REMOTE Act

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5603, as amended, the Protections for Student Veterans Act.

This bill would protect student veterans who have to withdraw from a course of education under the GI Bill if they are called up for Active Duty or for training. This change would protect students from receiving a poor grade or an incomplete while they are doing their job to protect this country.

The change proposed in this bill is needed, and it has my full support.

I am also pleased that this bill, as amended, includes the text of Congressman Cawthorn's bill, H.R. 4874, the Fly Vets Act. His bill would close a longstanding loophole that allows public flight training schools to charge an unlimited amount in tuition and fees for GI Bill students.

This bill would allow students to utilize a revolutionary accelerated tuition and fee model that would provide twice the amount of tuition and fees per

month for 2 months of eligibility. This is commonsense legislation that would protect both the student veteran and the taxpayer.

I thank Congressman Cawthorn for his hard work on this bill. I also thank Congressmen Wenstrup and Levin for their work on this bill in previous Congresses. I hope that this year we can get this needed change across the finish line.

While we are talking about the GI Bill, I would like to take a few minutes to discuss another matter. At least at the start of the pandemic, we worked on a bipartisan effort to ensure that student veterans' GI Bill housing allowance payments are not cut when their in- person classes converted to online learning due to COVID-19. The current authorization expires on December 21, 2021.

Chairman Takano and Congressman Trone are advocating for a bill that extends this protection, but it is not paid for. Instead, it relies on emergency spending to cover the more than $200 million mandatory score associated with the bill. I believe that is too high of a cost to consider through emergency spending and must insist that we offset the extension.

To that end, I introduced a bill that would achieve the policy objective but pay for the cost of the bill with a regularly used offset.

My bill also includes changes that are needed to ensure that GI Bill students can attend foreign schools. It would also give U.S. schools time to comply with the new reporting requirements passed last Congress.

A coalition of 18 higher education groups has advocated for these changes for several months and support my proposal. They understand that if these changes are not made soon, many schools will be forced to stop accepting students who are using the GI Bill.

I understand the chairman has recently received a letter from the chancellor of the University of California at Riverside, who agrees that this proposal must be offset.

Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox wrote that by passing the bill without an offset, we would be ``no closer to a resolution on this critical issue.''

The letter goes on to say that passing a bill out of the House without an offset ``will jeopardize UCR's ability to continue to serve our veteran students.''

The chancellor also stated that this fall UC Riverside supported hundreds of military-connected students, including about 179 veterans who could be impacted by inaction.

Unless I am mistaken, UC Riverside is in Chairman Takano's district.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the letter from Chancellor Wilcox.

UC Riverside,

Office of the Chancellor,

Riverside, CA, November 12, 2021.

Hon. Mark Takano,

U.S. Representative,

Washington, DC.

Dear Representative Takano: I understand that you are

planning to bring H.R. 5545, the Responsible Education

Mitigating Options and Technical Extensions (REMOTE) Act, up

for a vote in the House next week. The bill includes critical

technical corrections to address unintended consequences

stemming from several provisions in the Isakson Roe Act and

the Training in High-Demand Roles to Improve Veteran

Employment (THRIVE) Act that went into effect on August 1,

2021. The bill would also extend certain COVID-related

flexibilities granted to the Secretary of the Department of

Veterans Affairs (VA) in the wake of the pandemic.

As the bill is currently written, however, it does not

include an offset for the approximately $200 million cost for

the extension of COVID-19 flexibilities. I am deeply

concerned that without the inclusion of an offset, the bill

will not be able to pass the Senate by unanimous consent and

we will be no closer to a resolution on this critical issue.

During the Fall of 2021, UC Riverside served 179 Veterans,

37 Reservists, 11 National Guard, and 15 Active Duty self-

identified members of the U.S. military branches. Designated

as a ``Military Spouse Friendly'' campus, UCR served over 350

dependents, and have utilized over $6M in Veterans benefits.

