Honoring Veterans’ Families Act

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

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 1947, as amended.

This bill would address a limitation in current law that prevents funding from being transferred to the Department of Veterans Affairs nonprofit research and education corporations, or NPCs, for longer than 1 fiscal year.

NPCs were established by Congress in the late 1980s to provide a flexible funding mechanism to support research. Collectively, they have contributed more than $2 billion to VA research projects over the last decade.

However, last year, VA's Office of the General Counsel uncovered a legal limitation that prevents funding from being transferred to the NPCs for longer than 1 fiscal year. This upturned years of practice by the NPCs and threatened a number of ongoing research projects across the country that could benefit veterans and all Americans.

Madam Speaker, I have been involved in a number of research projects over the years, and they just don't go for 365 days. Many of them go for years and years. This bill would correct that limitation and preserve the ability of the NPCs to support important multiyear research projects.

Additionally, H.R. 1947, as amended, includes a provision from Representative LaMalfa's bill, H.R. 1126, the Honoring Veterans' Families Act.

Currently, VA is authorized to add a memorial inscription for a veteran's deceased spouse or eligible dependent child to a VA-furnished marker, but only if they are buried in a national cemetery or a State or Tribal veterans cemetery. Unfortunately, VA cannot provide this benefit to veterans and their families if they are buried elsewhere, such as a private or local cemetery. H.R. 1947, as amended, would address this problem by allowing VA to memorialize a veteran's deceased spouse or certain children on the veteran's marker, regardless of where they choose to be laid to rest.

The cost of this bill will be paid for by closing a loophole in GI Bill rules related to flight schools by capping the total tuition and fees that can be used at a public school for flight training at the current private school cap of $23,671 per year. The bill would authorize a 2-year grandfather clause so that no current students are impacted by this change.

It also includes provisions that would make it easier for students to attend flight training by removing the prohibition against GI Bill funds paying for a private pilot's license and giving students the option to accelerate their GI Bill benefits to pay for the increased cost associated with flight training.

These changes to flight training for the GI Bill have had wide bipartisan and veteran service organization support in the past, and I am pleased that they are included in this bill.

I encourage all Members to support H.R. 1947, as amended.

I thank the chairman for his kind comments and support of this bill.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa), my good friend and an author of one part of this bill.

Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Gosar), my good friend and Western Caucus chair.

Madam Speaker, I have no further speakers, am prepared to close, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Before I yield back, I do want to express my disappointment that H.R. 2196 is not on the floor for consideration this afternoon. This bill, introduced by my friend and outstanding new member of our committee, Congressman Barr from Kentucky, would clarify the eligibility of the Edith Nourse Rogers STEM Scholarship program. This scholarship, which was enacted as part of the Forever GI Bill, authorizes extra GI Bill funding to help student veterans complete their undergraduate degrees in the science, technology, engineering, and math, STEM, fields.

Madam Speaker, we all know that there is a need to fill vacancies for high-paying jobs in the STEM fields. The Smithsonian Science Education Center found STEM-related jobs grew at three times the rate of non-STEM jobs between 2000 and 2010. By 2018, they projected that 2.4 million STEM jobs would go unfilled.

The Edith Nourse Rogers STEM Scholarship program is critical to ensure that veterans are the ones who fill these vacancies. However, the way the original law was drafted, it would unintentionally prevent most students from using this scholarship in all but a few STEM programs.

With the scholarship going live on August 1, 2019, I am grateful to Mr. Barr for quickly stepping up to the plate to offer this bill to ensure students are eligible for it.

We all know that the Senate generally takes longer to review legislation than the House. Let me repeat that. We all know that the Senate generally takes a lot longer to review legislation than the House does. That is why, with the August 1 deadline approaching quickly, I was hopeful we could consider this legislation today. The bill has gone through full regular order, is supported by VA and veterans service organizations, and has no cost.

I would ask the chairman if he would please work with the majority leader to schedule this bill for consideration immediately after the Memorial Day district work period.

