VA Equal Employment Opportunity Counselor Modernization Act

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2788) to amend title 38, United States Code, to eliminate the cap on full-time employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs who provide equal employment opportunity counseling.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous material on H.R. 2788.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to support Representative Lamb's bipartisan legislation, the VA Equal Employment Opportunity Counselor Modernization Act, which is cosponsored by Representative Mann.

This bill would help the Department address diversity and equity issues within VA's workforce. It removes a portion of a 1997 law that limits the number of VA counselors who can advise employees on equal employment opportunity issues, provides alternative dispute resolution, and helps process formal complaints.

VA's workforce has roughly doubled in size since the 1997 law was enacted, and VA requested for the limit to be removed to allow the Department to hire additional counselors to support the needs of a large and still growing workforce.

Our Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee recently held a hearing to examine important steps to address workforce diversity and inclusion at VA. At this hearing, the subcommittee, once again, learned how important these counselors are. This bill builds off that oversight and will assist VA's efforts to support its workforce, which serves veterans every single day.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Lamb), my good friend and the author of this bipartisan legislation, H.R. 2788; and a member of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

Mr. Speaker, I, again, urge all of my colleagues to join me in

passing this important piece of legislation, H.R. 2788.

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

Mr. Speaker, I think the key term that Ranking Member Bost used was ``common sense.'' That can sometimes be in short supply around here.

When we found out that the VA has roughly the same number of EEOC counselors today--38--that it had in 1997, you ask yourself the simple question: Well, what else has happened at the VA since that time?

Their workforce has nearly doubled. Since 1997, the VA has become one of the largest Federal agencies, with a workforce of over 400,000 people, which means those same 38 EEOC counselors are handling roughly double the amount of complaints of unfair and illegal discrimination today that they were in 1997.

See, the law placed an artificial cap on the number of counselors, but it did not place a cap on the amount of unjust discrimination in our society. That has continued. If anything, the last year has shown us how deep and intransigent racial discrimination, sex discrimination, and other illegal forms of discrimination remain in our society and how we have to take active steps to dismantle them wherever we find them.

Unfair and illegal discrimination exists at the VA. It doesn't make me proud to say it as a veteran, as a lawmaker, as a public servant, but it exists there just like it exists everywhere else. These folks know how to deal with it. They know how to listen. They know how to make the employees feel like they have a safe place to go and tell their side of the story. They know how to stick up for these employees who are giving their careers to helping our veterans.

All we need to do is lift the cap, and the VA will hire EEOC counselors who can do their job effectively and take care of those who are taking care of our veterans every day.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2788, the VA Equal Employment Opportunity Counselor Modernization Act.

Current law prohibits VA from having more than 40 full-time EEO counselors. With a workforce of around 400,000, that is only one counselor for every 10,000 employees.

This arbitrary cap has hamstrung VA, and we have heard from the Department and stakeholders that the lack of counselors prevents VA from addressing complaints quickly. H.R. 2788 would remove this cap and finally allow VA to rightsize its need for EEO counselors.

I thank Congressman Conor Lamb and Ranking Member Tracey Mann for introducing and leading this commonsense legislation. I am pleased to support it this afternoon.

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

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 145, ``nay'' on rollcall No. 146, ``nay'' on rollcall No. 147, and ``yea'' on rollcall No. 148.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to section 5 of House Resolution 403, I move to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 144, H.R. 204, H.R. 210,