Without an offset for the extension of COVID-19

flexibilities, it will jeopardize UCR's ability to continue

to serve our Veteran Students, due to the compliance issues

that require fixes. I would also urge you to include language

to modify VA's current ``rounding out'' rule to ensure that

more veterans can maintain full-time benefits during the last

term of their program.

I respectfully request that your staff work to pass

bipartisan legislation next week that addresses these

concerns and can be quickly passed through both chambers and

signed into law.

Sincerely,

Kim A. Wilcox,

Chancellor.

At our full committee markup 2 weeks ago, I urged Chairman Takano to work with me and our Senate colleagues to find a way forward on the offset issue on a bipartisan basis.

However, last week I was told that Congressman Trone's bill would be on the slate of bills, but the cost would not be offset. I registered my concern and was glad to see that the un-offset bill will not be considered under suspension of the rules today.

I do understand, however, that the majority intends to take Congressman Trone's bill to the Rules Committee the week after next and pass it out of the House un-offset through a rule.

Let me be clear, I support the policy, but I believe the cost of the bill must be offset. Schools like UC Riverside clearly agree with me. Even if the Democrats are able to get Congressman Trone's un-offset bill through the House--and that is a big ``if''--I don't believe that they can pass it in the Senate by unanimous consent.

It is the responsibility of the leaders of our committee to solve this issue so that the bill can quickly make it to the President's desk. Although the chairman may not like it, my approach is the only way to get this done in time to help students in a fiscally responsible manner.

The higher education community has told us that this extension needs to be enacted by Thanksgiving. I think we can see that under the majority's current plan, the deadline will be missed. After Thanksgiving we have only 9 legislative days left before these protections expire. We are simply running out of time.

I do not have a preference for whether we take up my bill or amend Congressman Trone's bill to include the offset, but I urge the chairman to come back to reality and stop playing political games with it so that we can ensure that student veterans are protected in a fiscally sound manner.

At the very least, I would advise the chairman not to let this inaction impact thousands of student veterans across the country, including the 179 right there in his own district.

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

Mr. Speaker, paying for something and doing the job that we are supposed to be doing here is not political gamesmanship.

I said in my statement that I believe that we must continue to provide for these veterans, but it is our fiduciary duty to do it in the correct way. That is what I am asking for. I am also asking for it because that way we know it will move through the Senate and work in a bipartisan, bicameral manner to try to move it forward.

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

Mr. Speaker, I encourage all of my colleagues to support the underlying bill that was discussed. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5603) to amend title 38, United States Code, to establish protections for a member of the Armed Forces who leaves a course of education, paid for with certain educational assistance, to perform certain service, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on H.R. 5603, as amended.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5603, as amended, the Protections for Student Veterans Act, introduced by Representative Underwood.

This bill amends the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which provides broad protections for Active Duty, reservist, and National Guard servicemembers during deployments.

H.R. 5603, as amended, enhances protections for members of the Armed Forces who must suspend their education to fulfill military orders.

Many States, including Illinois and Washington, have stronger student protections for servicemembers than those that exist at the Federal level. There are currently few Federal protections for members of the armed services who are enrolled in higher education when they receive Active Duty orders. These servicemembers can be held liable to repay tuition and may also receive failing or incomplete grades as a result of suspending their education for military duty.

I hope we can all agree that this is an unfair penalty to those members of the Armed Forces who are preparing for their future through education while also serving our country.

The protections proposed in this bill would cover unexpected withdrawals due to military orders and can provide restoration of benefits and reimbursements for classes.

This bill takes the best practices from around the country to make sure student veterans aren't left with debts or incomplete classes outside their control due to military orders.

This legislation is supported by numerous VSOs, including Student Veterans of America.

I thank Speaker Pelosi and Leader Hoyer for bringing this legislation to the floor, and I urge the rest of my colleagues to support this legislation to protect GI Bill benefits for servicemembers fulfilling their duty to our country.