Before I yield back, next Monday is Memorial Day. For me, personally, I want to thank all of the members of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, the chairman and others, as you have seen today, for the work they have done in a bipartisan way to help our Nation's heroes.

As I said, for me, personally, as a veteran, this is a very difficult day because it is a day that we mourn the loss of veterans who served on Active Duty and paid the ultimate price. I want to just mention a few names of people.

First, Sergeant Thomas E. Thayer, a tremendous man whom I knew as a young boy growing up. He was my Scout master. He was in the 101st Airborne and was killed in Vietnam, receiving the Silver Star in 1965.

Johnny Parham, who was also an Eagle Scout, as I am. Johnny and I ran on the 2-mile relay team together in high school. I have to say, we were pretty good. Johnny died in 1969 in Vietnam and was unable to have the wonderful life that I have had, to be able to raise a family, have children and grandchildren, because of service to our Nation.

Bob Perry, a young man whom I went to elementary school with all the way through high school. I found out at my high school reunion many years later that Bob also died in Vietnam.

We just heard today, Chief Petty Officer Bill Mulder, a highly decorated Navy SEAL who protected this Nation, giving up his life because of, really, the invisible wounds of war.

I just want to thank all of those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1947) to amend title 38, United States Code, to exempt transfers of funds from Federal agencies to the Department of Veterans Affairs for nonprofit corporations established under subchapter IV of chapter 73 of such title from certain provisions of the Economy Act, as amended.

Madam 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. 1947, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Veterans' Affairs be authorized to file a supplemental report on the bill, H.R. 1947, as amended.

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

Madam Speaker, this comprehensive legislation addresses funding for VA research and gives the VA authority to work with grieving families to memorialize their loved ones. It also closes a loophole that has allowed contracted flight schools to charge public schools unlimited tuition and fees to train veterans using the GI Bill.

The first section of the measure addresses VA research. VA's Office of Research and Development improves the lives of veterans, contributes to the national public health, and develops lifesaving biomedical breakthroughs that change the world.

In its 90-year history, the VA's medical and prosthetic research has produced some of the world's greatest advances. The VA developed the pacemaker in 1960 and the shingles vaccine in 2005. It created an effective smoking cessation program and increased life expectancy for people with spinal cord injuries.

VA researchers were responsible for beginning the first international antiretroviral drug therapy trial to find the optimal treatment for patients with AIDS, for whom all therapy had failed.

These research efforts usually aren't performed alone. They are often in collaboration with nonprofits, universities, other Federal agencies, and international bodies.

When research is funded from non-VA grants, it is managed by a for- profit corporation, otherwise known as an NPC, established at a VA Medical Center, which allows flexible research funding.

Last year, the VA's Office of General Counsel uncovered an appropriations law limitation that prevents funding transfers to these nonprofit research corporations for longer than 1 fiscal year. This has negatively affected several ongoing multiyear projects across the country.

Dr. Roe's legislation, H.R. 1947, as amended, would provide explicit authority for NPCs to administer research funding without regard to fiscal year limitations.

To ensure this legislation does not raise spending, section 2 addresses a loophole in GI Bill flight school benefits.

This loophole had been exploited by flight schools that had contracted with public institutions of higher learning to offer flight- related degrees. In some cases, bad actors were exploiting GI benefits that resulted in the VA paying out over $500,000 in tuition and flight payments to one student.

H.R. 1947 fixes this loophole by marrying the cap on tuition at private institutions with a cap on flight school tuition at public institutions.

In addition, to ensure that the fewest possible students are impacted, the legislation also includes a provision to allow flight school students to accelerate their GI Bill benefits. This will allow them to be better used for flight school, which is regularly more expensive but takes fewer months to complete.

Finally, section 3 of H.R. 1947, as amended, authorizes VA to replace a veteran's headstone or marker in a private cemetery so that an inscription may be added to remember a deceased spouse or a child following their deaths.

Madam Speaker, I thank Representative LaMalfa for introducing the original legislation and Ranking Member Roe for offering the legislation as an amendment during markup.

