Veterans Readiness and Employment Improvement Act of 2025

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 980) to amend title 38, United States Code, to make certain improvements to the provision of on-campus educational and vocational counseling by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 980, as amended.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 980, as amended, offered by my friend and colleague, Representative Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin.

This bill would make improvements to the VA's Veteran Readiness and Employment, or VR&E, program.

Over the last 2 years, my committee has uncovered disastrous wait times, fraud, waste, and abuse in the VA VR&E program. This bill would move the program in the right direction by providing more transparency on these failures.

Mr. Speaker, it is our duty to make sure that veterans who complete this workforce program are earning more and are better off than they were before entering the program.

VR&E currently does not track those results. In fact, the only thing VR&E does track is the 45 percent of veterans who have completed programs and simply reentered them later. There remains continued fraud, waste, and abuse in the VR&E program, and the return on investment for the veterans is unknown.

Mr. Speaker, in fact, it shows me that VR&E needs an overhaul. This bill would reduce the bureaucracy and red tape that the VA has used in the past and would modernize the requirements for the VetSuccess on Campus officers, or VSOCs, by removing the master's degree requirement to a bachelor's degree in the relevant field of study.

This bill would also include increasing oversight and transparency of the VR&E program by implementing a call center specifically for the VR&E program. For VR&E to work well, there must be transparency to veterans who are using the program.

Finally, this bill would also allow veterans in the VR&E program to pursue noncollege degrees, like flight training.

Mr. Speaker, this bill is a step in the right direction of putting veterans first at the VA. I thank my friend and colleague, Representative Van Orden, for sponsoring this bill to improve the VR&E program.

I also thank the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Hamadeh) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Obernolte) for championing the other provisions of this language.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 980, as amended, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Van Orden), who is the chief sponsor of the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Obernolte), who has done a tremendous amount of work to help with this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I have no more speakers. I am ready to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, oh, how I missed my colleagues last week.

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

Madam Speaker, once again, I encourage all Members to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my support for H.R. 980, the Veterans Readiness and Employment Improvement Act of 2025, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, this legislation will remove the requirement that Veteran Readiness and Employment, or VR&E, counselors staff the VetSuccess on Campus, or VSOC, program. This change will put counselors back into the severely understaffed VR&E program and will also allow the future expansion of the VSOC program, which has been limited by the availability of VR&E counselors.

Mr. Speaker, many colleges and universities and Members of Congress are asking for VSOC staff on their campuses and in their district because they have seen firsthand the impact a VSOC can have. By expanding who can fill that role, we will give more student veterans access to the program and help enable them to access their earned benefits.

While I do have concerns that section 4 of the bill requires VA to adjudicate extension requests within 30 days without addressing the underlying issue of

staffing, I support the intent of timely decisions for our student veterans.

Mr. Speaker, I do encourage all of my colleagues to join me in supporting passage of this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I am prepared to close. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am glad to see that the House is moving this bill forward today, and I hope for speedy passage through the Senate and to the President to be signed into law.

I look at the many other good bills languishing in committee waiting for us to take them up and move them to the floor like this one. If we are to believe our own rhetoric, it shouldn't matter if a good idea is from a Republican Member or a Democratic Member. If it helps veterans, we should get it done.

I hope to see the chairman of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs move bills other than the ones sponsored by his members expected to be in tight reelection races. I hope he returns to the traditional practice of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs moving both Republican and Democratic bills in great numbers. I see the smile across his nice countenance, which to me is a sign of his assent and his geniality.

I encourage my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 980, the Veterans Readiness and Employment Improvement Act of 2025, as amended, and I encourage my colleagues to vote for it. I hope very much that my chairman will move other bills, as well.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 980.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman and my friend and colleague from Wisconsin (Mr. Van Orden) for including my bill, H.R. 913, the Streamlining Aviation for Eligible Veterans Act, in the text of this bill.

This bill will make meaningful improvements to the way that the VR&E program serves our disabled veterans, and my section of the bill will enable those veterans to use their VR&E benefits to pursue vocational flight training.

Mr. Speaker, as you know, we have a nationwide pilot shortage, and our veterans make excellent candidates for pilots, having been trained in a highly technical environment and being trained to follow the rules and being able to absorb all of the knowledge necessary to be an exceptional pilot.

Mr. Speaker, there currently are impediments for VR&E benefits being used in vocational flight training. These benefits are intended, as currently written, to be used in programs that are degree granting. As we all know, earning a college degree has nothing to do necessarily with learning how to fly an aircraft.

This bill will improve that section by granting the VA the flexibility to have veterans pursue vocational flight training outside of degree-granting programs.

Mr. Speaker, that will not only incentivize our servicemen and -women to become pilots and to embark on new careers, but it will also help to solve the nationwide pilot shortage in our country. Most importantly, it puts our veterans first.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 980.

Mr. Speaker, today I was absent for recorded votes due to travel. Had I been present, I would have voted as follows: YEA on Roll Call No. 49, H.R. 980--Veterans Readiness and Employment Improvement Act of 2025, as amended, and YEA on Roll Call No. 50, H.R. 3123--Ernest Peltz Accrued Veterans Benefits Act, as amended.

personal explanation

Mr. Speaker, on Roll Call No. 49 and No. 50, I am not recorded because I was absent due to delayed travel. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 49 and YEA on Roll Call No. 50.