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

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

I am distressed that the ranking member has chosen this particular moment to inject comments about the REMOTE Act, sponsored by the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Trone), and to imply that there is obstruction in taking action to help our veterans, our student veterans, with their housing allowances--which we took action on during the pandemic, which still we are not completely out of yet. I would argue that we are still in a national emergency. We are seeing COVID infections rise in Europe, and we are seeing vaccine resistance and hesitancy in many parts of the country, which still necessitate the need for a policy which allows for student veterans to still get their housing allowances while they are taking classes virtually.

I will remind the minority that three times under the Trump administration, we passed something like the REMOTE Act, the authority to allow student veterans to receive their housing allowances while taking virtual classes. They were not in residence at the school where they would do in-person learning. We allowed this three times under emergency spending. Why? Because emergency spending fits the moment. And it still fits the moment. This nonsense about we have to pay for something that should be an emergency is nonsense.

I recall times on this floor when we had Members arguing that we should not pay for the damage done for hurricanes in one State because it didn't happen to the rest of the States, that we need to find a pay- for for hurricane damage in this country and for certain other kinds of natural disasters.

A pandemic is a type of natural disaster. In this case, it has killed 700,000 Americans. I would argue that we saved lives, and we relieved a lot of suffering of our veterans who would have been turned out in the streets if we did not give them this housing allowance.

And now at the eleventh hour when we intended to bring Representative Trone's bill to the floor, suddenly we had to meet a pay-for demand of the

minority, and to set a precedent for future disasters that we would have to have this very argument.

Instead of the precedent being that we spend emergency funds for emergency situations, we now are in a situation where the minority is arguing a ridiculous ideological argument about how we pay for things during a time of a national emergency.

I am disappointed that the minority has brought up its objections and also sought to use my University of California, Riverside as part of this pawn. I just received a message from my chancellor correcting the position that they took on their public letter. They are the only university to submit such a detailed letter regarding the pay-for. No other university has sought to take that position. I have questions as to how my university reached a point where they issued such a letter so that it could be used on the floor. I now have a correction that was issued to me just hours before.

This is about America's veterans, and this is about serving America's veterans during an emergency situation in which 700,000 Americans have already died. I want to keep those veterans safe. I want to keep them in housing. And, yes, I believe it is appropriate to keep the precedent of using emergency funding and not have this silly political gamesmanship over the pay-for.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I will just reply that it is political gamesmanship. I hate seeing universities used as pawns in this game. I hate seeing our student veterans being used as pawns.

What is at stake here is the principle, the precedent that this Congress will pay for emergencies out of emergency funding. The need to help our veterans, who must take their classes remotely, pay for their housing because of the national emergency that we are still in, is part of a precedent that we need to preserve.

This is not a political game to me. This is about protecting our veterans. This is about protecting our Nation in the future.

The idea that when a national disaster, whether it occurs in the form of a hurricane, an earthquake, or some other calamity like a pandemic that has killed 700,000 Americans, that the principle stands that that is an emergency and that we as a Nation stand together as one American from whatever State we are in to help an American in another State, even though that disaster didn't happen in that State. But this disaster was omnipresent throughout our country. I don't understand the logic.

Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all my colleagues to join me in passing this very important legislation, H.R. 5603, as amended, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5545) to extend certain expiring provisions of law relating to benefits provided under Department of Veterans Affairs educational assistance programs during COVID-19 pandemic, as amended.

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. 5545, as amended.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5545, as amended, the Responsible Education Mitigating Options and Technical Extensions Act, or the REMOTE Act. This bill is an urgent extension of flexibilities for student veterans using their educational assistance benefits as the COVID-19 pandemic wears on.

H.R. 5545, as amended, extends the Student Veteran Coronavirus Response Act of 2020 through the spring 2022 term.

When my Student Veteran Coronavirus Response Act was signed into law in April 2020, I am not sure many of us would have foreseen that 19 months later the COVID-19 pandemic would still affect everyday life for veterans and their families across the country.

And since then, we have extended these flexibilities for student veterans three times as the pandemic remains a public health emergency throughout the country and the world. Still, many college students remain unable to return to campus.

