Vulnerable Veterans Housing Reform Act of 2013

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1742) to exclude from consideration as income under the United States Housing Act of 1937 payments of pension made under section 1521 of title 38, United States Code, to veterans who are in need of regular aid and attendance, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and submit extraneous material for the Record on H.R. 1742, currently under consideration.

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

I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1742, the Vulnerable Veterans Housing Reform Act of 2013, bipartisan legislation that ensures fairness in the housing assistance made available to our veterans who have borne the physical costs of service to the country.

First, H.R. 1742 amends current law to exempt expenses related to a veteran's in-home aid and attendance-care payments from qualifying as income when determining their eligibility and payments from HUD programs. The in-home aid and attendance-care benefit is an enhanced pension program provided by the VA to severely disabled wartime veterans who make less than $12,256 per year. These pensions are provided out of medical necessity and should not be considered disposable income. Including them in income calculations skews eligibility and wrongly reduces the housing assistance that would otherwise be available to thousands of disabled veterans.

The Vulnerable Veterans Housing Reform Act also improves the way utility allowances are calculated by instructing public housing authorities to base payments on family size--that is, the number of people benefiting from a payment--rather than the current standard of dwelling size. Using this approach ensures, for instance, a family of four living in a one-bedroom apartment will not receive less in utility allowance than a single individual living in a two-bedroom apartment. These housing reforms have broad support from State and local housing agencies, low-income housing advocates, and for-profit and nonprofit affordable housing providers.

Mr. Speaker, many of our current veterans assistance programs are flawed--they spend too much and they help too few. Fortunately, the CBO estimates the reforms in this bill will save almost $50 million over 5 years while helping thousands of veterans obtain the appropriate housing assistance.

Sadly, homelessness affects over 60,000 veterans nationwide and approximately 1,000 in my home State of Arkansas. These numbers are unacceptable. As a combat veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan, I understand not only the difficulties faced while serving in the military, but also the struggles that too many encounter upon returning to civilian life--especially with a life-altering disability. These men and women have put their lives on the line for our country; we should be doing all we can to support them--not making it harder for them to obtain assistance.

I am grateful to my colleague and fellow veteran, Congressman Joe Heck, and the Financial Services Committee for their work on this legislation.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill and our disabled veterans.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Nevada, Dr. Heck, the sponsor of this legislation, a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve and soon to be brigadier general.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Delaware, as well as the gentleman from Nevada, and everybody in this institution that helps serve our veterans every single day.

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

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

About a year ago, I talked to a young marine from Magnolia, Delaware, in my district. He had been wounded in Afghanistan and was home recovering. I had called him really just to wish him well and to see how he was doing. This marine was not focused on his injuries. All he could think about and talk to me about was getting back to his base.

Mr. Speaker, as Members of Congress, we need to be worthy of this marine's sacrifice, his selflessness, and his dedication to fighting for his country. Our Nation's most sacred obligation is to care for our men and women in uniform, both when they are serving abroad and when they come back home.

Unfortunately, today, we are falling short of this duty. Today, about 60,000 veterans are homeless. Close to 13,000 of these are veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. While veterans represent only 7 percent of the U.S. population, they represent 13 percent of homeless Americans.

These numbers are just unacceptable. That is why I was pleased to join with my colleagues and friends, Mr. Heck and Mr. Renacci, in introducing the Vulnerable Veterans Housing Reform Act of 2013. We are all part of a bipartisan working group that meets a couple of times a month. We have come up with a number of commonsense ideas just like this bill. Mr. Delaney and Mr. Renacci have another bill later on today.

Simply put, the Vulnerable Veterans Housing Reform Act ensures that veterans who need and deserve housing assistance get it. Right now, those veterans who are struggling the most--those who are severely disabled and have virtually no income--receive a benefit from the VA to cover the cost of their care. This benefit goes to caretakers who help our veterans with the daily tasks of living, bathing, eating, maintaining prosthetics, and the list goes on. However, when these same veterans go to apply for housing assistance from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, this aid counts as income, making it harder for them to qualify for housing assistance. This policy just doesn't make sense, and it is hurting our veterans.

H.R. 1742, the Vulnerable Veterans Housing Reform Act, fixes this problem so that our severely disabled veterans aren't victims of homelessness as well. It excludes this aid--meant to address the health and daily living needs of severely disabled veterans--from the calculation of income in the housing assistance program.

