Department of Veterans Affairs Expiring Authorities Act of 2017
Floor Speech
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Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3819, the Department of Veterans Affairs Expiring Authorities Act of 2017. I want to thank the gentleman from Florida for his hard work on this, as the entire committee did.
H.R. 3819, as the gentleman said, makes sure that some of the vital programs we have in place to provide for our veterans continue past the end of the fiscal year and continue to help our veterans.
Included in this bill are provisions related to their healthcare, their benefits, homeless veterans, and other related issues.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to support extending programs related to the support for caregivers, childcare for certain veterans receiving healthcare, and the pilot program on counseling in retreat settings for women veterans newly separated from service.
It also has provisions to extend the authority related to rehabilitation and vocational benefits to members of our Armed Forces with severe injuries or illnesses, homeless veterans reintegration programs, homeless women veterans, and homeless veterans with children, and providing housing assistance and counseling to homeless and at-risk veterans.
Also included are extensions of authority for programs to help disabled veterans as well as authority to enter into agreements with the National Academy of Sciences to review the research on links between diseases and dioxin exposure. This is a critical step in creating any new Agent Orange presumptions that still may be there. Both of these provisions are critical in helping our aging Vietnam veterans as well, as we move forward.
The final section contains, as the gentleman said, a technical fix to the Forever GI Bill, an important piece of legislation once again crafted in a bipartisan manner with the help of our veterans service organizations and passed earlier this year. The correction will simply help make VA implement the law correctly, and all sides agree it must become law as quickly as possible.
Mr. Speaker, in short, this bill that both the majority and the minority support, we all agree it must be signed into law as soon as possible.
Mr. Speaker, with that, I urge my fellow Members to support its passage, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I want to thank the gentleman from Louisiana for his support and work on the committee.
Once again, the old saying is you shouldn't get a pat on the back for what you are supposed to do; but around here, it is harder than you might think, and I am incredibly grateful and proud.
I want to thank the majority staff for their work on this piece of legislation, always including the minority staff, always including us in decisions, so that when we get to the floor, we bring a piece of bipartisan legislation that we can all support. It is must-pass legislation, and that is why it will pass today.
I thank the gentleman from Florida for his continued leadership. We have been on this committee for over a decade together, and it seems like it is always that way, so I am grateful for that, grateful we are able to move this forward.
I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3819.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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