The Introduction of the Veterans Legal Support Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today, I introduce the Veterans Legal Support Act of 2015, a bill to allow the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide certification and support to law school clinical programs that provide pro bono legal and support services to veterans, including, among other things, assistance with disability claims and appeals and foreclosures. There are already at least 22 law schools that have clinics devoted to veterans' legal needs, including the William & Mary Law School Veterans Benefits Clinic, which serves as a national model for this idea, as the law clinic was the first in the nation to receive a ``best practice'' certification from the VA. There are many other law schools, such as the University of the District of Columbia's David A. Clarke School of Law, that are interested in starting their own VA-certified clinics.

More than 600,000 veterans are waiting for their disability claims to be processed by the VA. With the assistance of lawyers and law professors, clinical programs provide free legal resources to assist veterans with processing their claims. My bill would merely build on what some law schools have begun to do for the last several years. More needs to be done to sustain and increase these programs.

Just as we honored our veterans on Veterans Day, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, a concrete measure that would assist our veterans, who have repeatedly put their lives on the line for this country, in their daily lives.

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