H.R. 5545, as amended, would extend remote learning waivers for student veterans through the spring 2022 term and ensure they will continue receiving full housing benefits despite not taking on-campus courses.

We have been negotiating this bill with the minority for months and, while this bill is not the exact version that I would prefer, student veterans are simply too important to let these benefits lapse.

A majority of students have already enrolled in their spring classes, having signed up as early as this past October or November. They selected their classes with the hope that we, in Congress, would act to extend these flexibilities through the spring term. We cannot wait any longer to pass this critical piece of legislation for our student veterans.

New cases of the virus are up. There is a new variant, leading some States to declare a new state of emergency, and it is clear, COVID-19 is not behind us. The emergency persists, and we cannot walk away from our duty to assist student veterans now.

Without this legislation, student veterans who planned and started out the school year remotely--reasonably thinking they would be able to stay in status for the entire school year--will have to figure out a plan to get back to taking on-campus classes in order to receive their monthly allowance for housing.

This legislation is to address this specific emergency now. This is not setting precedent for any future emergencies, nor is it setting a standard for treating future education terms impacted by COVID-19.

Should we have to extend these provisions again next year, we should use the same emergency designations we have used three times in the past. We know these provisions are not for new benefits. They are to maintain existing benefits and existing spending.

Additionally, this bill ensures student bodies at U.S. universities remain diverse and allows for the continued recruitment of foreign students. It also simplifies the verification process for tuition reimbursement for certain educational institutions to minimize unneeded paperwork for student veterans.

Student veterans should be able to focus on their studies, not on whether they are going to receive their earned VA benefits. And that is why I introduced this bill, with my House Veterans' Affairs Committee colleagues, Representative Trone and Representative Mike Levin, to ease the burden on student veterans during these persistently uncertain times.

Now, this legislation is endorsed by numerous VSOs, such as the Student Veterans of America, the American Legion, the VFW, American Council on Education, Tragedy Assistance for Survivors, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and the National Association of Veterans' Program Administrators, and countless others.

Finally, the legislation includes an additional provision from Representatives Lamb and Mann. The text of this section of the bill would help the Department address diversity and equity within the workforce. It removes a 1997 law that limits the number of VA counselors who can advise employees on equal employment opportunity issues.

VA has roughly doubled in size since 1997, and VA requested for this limit to be removed to allow the Department to hire additional counselors to support the needs of a growing workforce and help ensure that VA is a welcoming place for all employees.

I wish to thank Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer for bringing this legislation to the floor; and I urge the rest of my colleagues to support this legislation to ensure student veterans are able to access the benefits they have earned and continue their studies during the spring semester.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Trone), my good friend and the author of H.R. 5545, as amended. He is a member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee and an active member on the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity and the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume for the purpose of closing.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the work and cooperation of the ranking member, and I appreciate that he stands squarely behind this legislation.

What is at stake at the very end of this year is the housing of our Nation's student veterans, numbering in the tens of thousands. We need swift passage of this bill and the companion bill in the Senate.

I urge all Members of the House to support this bill, and I urge our Senate colleagues to act on this expeditiously.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all of my colleagues to join me in passing H.R. 5545, as amended, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5545, as amended, the REMOTE Act. I am pleased to support this bill, which is very similar to my bill, H.R. 5509, the Student Veteran COVID-19 Protection Act of 2021. This bill will help address urgent needs of student veterans who are impacted by COVID-19.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Congress worked to ensure that student veterans' GI bill housing allowance payments were not cut when in-person classes were moved online.

The current authorization for this protection expires on December 21, 2021. H.R. 5545, as amended, would extend it through June 1 of 2021. This would provide veterans and schools with the certainty that students will not see a reduction in their monthly housing checks this school year.

The bill also includes changes to ensure that GI bill students can attend foreign schools and give American schools time to comply with new consumer protection rules.