Mr. Speaker, often when Members come in through the doors of the House Chamber to vote, we are greeted by members of our military who have been wounded in service of our Nation. Most have lost limbs, and all their lives are irreparably changed. Despite all they have already given, these men and women come to our Nation's Capitol to continue giving back and to inspire and thank us. We should thank them.

As we approach Veterans Day, I hope the House will honor their sacrifice by passing legislation that will make life just a little easier for those who have given so much to protect ours.

I know my colleagues on both sides of the aisle recognize this as a critical issue. A similar version of this bill passed the House by voice vote in the last Congress. I urge my colleagues to pass this bill once again for the sake of our Nation's most vulnerable veterans.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time. I just would like to thank the sponsors, Mr. Heck, Mr. Renacci, and other veterans, Mr. Cotton, the Members from the Democratic side who cosponsored this, and all the Members of the House who supported this the last time.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my brother veteran, the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Cotton), and my friend from the State of Delaware (Mr. Carney) for joining me in support of H.R. 1742, this bipartisan bill, the Vulnerable Veterans Housing Reform Act of 2013.

As has been stated, this bill would remove an unnecessary barrier that prevents our wartime veterans from receiving the housing assistance they so critically need. This body recognized the importance of this issue when it unanimously passed a substantially similar bill, H.R. 6361, the Vulnerable Veterans Housing Reform Act of 2012, which I introduced last year. Unfortunately, that legislation was not considered by the Senate prior to the conclusion of the 112th Congress.

Quite simply, H.R. 1742 prevents the Department of Housing and Urban Development from considering a veteran's ``aid and attendance benefits'' as income when calculating their need and eligibility for housing assistance.

The aid and attendance benefit is an enhanced pension provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs to our Nation's wartime veterans who are severely disabled and have little or no income. Veterans eligible for this benefit are those requiring the aid of another person in order to perform their activities of daily living.

In order to receive this benefit, a veteran must first establish his or her eligibility for a low-income pension, which requires an annual adjusted gross income of less than $12,256 for a single veteran with no dependents.

Once eligibility is determined, low-income disabled veterans can receive, roughly, an additional $8,000 in aid and attendance benefits annually to help defray the cost of their medical care. This is an important point: the aid and attendance benefit is for medical care; it is not discretionary income; it cannot be used for groceries, utilities, or transportation.

As you can imagine, these low-income veterans struggle daily to keep the lights on, put food on the table, and to keep a roof over their heads. Add to that the costs of paying for a personal care attendant and it becomes increasingly difficult for them to stay in their homes.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development operates a number of programs to assist these veterans. However, current regulations require that the aid and attendance benefit be counted as income when determining eligibility for housing assistance.

Mr. Speaker, this makes no sense. The VA provides this benefit to ensure that our low-income disabled wartime vets have the necessary resources to receive the medical care they need and that they have earned. While $8,000 per year may seem like a substantial amount of money, it doesn't fully cover the cost of a full-time aide, but it is much more cost effective than placing the veteran in a nursing home or assisted living facility.

Continuing to count the aid and attendance benefit as income does nothing more than to reduce the housing assistance available to our low-income disabled vets and jeopardizes their ability to live independently.

Mr. Speaker, it is its stated goal of both this House and this administration to reduce homelessness in our veteran population. The need for this legislative fix is just as strong today as it was last year. Most recent statistics estimate that approximately 63,000 veterans across America are homeless. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1742 will go a long way toward preventing homelessness for our Nation's veterans.

I urge my colleagues to support this critical legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1742, the Vulnerable Veterans Housing Reform Act of 2013.

Our country enjoys unparalleled freedom because of the commitment and sacrifice of our troops. I believe that if you serve our country, we should have your back. That means ensuring that military families and veterans have access to the full level of benefits they have earned.

Mr. Speaker, it is unacceptable that the aid and assistance we provide to our heroes and their families, would end up diminishing housing benefits. Treating this allocation as part of the income calculation to determine HUD benefits could lead to an increase in homelessness. Why force our heroes to choose between the care they require and the shelter they need?

H.R. 1742 clarifies that the benefits earned by our military retirees shall remain used to the purposes provided--and that assistance for caring for the disabled shall not jeopardize the ability to get the housing and shelter they require.

Again I am proud to support the Vulnerable Veterans Housing Reform Act of 2013 and urge my colleagues to do the same. Let's continue our commitment to our veterans. Let us do what we can to honor their service and sacrifices. With more and more servicemen transitioning to veteran status, it's critical that we protect the benefits they have earned in service to their country.