This bill is another example of our committee working on a bipartisan basis to get it right for all veterans.

This legislation allows veterans to memorialize their loved ones in the way they want and where they want. Every veteran deserves to know that their wish to be remembered in perpetuity alongside spouses and their children will be granted. The same is true for surviving spouses and children who want reassurance that they, too, will be memorialized with their veteran spouse or parent.

Madam Speaker, I thank Dr. Roe for his tireless efforts to care for veterans, and I commend him on this bill. I look forward to joining him in voting ``yes'' on this legislation.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I am prepared to close.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

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

Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in passing H.R. 1947.

Before I close, let me say that I appreciate the kind words of the ranking member, Dr. Roe of Tennessee, and I associate myself with his eloquent tributes to his classmates and the people who did not get to live the full lives that he, himself, has been able to live.

I, myself, have also known people who have served our country and who have also paid the ultimate price. I certainly do share his sentiments as we enter this Memorial Day weekend, as all Americans reflect on the ultimate sacrifice of all the people buried in our national cemeteries and cemeteries that aren't national cemeteries that are marked by VA grave markers.

It is always a poignant moment to walk through my national cemetery and to watch the Girl Scouts and the Cub Scouts planting American flags on each and every grave and to see it all happen within 20 minutes because there are so many Americans who want to come to my cemetery to make sure that every grave is honored.

To my colleague from Tennessee, I wish him a pleasant Memorial Day weekend, but, also, to all Americans, let us reflect on what Memorial Day weekend does mean to our Nation.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I rise not against this bill, but I have concerns about a provision capping the veterans' training benefits. This severely undermines the important goal of helping our Nation's veterans enter a field where they are desperately needed.

H.R. 1947 does have needed improvements for structural veteran flight training benefits. This includes an accelerated payment provision to provide greater flexibility and a more efficient funding mechanism to help veterans complete their flight training.

The bill also provides coverage for obtaining a private pilot's license when it is incorporated into the requirements of a professional flight training program.

Additionally, this action provides flexibility to public schools, allowing them to contract for flight training, which, in turn, makes aviation training more available to interested veterans.

There is improved fiscal responsibility by the government, and there is strong support for tightening the existing regulations of the Department of Veterans Affairs to curb abuses by a minority of flight schools affiliated with collegian degree programs. However, the bill caps payments for flight

training programs, which unfairly impacts the ability of veterans to pursue well-paying jobs in the civilian aviation sector.

Capping funds available for flight training degree programs virtually guarantees that veterans seeking to use their GI Bill benefits to enter the aviation industry will have insufficient funds to achieve their goals. They will either abandon their pursuit or be burdened with significant personal debt through either expenditure of personal funds or taking on severe student loans. This will harm veterans and limit their employment opportunities in the aviation industry.

It is unfair and discriminatory to single out these funding caps for veterans seeking employment in aviation. These caps deprive them of the ability to pursue collegian flight training, a common path to a career as a commercial pilot.

I hope this provision can be addressed prior to finding its way to the President. These jobs in aviation are in high demand, and our veterans are some of the most deserving and most needed.

Madam Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Roe and Chairman Takano for including my legislation, H.R. 1126, within H.R. 1947. It is greatly appreciated. This is an oversight that was pointed out by northern California veterans to me a while back, the choice of being able to have a family member, a spouse, inscribed on a grave marker, simply the difference being that it is in a Federal cemetery or one that is private. That is really the bottom line on this.

This bill changes that oversight so that the choice can be at any recognized cemetery. That is simply what we are after: to have our veterans who have served us honorably know that, when they are at their final resting place, that this oversight cannot happen for their family member that they held so dear to share that gravestone with them.

So, whether it is a private cemetery or a VA, or whatever other type you might have as your choice, veterans need to have this choice as well.

Madam Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Roe and Chairman Takano for including this so we can take care of this oversight quickly and have our veterans have the choices that they feel they deserve and, indeed, do deserve. I appreciate it.