Vet-Tec Authorization Act of 2023
Floor Speech
Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak on the VET-TEC Authorization Act of 2023, as amended. In 2020, when our country experienced record unemployment, VET-TEC was a bright spot of veteran employment.
To date, nearly 5,000 veterans have found employment from the program at a salary of over $65,000 a year.
Today, veterans are employed at record-high levels. The Biden economy has brought veteran unemployment to the lowest level ever on record. Let me say that again. The Biden economy has brought veteran unemployment to the lowest level ever on record.
The legislation before us adds 5 more years to the VET-TEC program, providing VA an additional $337 million to get more veterans hired in the high-technology field.
This program was created by Speaker McCarthy in the Forever GI Bill, and I respect the fact that it is a big priority for the Speaker and my friend Chairman Bost. While I support the legislation, I wish to share my concern about moving a bill with such a large cost when we have so many provisions awaiting action by this Congress. The $413 million price tag of this bill dwarfs the costs of many of the bills we must pass to address veteran homelessness.
This is an expensive bill in a fiscally uncertain time. While we all appreciate veteran employment programs, veteran unemployment is the lowest ever on record. A VET-TEC extension is nice to have, but with veterans experiencing homelessness and food insecurity, there is action on those programs that we must have.
As ranking member of this committee, I have the responsibility of weighing priorities and choosing between worthy policies that help veterans. I know the chairman and his colleagues on our committee share my goal of ending veteran homelessness.
When we considered this legislation in our committee, I offered an amendment to this legislation to make permanent some basic authorities which lowered veteran homelessness by 11 percent during a public health emergency. This amendment cost only $6 million in mandatory spending.
Last year, the chairman himself made it clear: ``No veteran should be without a place to call home. I am glad that the most recent estimate showed fewer veterans living in homeless shelters last year. That is why we must continue our work to ensure that the rubber is meeting the road and every veteran has access to safe, stable housing and the help they need to thrive.''
Chairman Bost is correct. The work must continue. We must continue the ongoing work, which has already helped so many veterans and can help so many more.
The reason given for not moving this bill was that it implicates the Toxic Exposure Fund, or TEF. I understand the chairman is concerned about how the Congressional Budget Office scores bills with TEF implications. I am concerned too, and I have spoken extensively on this.
However, there has yet to be a solution proposed for the TEF that does not undermine its purpose, which is to protect funding for toxic- exposed veterans and acknowledge this as a cost of war.
In light of this, I am asking that we come together and work on mutual priorities so that we can responsibly and equitably pass legislation using the limited offsets available to us.
I think the chairman believes, as do I, that providing basic needs for homeless veterans deserves to be on that priority list.
Therefore, I ask my colleague, the chairman, if he will commit to bringing Representative Cherfilus-McCormick's bill, H.R. 645, to the floor without delay,
Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of a colloquy, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Bost), and ask if he will commit to this.
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I am reclaiming my time.
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I was waiting for the answer.
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I reclaim my time.
Mr. BOST: Mr. Speaker, I am committed to addressing the veterans homelessness.
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I am reclaiming my time.
I simply ask the gentleman whether he will work with us to bring Mrs. Cherfilus-McCormick's bill to the floor. That is the question that I will yield for an answer.
Will the gentleman work with us?
I yield to the gentleman from Illinois.
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time.
I am grateful that I hear some kernel that they will work with us in a bipartisan way. What does worry me is the gentleman mentioned over the next few months. I can maybe tolerate the next few months in terms of can we come to an agreement by the fall when the temperatures start to fall, but even the hot summers, in some parts of the country, would require us to work much more expeditiously.
These pandemic authorities that expanded our ability to help veterans who are homeless expired on May 11. For the last 11 days, VA and its community partners have operated with fewer authorities and less funding to help homeless veterans.
VA's ability to quickly bring a veteran in off the streets and get them the services they need to put them on their way to stable, permanent housing has been greatly diminished.
Prior to the pandemic, we were maintaining the status quo. The number of veterans experiencing homelessness had remained basically stagnant year after year for quite some time. For every veteran housed, another veteran would fall into homelessness.
During the pandemic we approached the homelessness crisis head on and with the urgency it has long deserved. It is incredible to me that we were able to reduce homelessness during COVID-19 by 11 percent. During the darkest days of that pandemic, VA actually reduced homelessness by 11 percent. It permanently housed over 40,000 veterans last year alone. We know these authorities accelerated VA's progress in ending veteran homelessness, and we can't lose that momentum.
I am pleased to hear the chairman wants to work together to extend these authorities and get homeless veterans into housing.
Mr. Speaker, I just say let's prioritize H.R.
I commend General Bergman for the section of the VET-TEC bill which includes addressing this issue related to burials and the cost that the veteran's family has to bear, but I find it peculiar that the majority would take pains to include this legislation, which I have no quarrel with and support, but could not deal with and chose not to deal with the expiring authorities to deal with our homeless veterans.
Americans care deeply about the homeless veterans in our country and are offended that we would have anybody who wore the uniform of the United States be homeless.
There are elements of this bill that came up in markup. They brought the bill to the floor, the VET-TEC bill, which includes many elements, but they specifically chose to leave out addressing the expiring authorities that we have used to bring down homelessness by 11 percent. I am afraid we are going to lose momentum.
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I realize the chairman and all of us in the veteran space have had our differences with the way the Congressional Budget Office scores the TEF. However, I would assert that we cannot use that as an excuse for why we don't address veteran homelessness.
Mr. Speaker, the expansion of VET-TEC as a program is to the tune of nearly one-half billion dollars--$413 million--at a time when my colleagues on the other side are looking to make draconian cuts to the nondefense side of the ledger, which veterans do fall within. They are expanding a program that addresses veteran employment at a time when veteran unemployment is at its lowest.
What I want to compare is the $6 million to the nearly one-half billion dollars that the Republicans want to expand this program by. I, too, stand behind veteran employment programs and effective ones at that. However, should we be expanding it and authorizing for 5 years this program, VET-TEC, when we are allowing a $6 million program to care for homeless veterans, to get them off the streets, to expire?
It is a rather rich situation that my colleagues want to expand spending and spend more on a program whose urgency is really in question because the Biden economy, as I explained, has brought veteran unemployment to its lowest levels ever. They want to expand spending in that program by an enormous amount, yet they want to eliminate $6 million in authorizations to take care of our homeless veterans. This makes no sense at all to me.
I support the chairman's bill, but I hope he will work with us to solve this problem in a matter of days and not months.
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