Date: 2007-07-30
Speaker: HERSETH SANDLIN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I thank our distinguished chairman for yielding. Mr. Speaker. I rise in strong support of H.R. 1315. the Veterans Benefits Improvement Act of 2007. As the sponsor of H.R. 1315. I want to thank Chairman FILNER and Ranking Member BUYER. as well as my good friend subcommittee Ranking Member BOOZMAN. for their strong leadership and unwavering dedication to -our veterans and for working hard to craft this bipartisan bill. I would also like to thank Congresswoman SHEILA JACKSONLEE of Texas and Congressman DAVE REICHERT of Washington and Congressman TiM WALZ of Minnesota who have contributed substantially to this important legislation. I As more and more of our troops are deployed in missions around the globe. additional steps must be taken to promote and protect the health and welfare of our veterans. Their honorable. courageous and patriotic service demands no less. In light 6f increasing numbers of disabled veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. the already urgent demand to pass legislation to meet the needs of these new veterans is rising. Mr. Speaker. this legislation would provide specially adaptive housing assistance to disabled servicemembers who have not yet been discharged from active duty and therefore have not reached veteran status. Under current law. a temporary grant is available to disabled .veterans who are or will be temporarily residing in a home owned by a family member. Our original intent in the last Congress was to allow servicemembers in transition prior to discharge to also use this benefit. However. the law. as currently written. does not qualify transitioning servicemembers for these housing grants. This legislation seeks to clarify congressional intent and provide assistance up. to $14.000 to adapt the family members home to meet the transitioning servicemembers special needs. In addition. this legislation would direct .tlie Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs to establish a scholarship program for students seeking a degree or certificate in blind rehabilitation under the Health Professional Education Assistance7 program. In exchange for the scholarship award.. students will be required to work for 3 years in a health care facility within the Department of Veterans Affairs. This bill would also require the Secretary of the Department of Labor and the Secretary of the Department of Defense to coordinate their sharing of and reporting on the complaint data filed by National G ard and Reservists facing difficulty in obtaining employment. It would require the use of uniform categories in tracking and reporting the data. including the difficulty of obtaining employment experienced by .veterans with serviceconnected disabilities. These provisions. will enable Congress to better identify trends in the reemployment challenges faced by our returning Guard and Reserve forces. and the corrective actions needed to ease their transition back into the civilian workforce. Finally. H.R. 1315 would add a representative from the National Governors Association to the existing 15member Advisory Committee on Veterans Employment. Training and Employer Outreach located under the auspices of the Department of Labor. This has been a priority for both the chairman and the ranking member of the full committee. During the last Congress. we passed legislation which became Public Law 10946 that was intended to add the National Governors Association representative to the Advisory Committee