Dependable Employment and Living Improvements for Veterans Economic Recovery Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. ARRINGTON. Madam Speaker, for the record, it is my friend, Phil Roe, who likes to say that there would be no Texas if there weren't a Tennessee. I have to say that in his honor, and then I will have to defend my honor now when I go back to Texas. That is my gift to the gentleman as he departs.

He is a distinguished gentleman and statesman and an effective leader for our Nation and for our veterans. I thank the gentleman for that from the bottom of my heart.

I thank Chairman Takano for his camaraderie and our common cause of serving the veterans. We served together when I was in my first term on the VA Committee, and he has a passion for our veterans. While we may disagree about things from time to time, I respect that about the gentleman and I wish him all the best success as we try to do right by those men and women who gave up their today so we could have our tomorrow.

Now, to Chairman Levin, nothing would honor me more than to honor the Mulder family and my friend Bill Mulder. And for the gentleman to allow us to carry his name forward, representative of the men and women who have served and who have returned with honor but with wounds that you can't see and that end up taking their lives and taking so much from this country because they have so much more to offer, I thank the gentleman.

We need to recognize when things are working around here, and I will say that any time we can govern for this great country and we can do the right thing and put our country first, I will commend anybody any day and all day.

So God bless you gentlemen for your leadership.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 7105, a package that includes legislation that I, along with Chairman Levin, introduced to honor Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer Bill Mulder. This legislation aims to improve the VA's transition assistance program to help our Nation's servicemembers successfully reintegrate back into civilian life when they return home from serving our Nation.

Bill Mulder was a friend, a leader, and an American hero who, as I mentioned, due to the invisible wounds that often plague our soldiers when they return, tragically ended his own life just a few months after retiring from serving our Nation with distinction.

Our veterans face unique challenges when they return home and if we can do a better job on the front end, engaging them earlier and providing them the education, training, equipping them to reintegrate so that we can, on the back end, prevent the struggles with addiction, unemployment, homelessness, suicide, that is the goal here. Those are things that disproportionately affect our veterans and we can do something about it, and I believe this legislation will address that in a meaningful way.

As we recognize September as National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, I can think of no other cause more worthy for our support in this great body than helping our veterans transition to a more productive and healthy and fulfilling civilian life after they sacrificed so much for our country.

By the way, I can't think of a better way to honor Bill Mulder and those just like him. So I stand in support.

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Mr. ARRINGTON. Madam Speaker, I almost rushed the most important part. This is not only a cause worthy of our support as a Congress, but it will honor men and women just like Bill Mulder. I believe if we do it right, and if the VA and the Defense Department actually implement it right--that is the next big hurdle--then we will save lives.

And that is why we got into this gig, right? We want to make a difference. We want to help our fellow Americans. We want to save lives.

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