The Senate Should Pass H. Con. Res. 129

Floor Speech

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Mr. WEBER of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in support of H. Con. Res. 129.

To do so, let me share a story about a constituent of mine who is a Holocaust survivor from Lithuania. She was 11 years old when the German SS Nazis marched into her town and gathered her and her family up. She was separated right away from her family, and, I guess fortunately for her, she did not appear Jewish to the German soldiers.

When she was asked her name, she told them it was Weber, which happens to be my name and the way my grandfather would have pronounced it when he came over from Germany on the boat in 1903. Anyway, the soldier thought she wasn't Jewish, so he let her go.

She ran into the forest, Mr. Speaker, and she hid in barns and other places until the end of the war. She spent the years of that war hungry and frightened but somehow managed to survive. She was liberated by the Russians at the war's end.

This woman, who was a young girl when she was 11 back during World War II, is now in her 90s and living in my district in her home in Galveston, Texas. Mr. Speaker, she is in need of 24-hour care to remain in her home. Unfortunately, funds are running low to keep her in her home, with the high cost of providers. She is unable to stay there, it looks like.

She lives on Social Security, but fortunately the Claims Conference has been able to assist her through providing funding by the German Government for 25 regular hours a week and some exceptional hours a week provided on her increasing healthcare needs.

Additionally, the Jewish community of Houston, through the generosity of a private fund which assists Holocaust survivors, through case management efforts of Jewish Family Service in Houston, has also been able to provide up to 59 hours a week of home care above that which the German Government has funded.

As of June 1, 2016, Mr. Speaker, the Jewish Family Service in Houston has not been able to continue this level of care.

She and other constituents of mine who are Holocaust victims would all greatly benefit from increased funding which is included in House Concurrent Resolution 129, asking the German Government to provide that funding for that very home care. This would ensure that those Holocaust survivors are able to remain in their homes with dignity for the remaining few years of their life.

Thankfully, H. Con. Res. 129 passed--with bipartisan support, I might add--in the House last week. I encourage our counterparts in the Senate to pass this legislation swiftly. Mr. Speaker, you know I am right.

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