Date: 2014-03-11
Speaker: RODNEY DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Illinois

Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank my colleague from the great State of Texas for being here tonight to talk about this important piece of legislation. bipartisan piece of legislation. The Hire More Heroes Act is a jobs bill. It is a jobs bill that will not only encourage the hiring of veterans but also one that will allow us businesses to expand and grow our economy without being penalized. H.R. 3474 would exempt veterans who have health insurance through the VA or the DOD from being counted toward the 50employee limit under ObamaCares employer mandate. Today. an estimated 8.9 million veterans receive health coverage through the VA. yet they will still be counted as an employee in need of health coverage under the employer mandate. This is a commonsense bill simply saying that a veteran who already has coverage through TRICARE or the VA cannot be counted twice. You are either someone in need of health insurance or you are not. I introduced the Hire More Heroes Act last year in response to an issue raised at one of my veterans advisory board meeting by Brad Lavite. the superintendent of the Madison County Veterans Assistance Commission. That commission does great work by providing services to approximately 35.000 veterans in southwestern Illinois. including helping those veterans find employment. Although veterans returning from combat have 5 years to sign up for TRICARE. they are returning to an economy full of hiring freezes. layoffs. and unemployment rates above 9 percent. The unemployment rate for post9111 veterans jumped from 7.9 percent in January to 9.2 percent in February. Our veterans deserve more. We know that our military members receive some of the best training in the world. and we should do everything we can to encourage businesses to take advantage of those skills by hiring those veterans. A recently released study by the National Small Business Association found that 91 percent of small businesses saw increases in their health care costs. and twothirds of their members said it was the reason they have held off new hiring of employees. It is not a secret that we need to address the true drivers of our skyrocketing health care costs. Families see this every day when they pay their monthly premiums or get a medical bill in the mail. Placing more and more unnecessary regulations on our small businesses does nothing to address this and only exacerbates the problem by forcing businesses to make up for these costs by cutting hours or preventing pay increases. Forcing employers to offer health insurance is a much more complicated issue than I think some in Washington thought it was going to be. With the administration delaying the employer mandate yet again. I think we need to start seriously looking at the issue surrounding the employer mandate. and it starts today with passing H.R. 3474. the Hire More Heroes Act. and the other health care reform bills on the floor today. I want to thank Brad Lavite again. and all of the workers and volunteers at the Madison County Veterans Assistance Commission for their assistance they provide to veterans. and encourage my colleagues to vote for this commonsense bill to help veterans find work and assist small businesses in hiring qualified. welltrained employees. while providing muchneeded relief from ObamaCare. Mr. Speaker. I also want to thank the cosponsors. the bipartisan cosponsors of this commonsense piece of legislation. especially a couple today that are with us on the floor. my good friend. the gentlewoman from Hawaii