. Right now, to satisfy the occupancy requirement for a VA home loan, a veteran or servicemember or their spouse must be living in the home. Under this standard, a servicemember who is a single parent and is away on active duty is not eligible for a guaranteed home loan, even if that veteran's child is living in the home. This is unfair and wrong. Under this bill, a servicemember or veteran's dependent child will now satisfy the occupancy requirement. This change will help our servicemen and women better use their VA home loan benefits.

It is important that our disabled veterans face as few barriers as possible when attempting to obtain VA home loans. My legislation would allow an individual to receive a fee waiver if, during a pre-discharge program, he or she receives a disability rating for purposes of VA compensation based on existing medical evidence, such as service medical and treatment records. This change would allow an eligible individual to purchase a home without having to pay a VA funding fee, even if he or she has not undergone a pre-discharge examination or a VA disability evaluation. Specially Adapted Housing assistance provides critical support for our veterans in need. This bill extends VA's authority to provide Specially Adapted Housing assistance to eligible veterans who are residing temporarily with family members. In addition, the assistance provided to such veterans would be annually adjusted based on a cost-of-construction index already in effect for other Specially Adapted Housing grants.

By honoring servicemembers who have died while on active duty, we ensure that their sacrifice and service will never be forgotten. Providing a presidential memorial certificate to the survivors of fallen servicemembers is one such way for our country to honor their service. Under current law, survivors of active duty servicemembers who have died are not eligible to receive a presidential memorial certificate. This is because eligibility is limited to survivors of veterans who were discharged under honorable conditions. Because a servicemember who died in active service is not defined by law as a ``veteran,'' his or her survivors are not eligible to receive a memorial certificate. This bill would authorize VA to provide a presidential memorial certificate to the next of kin, relatives, or friends of servicemembers who have fallen while on active duty. In so doing, we express our country's deepest thanks for that servicemember's ultimate sacrifice.

Addressing the claims backlog and ensuring veterans receive the benefits they have earned is one of my top priorities. One of the reasons for the unreasonably long delays that occur in VA decision- making is the time it takes, often in excess of one and a half years, for the VA to forward an appeal to the Board of Veterans' Appeals. This bill would waive agency of original jurisdiction review over new evidence submitted after a veteran has filed a substantive appeal, unless the veteran requests it. Presuming a waiver of AOJ review would improve the timeliness of processing appeals, while at the same time preserve the veteran's right to request initial review by the AOJ, should he or she so desire.

This is not a full summary 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.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, today, I reintroduce the Civilian Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, CEJA. The United States has dramatically more Government employees and contractors working overseas than ever before, but the legal framework governing them is unclear and outdated. To promote accountability, Congress must make sure that our criminal laws reach serious misconduct by American Government employees and contractors wherever they act. The Civilian Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act accomplishes this important and common sense goal by allowing United States contractors and employees working overseas who commit specific crimes to be tried and sentenced under U.S. law.

Tragic events in Iraq and Afghanistan highlight the need to strengthen the laws providing for jurisdiction over American Government employees and contractors working abroad. In September 2007, Blackwater security contractors working for the State Department shot more than 20 unarmed civilians on the streets of Baghdad, killing at least 14 of them, and causing a rift in our relations with the Iraqi government. Efforts to prosecute those responsible for these shootings have been fraught with difficulties, and our ability to hold the wrongdoers in this case accountable remains in doubt.

I worked with Senator Sessions and others in 2000 to pass the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, MEJA, and then, again, to amend it in 2004, so that U.S. criminal laws would extend to all members of the U.S. military, to those who accompany them, and to contractors who work with the military. That law provides criminal jurisdiction over Defense Department employees and contractors, but it does not explicitly cover people working for other Federal agencies, like the Blackwater security contractors. Had jurisdiction in the tragic Blackwater incident been clear, FBI agents likely would have been on the scene immediately, which could well have prevented some of the problems that have plagued the case.

Other incidents have made all too clear that the Blackwater case was not an isolated incident. Private security contractors have been involved in violent incidents and serious misconduct in Iraq and Afghanistan, including other shooting incidents in which civilians have been seriously injured or killed. As the military missions in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down, MEJA will no longer cover the thousands of contractors and employees who stay on. The legislation I introduce today fills this gap.

Last month, the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony from the Justice Department and from experts in the area of contractor accountability about the many diplomatic and national security benefits of expanding criminal jurisdiction over American employees and contractors overseas. The hearing also explored how best to ensure that our Nation's intelligence activities would not be impaired by CEJA. The legislation I propose today has been carefully crafted to ensure that the intelligence community can continue its activities unimpeded.

This bill would also provide greater protection to Americans, as it would lead to more accountability for crimes committed by U.S. government contractors and employees against Americans working abroad. In the last Congress, the Committee heard testimony from Jamie Leigh Jones, a young woman from Texas who took a job with Halliburton in Iraq in 2005 when she was 20 years old. In her first week on the job, she was drugged and gang-raped by coworkers. When she reported this assault, her employers moved her to a locked trailer, where she was kept by armed guards and freed only when the State Department intervened.

Ms. Jones testified about the arbitration clause in her contract that prevented her from suing Halliburton for this outrageous conduct, and Congress has moved to change the civil law to prevent that kind of injustice. Criminal jurisdiction over these kinds of atrocious crimes abroad, however, remains complicated and depends too greatly on the specific location of the crime, which makes prosecutions inconsistent and sometimes impossible. We must fix the law to help avoid arbitrary injustice and ensure that victims will not see their attackers escape accountability.

Ensuring criminal accountability will also improve our national security and protect Americans overseas. Importantly, in those instances where the local justice system may be less than fair, this explicit jurisdiction will also protect Americans by providing the option of prosecuting them in the United States, rather than leaving them subject to hostile and unpredictable local courts. Our allies, including those countries most essential to our counter-terrorism and national security efforts, work best with us when we hold our own accountable.

In the past, legislation in this area has been bipartisan. I hope Senators of both parties will work together to pass this important reform.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I would like to announce for the information of the Senate and the public that a hearing has been scheduled before the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests. The hearing will be held on Wednesday, August 3, 2011, at 2:30 p.m., in room SD-366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

The purpose of the hearing is to receive testimony on the following bills:

S. 1024, to designate the Organ Mountains and other public land as components of the National Wilderness Preservation System and the National Landscape Conservation System in the State of New Mexico, and for other purposes;

S. 1090, to designate as wilderness certain public land in the Cherokee National Forest in the State of Tennessee, and for other purposes;

S. 1144, to amend the Soda Ash Royalty Reduction Act of 2006 to extend the reduced royalty rate for soda ash;

S. 1149, to expand geothermal production, and for other purposes; and

S. 1344, to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to take immediate action to recover ecologically and economically from a catastrophic wildfire in the State of Arizona, and for other purposes.

Because of the limited time available for the hearing, witnesses may testify by invitation only. However, those wishing to submit written testimony for the hearing record should send it to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate, Washington, DC 20510-6150, or by email to [email protected].

For further information, please contact David Brooks at (202) 224- 9863 or Jake McCook at (202) 224-9313.

Mr. President, I wish to announce that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions will meet in executive session on Wednesday, July 27, 2011, at 10 a.m. in SD-430 to mark-up the following: S. 958, the Children's Hospital GME Support Reauthorization