Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. PETERS. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to offer an amendment to division C of the Appropriations bill related to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

In September 2017, the VA issued a plan to shift funding away from programs that helped homeless veterans. After national outcry, the proposal was tabled, but that attempt is the reason for my amendment.

Its goal is simple: It prohibits taking funding from VA programs that provide services to homeless veterans, including the Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem program, a clinical rehabilitation and treatment program, the Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program, and HUD- VASH housing vouchers.

Congress has made money available in a bipartisan way to reduce homelessness for veterans. It is unconscionable that the VA would use funds specifically intended for that purpose on another purpose.

San Diego County has the third-largest veterans population nationwide, behind Los Angeles and Maricopa Counties. This is why, since being elected, I have worked with my colleagues to provide more funding and services to veterans who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. I have furthered this work over the last year and a half as a member of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

These vets took an oath to protect our country, and now America must keep its promise to take care of them. They should not be struggling, and they most certainly should not be living on the streets.

San Diego has achieved some progress in getting vets off the streets and into housing in recent years. Other cities, like Salt Lake City, New Orleans, and Houston, have reached functional zero, which means that homelessness among veterans is rare, brief, and nonrecurring. But across the country, the problem is still far too prevalent.

I ask my colleagues to support this amendment that will help protect valuable resources that our veterans desperately need, and I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to fund veterans homelessness programs and to make sure that Federal dollars committed to that purpose are used for that important need.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition, although I do not oppose the amendment.

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