Veteran Voting Support Act

VETERAN VOTING SUPPORT ACT -- (House of Representatives - September 17, 2008)

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of H.R. 6625 and commend Chairman BRADY for introducing this important piece of legislation, the Veterans Voting Support Act of which I am an original cosponsor.

This legislation is significant to me because the issue of registering veterans to vote was born out of concern by one of my constituents, Steve Preminger. Steve went to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) nursing home in Menlo Park, CA to register veterans. Almost immediately, VA officials threw him out. The VA has since explained that its decision to evict Preminger was part of a policy that bars outside groups from registering voters who live in VA nursing homes, hospitals, and transitional housing for homeless veterans. For the past four years Mr. Preminger has litigated to ensure that all veterans living on VA property have access to voter registration

I applaud the VA for its recent change in policy allowing state and local election officials and non-partisan groups to access VA facilities to assist officials in registering veteran voters who are receiving care. But issuing a new policy is not enough and I question the agencies commitment to it. Last Friday, September 12, 2008, the San Francisco VA prohibited Veterans for Peace (``VFP''), a 501(c)(3), from registering voters, even though the ``directive'' instructs local officials to ``facilitate'' nonpartisan groups who wish to register voters.

As Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense stated in his testimony yesterday before the Senate Committee on Rules, ``The VA has changed their policy on veteran voting rights three times in the past five months. VA can easily reverse course again and issue yet another policy banning voting assistance for veterans living in VA facilities.''

I support this legislation, but am concerned that the protection for ``nonpartisan'' activities may create the inference that a government agency can regulate private ``partisan'' conversations just because they are on federal property, even though there is no apparent government sponsorship.

Over 5.3 million veterans (23.2 percent of all veterans) were not registered to vote in 2006. Veterans have dedicated their lives to protecting our country and deserve every commitment from the government to offer them the opportunity to participate in the political process. With November rapidly approaching it is imperative that we act both swiftly and vigilantly in passing H.R. 6625.

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