It includes a change to the VA's rounding-out policy to allow students to retain their full monthly housing allowance, even if they finish their program-required coursework early.

Finally, it also includes language sponsored by Congressman Lamb and Congressman Mann to remove the cap on the equal employment opportunity counselors at the VA. There is no place for discrimination at the VA. I am pleased that we can, once again, pass this important provision to help employees avail themselves of their right for a safe workplace.

The costs of this bill are fully paid for by extending current VA home loan funding fees for a few months into 2030. This is a bipartisan offset that has been used multiple times in previous Congresses.

This issue of whether to offset the estimated $220 million mandatory costs associated with this bill has been an issue of disagreement for many weeks, and I want to thank Chairman Takano for working with me and finding a mutually beneficial solution that is paid for and can quickly pass the Senate. This is win for the veterans, schools, and taxpayers alike.

In the vast majority of circumstances, I strongly believe that Congress should do our job and pay for this new spending. We have a responsibility to pay for our bills, just like every American does. However, that does not mean that I will not consider the use of emergency spending when it is appropriate and necessary in the future as new emergencies may arise.

Before I close, I would like to thank the dozens of higher education groups and veterans service organizations that have advocated for the passage of this needed extension and reform.

I want to especially thank the American Council on Education and the Student Veterans of America for their continued support for this fully paid for legislation. They understand that if these changes are not made soon, many schools will be forced to stop accepting students who are using the GI Bill. I agree with them that such an outcome is simply unacceptable.

While I wish we could have enacted these protections weeks ago, I am glad we are taking care of them today on a bipartisan basis that protects veterans and taxpayers alike.

I, again, want to thank Chairman Takano for working with me and others on this issue, as well as our colleagues, Senators Tester and Moran, for their support.

I urge all of my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I just want to let everyone know that I am very much in support of this legislation. I encourage my colleagues to support it as well, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. President, I wish to submit to the Senate a budget scorekeeping report. The report, which covers fiscal year 2022, was prepared by my staff on the Budget Committee and the Congressional Budget Office pursuant to section 308(b) and in aid of section 311 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, as amended. This information allows the Senate Budget Committee to determine if budgetary points of order lie against pending legislation.

The report shows the effect on spending and revenues of congressional action through September 15, 2022, as compared to the levels the Senate agreed to in the budget resolution for fiscal year 2022, S. Con. Res. 14. Since my last scorekeeping report on April 28, seven laws with significant budgetary effects have been signed by the President, and I have revised the levels in the budget resolution two times for legislation.

The Democratic staff of the Budget Committee prepared tables 1 and 2. Table 1 compares the mandatory spending of each authorizing committee against the enforceable allocations under section 302 of the Congressional Budget Act. It shows 10 of the 16 authorizing committees are in compliance with their allocations, either because no legislation with significant budgetary costs was enacted or the legislation qualified under the budget resolution for an allocation adjustment. Most of the spending above allowable levels is attributed to either the CHIPS Act of 2022 or the Honoring our PACT Act of 2022.

Table 2 shows the Senate pay-as-you-go--PAYGO--scorecard tallying enacted legislation with significant effects on mandatory spending and revenues. The scorecard shows a savings of $4.7 billion in 2022, a deficit of $174 billion over the 2022-2026 period, and a deficit of $528 billion over the 2022-2031 period. When compared to the allowable amounts on the PAYGO scorecard last adjusted on September 12, there is a deficit of $1.3 billion on the scorecard for 2022, $185 billion over the 2022-2026 period, and $667 billion over the 2022-2031 period.

In addition to these tables, I am submitting a letter from the Congressional Budget Office with further detail. For fiscal year 2022, current budgetary levels are within allowed amounts. Current law budget authority is $2.6 billion below the maximum allowed in the revised budget resolution, outlays are $17 billion below the allowed maximum, and revenues are $68 million above the allowed minimum. The tables also show that there has been no net change for Social Security.

I ask unanimous consent that the letter and accompanying tables from CBO be printed in the Congressional Record.