Protections for Student Veterans Act
Floor Speech
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5603, as amended, the Protections for Student Veterans Act.
This bill would protect student veterans who have to withdraw from a course of education under the GI Bill if they are called up for Active Duty or for training. This change would protect students from receiving a poor grade or an incomplete while they are doing their job to protect this country.
The change proposed in this bill is needed, and it has my full support.
I am also pleased that this bill, as amended, includes the text of Congressman Cawthorn's bill, H.R. 4874, the Fly Vets Act. His bill would close a longstanding loophole that allows public flight training schools to charge an unlimited amount in tuition and fees for GI Bill students.
This bill would allow students to utilize a revolutionary accelerated tuition and fee model that would provide twice the amount of tuition and fees per month for 2 months of eligibility. This is commonsense legislation that would protect both the student veteran and the taxpayer.
I thank Congressman Cawthorn for his hard work on this bill. I also thank Congressmen Wenstrup and Levin for their work on this bill in previous Congresses. I hope that this year we can get this needed change across the finish line.
While we are talking about the GI Bill, I would like to take a few minutes to discuss another matter. At least at the start of the pandemic, we worked on a bipartisan effort to ensure that student veterans' GI Bill housing allowance payments are not cut when their in- person classes converted to online learning due to COVID-19. The current authorization expires on December 21, 2021.
Chairman Takano and Congressman Trone are advocating for a bill that extends this protection, but it is not paid for. Instead, it relies on emergency spending to cover the more than $200 million mandatory score associated with the bill. I believe that is too high of a cost to consider through emergency spending and must insist that we offset the extension.
To that end, I introduced a bill that would achieve the policy objective but pay for the cost of the bill with a regularly used offset.
My bill also includes changes that are needed to ensure that GI Bill students can attend foreign schools. It would also give U.S. schools time to comply with the new reporting requirements passed last Congress.
A coalition of 18 higher education groups has advocated for these changes for several months and support my proposal. They understand that if these changes are not made soon, many schools will be forced to stop accepting students who are using the GI Bill.
I understand the chairman has recently received a letter from the chancellor of the University of California at Riverside, who agrees that this proposal must be offset.
Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox wrote that by passing the bill without an offset, we would be ``no closer to a resolution on this critical issue.''
The letter goes on to say that passing a bill out of the House without an offset ``will jeopardize UCR's ability to continue to serve our veteran students.''
The chancellor also stated that this fall UC Riverside supported hundreds of military-connected students, including about 179 veterans who could be impacted by inaction.
Unless I am mistaken, UC Riverside is in Chairman Takano's district.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the letter from Chancellor Wilcox. UC Riverside, Office of the Chancellor, Riverside, CA, November 12, 2021. Hon. Mark Takano, U.S. Representative, Washington, DC.
Dear Representative Takano: I understand that you are planning to bring H.R. 5545, the Responsible Education Mitigating Options and Technical Extensions (REMOTE) Act, up for a vote in the House next week. The bill includes critical technical corrections to address unintended consequences stemming from several provisions in the Isakson Roe Act and the Training in High-Demand Roles to Improve Veteran Employment (THRIVE) Act that went into effect on August 1, 2021. The bill would also extend certain COVID-related flexibilities granted to the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in the wake of the pandemic.
As the bill is currently written, however, it does not include an offset for the approximately $200 million cost for the extension of COVID-19 flexibilities. I am deeply concerned that without the inclusion of an offset, the bill will not be able to pass the Senate by unanimous consent and we will be no closer to a resolution on this critical issue.
During the Fall of 2021, UC Riverside served 179 Veterans, 37 Reservists, 11 National Guard, and 15 Active Duty self- identified members of the U.S. military branches. Designated as a ``Military Spouse Friendly'' campus, UCR served over 350 dependents, and have utilized over $6M in Veterans benefits.
Without an offset for the extension of COVID-19 flexibilities, it will jeopardize UCR's ability to continue to serve our Veteran Students, due to the compliance issues that require fixes. I would also urge you to include language to modify VA's current ``rounding out'' rule to ensure that more veterans can maintain full-time benefits during the last term of their program.
I respectfully request that your staff work to pass bipartisan legislation next week that addresses these concerns and can be quickly passed through both chambers and signed into law. Sincerely, Kim A. Wilcox, Chancellor.
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Mr. BOST. At our full committee markup 2 weeks ago, I urged Chairman Takano to work with me and our Senate colleagues to find a way forward on the offset issue on a bipartisan basis.
However, last week I was told that Congressman Trone's bill would be on the slate of bills, but the cost would not be offset. I registered my concern and was glad to see that the un-offset bill will not be considered under suspension of the rules today.
I do understand, however, that the majority intends to take Congressman Trone's bill to the Rules Committee the week after next and pass it out of the House un-offset through a rule.
Let me be clear, I support the policy, but I believe the cost of the bill must be offset. Schools like UC Riverside clearly agree with me. Even if the Democrats are able to get Congressman Trone's un-offset bill through the House--and that is a big ``if''--I don't believe that they can pass it in the Senate by unanimous consent.
It is the responsibility of the leaders of our committee to solve this issue so that the bill can quickly make it to the President's desk. Although the chairman may not like it, my approach is the only way to get this done in time to help students in a fiscally responsible manner.
The higher education community has told us that this extension needs to be enacted by Thanksgiving. I think we can see that under the majority's current plan, the deadline will be missed. After Thanksgiving we have only 9 legislative days left before these protections expire. We are simply running out of time.
I do not have a preference for whether we take up my bill or amend Congressman Trone's bill to include the offset, but I urge the chairman to come back to reality and stop playing political games with it so that we can ensure that student veterans are protected in a fiscally sound manner.
At the very least, I would advise the chairman not to let this inaction impact thousands of student veterans across the country, including the 179 right there in his own district.
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Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, paying for something and doing the job that we are supposed to be doing here is not political gamesmanship.
I said in my statement that I believe that we must continue to provide for these veterans, but it is our fiduciary duty to do it in the correct way. That is what I am asking for. I am also asking for it because that way we know it will move through the Senate and work in a bipartisan, bicameral manner to try to move it forward.
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Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I encourage all of my colleagues to support the underlying bill that was discussed. I yield back the balance of my time.
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