Veterans Readiness and Employment Improvement Act of 2025
Floor Speech
Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my support for H.R. 980, the Veterans Readiness and Employment Improvement Act of 2025, as amended.
Mr. Speaker, this legislation will remove the requirement that Veteran Readiness and Employment, or VR&E, counselors staff the VetSuccess on Campus, or VSOC, program. This change will put counselors back into the severely understaffed VR&E program and will also allow the future expansion of the VSOC program, which has been limited by the availability of VR&E counselors.
Mr. Speaker, many colleges and universities and Members of Congress are asking for VSOC staff on their campuses and in their district because they have seen firsthand the impact a VSOC can have. By expanding who can fill that role, we will give more student veterans access to the program and help enable them to access their earned benefits.
While I do have concerns that section 4 of the bill requires VA to adjudicate extension requests within 30 days without addressing the underlying issue of staffing, I support the intent of timely decisions for our student veterans.
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I am prepared to close.
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, in closing, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I am glad to see that the House is moving this bill forward today, and I hope for speedy passage through the Senate and to the President to be signed into law.
I look at the many other good bills languishing in committee waiting for us to take them up and move them to the floor like this one. If we are to believe our own rhetoric, it shouldn't matter if a good idea is from a Republican Member or a Democratic Member. If it helps veterans, we should get it done.
I hope to see the chairman of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs move bills other than the ones sponsored by his members expected to be in tight reelection races. I hope he returns to the traditional practice of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs moving both Republican and Democratic bills in great numbers. I see the smile across his nice countenance, which to me is a sign of his assent and his geniality.
I encourage my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 980, the Veterans Readiness and Employment Improvement Act of 2025, as amended, and I encourage my colleagues to vote for it. I hope very much that my chairman will move other bills, as well.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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