Bob Filner

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. This bill is called the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act, which was introduced by myself and Mr. Rodriguez of Texas. And I want to thank our ranking member, Mr. Buyer, who, of course, supported this legislation and helped us to get here with unanimous support from our committee. The fact that we were able to get this bill to the floor only a month after its introduction shows the House leadership's commitment to our Nation's veterans and their survivors. Since 1976 Congress has passed a measure to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to increase the rates of basic compensation for disabled veterans and the rates of dependency and indemnity compensation, so-called DIC, to their survivors and dependents, along with other benefits, in order to keep pace with the rising cost of living. The disability COLA here would be effective on December 1 of this year and will be equal to that provided on an annual basis to Social Security recipients. Madam Speaker, this bill will provide over 3 million disabled veterans from the World War I era through the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan that VA estimates will be receiving disability compensation for the coming fiscal year. It will help over 300,000 of their survivors during the same period. Many of the nearly 3.5 million recipients of these benefits depend on these tax-free payments not only to provide for their own basic needs but those of their spouses, children, and parents as well. Without an annual COLA increase, these veterans and their families would see the value of their hard-earned benefits slowly erode. We would be derelict in our duty if we failed to guarantee that those who sacrifice so much for this country receive benefits and services that don't keep pace with their necessities. I know we have had some disagreement over the past weeks over what, and how, our priorities for veterans should be funded. But on this bill, there is no disagreement. The veterans compensation COLA is included in the CBO baseline. In layman's terms, that means we have already paid for this. Regardless of whether or not you agree or disagree with the funding of the war in Iraq, our young men and women who have served in our Armed Forces deserve to be adequately compensated for injuries due to their military service. We fund the war, we must fund the warrior, and their families and their survivors, by ensuring their benefits will keep pace with their living expenses. Let's ensure that these benefits make ends meet at the end of the month. Madam Speaker, as we approach our country's 140th Memorial Day commemoration, I ask all my colleagues to support this bill and send a clear message of support to our troops: You will be taken care of when you return, and we will not forget your sacrifice. No action by a Member of Congress is more irritating to many Americans than those who say they support the troops but then turn a cold shoulder when those same troops come home, become veterans, and need our help to become whole again. That costs money; money we should not hesitate to spend, just like our military men and women did not hesitate to offer to lay down their lives to defend our freedom and the way of life that we cherish. I ask my colleagues to consider these facts when voting on the full portfolio of veterans' legislation that is under consideration on the floor today, and of course to support passage of this bill, the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2008. I would reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, I would thank again the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Ellsworth) for recognizing a problem, for having so much energy, and bringing us a solution. We salute you for doing that. General Leave

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

Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 5729, as amended.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, as I said before, we have some very active new members in our caucus, and Mr. Kagen from Green Bay, Wisconsin, brought to us some needs he would like to speak on, and I am glad we know there are other needs in Green Bay besides a new quarterback. I would yield to him such time as he may consume.

Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. FILNER

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

Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5664) to amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to update at least once every six years the plans and specifications for specially adapted housing furnished to veterans by the Secretary, as amended.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to a very hard working new member of our committee, in fact, the highest enlisted man ever elected to the Congress of the United States, Command Sergeant Major Tim Walz of Minnesota.

Mr. FILNER. I would yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, we are in the midst of a package of 10 separate pieces of legislation that honors our Nation's veterans, our Nation's most deserving citizens, appropriately enough, as we prepare to honor them on Memorial Day. As we honor our fallen heroes, we cannot forget those who need either health or other benefits from our Nation. That is what these bills do. They extend benefits in a whole range of areas: Health care, substance abuse and spina bifida, reimbursement for emergency treatment outside the VA facilities, construction of new facilities to serve these heroes. We also address our responsibility for oversight of the VA by mandating the revision and update of administrative policies so that the VA can better serve our veterans. As you know, Mr. Speaker, we have had many opportunities for oversight recently. We have had in a court case the discovery of e- mails which seem to indicate that our VA management was not being totally transparent on the number of suicides, for example, of our recent Iraqi veterans. Just last week, another e-mail was discovered that indicated that we should not adequately diagnose PTSD, post- traumatic stress disorder, and instead give these young men and women lesser kinds of diagnoses, which would cost us less. It is unacceptable to the Congress of the United States and to the American people that the administration set up to serve our veterans would be finding ways to save money and not treating the veterans for their needs. We intend to root that kind of attitude out of the VA and to make sure that all our veterans, whether they are just coming back from Iraq or Afghanistan, or those that served us earlier in Vietnam or World War II and Korea and the Persian Gulf War I, to make sure that all of their needs are met, and that is what we are committed to and that is what these bills on the floor today indicate. We also address the compensation cost-of-living adjustment that is so important to our veterans who base their income on the dependency and indemnity compensation. They need an annual increase to cover the cost of living, and this bill before us today will assure that. It is my hope that on this Memorial Day we, as a Nation, remember the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A half century ago he said ``Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men,'' and he would say, I am sure today, women, ``have died to win them.'' President Washington, over 220 years ago, said, ``The best guarantee of the morale of our fighting troops is a sense of how they are going to be treated when they come home.'' So let us remember these words of Roosevelt, of Washington, as we prepare on Memorial Day to recognize and remember those heroes who have died in uniform. Our Nation has a proud legacy of appreciation and commitment, and we have to make sure that they know that we appreciate them and we know that our liberty, which we enjoy today, depended on them. The bills before us today have come from all of our legislative subcommittees. Members on both sides of the aisle and all the committee worked very hard. I want to thank Chairman Michaud of the Health Committee, with his Ranking Member Miller of Florida, I want to thank the chair and ranking member of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, Ms. Herseth Sandlin of South Dakota, and Mr. Boozman of Arkansas, and also the chair and the ranking member of the Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs, the gentleman from New York, Mr. Hall, and the gentleman from Colorado, Mr. Lamborn. We are now looking at H.R. 3681, which would authorize the VA Secretary to purchase national media outlets to inform veterans of their benefits. You would think we would not have to do such legislation, Mr. Speaker, but apparently we do. Over the past 2 years, the Committee on Veterans' Affairs has conducted several hearings to determine how to improve the outreach to our veterans, and while various agencies have made tremendous improvement, more needs to be done to inform veterans of the entitlements they rightfully deserve and how to access those benefits. Providing our veterans the information they need on television is a crucial component that can affect the livelihood of our veterans and their dependents. So I ask all of you to join me in supporting H.R. 3681. I would reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Thank you, Mr. Rodriguez, for your expertise. General Leave

Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 5554, as amended.

Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the author of the bill and the Chair of our Health Subcommittee of the Veterans' Committee in the Congress, the gentleman from Maine (Mr. Michaud).

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

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, this bill is named after Justin Bailey, who was a veteran of the Iraq War who died in a domiciliary facility of the Department of Veterans Affairs while receiving care for PTSD and a substance use disorder, a very tragic story but one that seems to be becoming all too familiar. We have seen in recent weeks internal communications between members of the VA staff who we rely on to treat soldiers like Justin Bailey who seem to not take the symptoms of PTSD or suicide very seriously. They try to manipulate the data so we don't know all the facts. They try to get cheaper treatment if a diagnosis other than PTSD is made, and we are not serving our veterans when this occurs. We must not take lightly the commitment of servicemembers like Justin Bailey who choose to defend the country and freedoms that we enjoy. We know the problems that veterans who have served in past wars face. We know about post-traumatic stress disorder. We know about the high reported incidence of substance abuse, and that it is what we call a common co-morbidity to mental health issues. And we, of course, unfortunately know about the high rate of homelessness. We know about these issues because we have seen entire generations of veterans tackle these problems, many without proper support from the VA and many who find themselves on the streets homeless or we see in statistics on suicide. We must commit ourselves that whatever is necessary to prevent the newest generation of veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq will be done so they do not experience these same devastating issues. There is growing concern about the reported effects of combat deployments on Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom servicemembers. The suicide rates are on the rise back to where they were in our Vietnam era. We know the rate of post-traumatic stress disorder among these veterans has been estimated at about a third. I think if you include hidden symptoms of traumatic brain injury we're up to probably double that or more. We know that the rate of homelessness amongst this group is growing. The same cycles that we saw with Vietnam are repeating themselves. We cannot as a Congress, as a Nation allow this to happen again. We must reinforce our commitment to take care of those who have served. This is a cost of war. We're spending $1 billion, Madam Speaker, on the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars every two days, $1 billion every 2 days. Shouldn't our servicemembers get all the treatment they need? We have the money. It's a question of our will and our priorities. So I urge you to support H.R. 5554. We would improve and expand the VA health care services available for veterans for substance use disorders, and require that all VA medical centers provide access to the full continuum of care for these disorders. We also want to make sure that the Secretary reaches out to our OIF/ OEF veterans with substance abuse disorders, and make sure that the funding is in place for the full continuum of care no matter where a veteran lives. We also ask for a complete report on the services furnished by the Department in the last fiscal year, and have a 2-year pilot program on providing assessment, education and treatment via the Internet to veterans with substance use disorders. And finally, we would require the VA to conduct a review and report on the residential mental health facilities within the system. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5554. We will hear from Congressman Michaud from Maine, the chairman of our Health Subcommittee, who wrote this bill. And he will have a chance to really explain it better after we hear from our ranking member. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 3889, as amended.

Mr. FILNER. I yield back the balance of our time.

Mr. FILNER. We reserve the balance of our time.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I might consume. As I said earlier, amongst this package of bills are legislation from both sides of the aisle. This one comes to us from the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, Mr. Boozman, and I thank him for this important bill. What H.R. 3889 does is require the VA to conduct what is called a longitudinal study for at least 20 years of the veterans who began participating in the VA's Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Program. The bill requires annual reports to Congress to assist with better management of the program. It's an important step in ensuring that the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Program has services that are meeting the needs of our veterans as they seek to heal from their injuries and reenter civilian life. So I hope we all support H.R. 3889. Mr. Speaker, I would reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 3819, as amended.

Mr. FILNER. I urge my colleagues to unanimously support this bill, and I yield back the balance of our time.

Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, this is a perfect example of the way we do the best legislation. Mr. Space from Ohio encountered a problem in his district, looked into solving it. It turns out it's a problem in every district. So we thank Mr. Space for his work on this, for his recognizing the problem. It is an unacceptable position for a veteran to be in, that they're in never-neverland where they have been stabilized in a hospital but yet not accepted at a VA hospital and they are liable for the cost. What you have done is take that worry and that cost off of the veteran and allowed us to deal with him or her in a very respectful and clear way. So we thank Mr. Space for this legislation. I don't have any further speakers, and I would reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FILNER. I thank the Speaker. This bill comes to us from a great new Member from the State of Ohio (Mr. Space), and I'm going to yield to him as much time as he may consume to explain the bill.