Early Access to Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Benefits Act

Floor Speech

EARLY ACCESS TO VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION AND EMPLOYMENT BENEFITS ACT -- (House of Representatives - May 23, 2007)

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Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

H.R. 2239, the Early Access to Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Benefits Act, implements a commonsense involvement in the speed with which we provide vocational rehabilitation to injured service members. This bill makes it clear that active duty service members are entitled to begin using vocational rehabilitation benefits prior to discharge.

The bill directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to coordinate with the military services to determine the likelihood that a service member undergoing hospitalization or outpatient treatment will be discharged or returned to active duty. If the member is likely to be discharged and will likely have a disability rating of at least 10 percent, VA is authorized to evaluate and award the full range of vocational rehabilitation benefits prior to the service member's discharge. Such a decision would be made using the current statutory and regulatory processes to determine eligibility.

Mr. Speaker, it makes no sense to delay access to benefits that will speed an injured service member's return to productive civilian life. For severely injured service members, these benefits often make the difference between whether or not they are able to live independently. Many of those wounded in the global war on terror spend 2 or 3 years recovering from their injuries and often find themselves with significant free time outside of their therapy sessions. That free time offers an ideal opportunity to make use of their vocational rehabilitation and employment benefits to prepare them for the civilian job market. I am happy to let my colleagues know that CBO has said that this bill ``would have no direct impact on direct spending.'' The bill simply affects the timing of when our service members receive the benefits.

All of us have gone over to Bethesda and Walter Reed to visit injured troops. And, again, this is an effort to give them the best of both worlds, the best that we can offer them being on active duty, but to go ahead and start those vocational rehab services so that we can get vocational counselors in there and then, again, as they pursue their getting stronger and heal physically, to go ahead and direct them in such a way that we can provide a new occupation for them in the future.

So I appreciate Chairman Filner, Ranking Member Buyer, Chairwoman Herseth Sandlin, and especially the chairwoman in the sense that she was instrumental in helping us amend the bill to improve it.

So, again, I would urge that my colleagues support this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. Speaker, again, I would like to urge the passage of H.R. 2239. I appreciate the work of my chairman and ranking member and especially the work of the staff on this bill.

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

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