Mark Takano

Mr. TAKANO

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2385) to permit the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a grant program to conduct cemetery research and produce educational materials for the Veterans Legacy Program, as amended.

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous material on H.R. 2385, as amended.

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2385, as amended. This bill was introduced by Representative Conor Lamb, vice chair of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. It would permit the Secretary of the VA to use grants rather than Federal contracts to fund cemetery research programs and produce educational materials as part of the Veterans Legacy Program. Switching to a grant program would ease many administrative burdens associated with Federal contracts, allow for more timely payment, and broaden the reach of the program to smaller organizations. The Veterans Legacy Program was launched by VA's National Cemetery Administration in order to resurrect the stories of veterans interred at national cemeteries, to educate future generations, and to honor the legacy of our Nation's heroes. This program is a broad collection of public history materials that tell the story of America's veterans buried in national cemeteries. It supports the National Cemetery Administration's mission to honor and memorialize our veterans by creating educational materials that local educators can use to teach their students and others about the veterans buried in local cemeteries. Currently, the National Cemetery Administration awards Federal contracts to colleges, universities, and other institutions to support the Veterans Legacy Program. These contract awards are used to develop specific curricula. Eligible recipients of these contracts include institutions of higher learning, local education agencies, nonprofit entities the Secretary determines have a demonstrated history of community engagement, or any other recipient the Secretary deems appropriate. Contract funds can also be used to conduct research related to national, State, or Tribal veterans' cemeteries and produce educational materials about or promote community engagement with the history of the veterans interred at those cemeteries. The maximum contract amount is $500,000. Presently, 16 separate contracts have been awarded, which have produced an impressive array of digital and nondigital resources. Cemetery directors say that they are pleased to see students visiting the cemeteries as part of their studies. This renewed interest, by the young and old alike, revives the lives and stories of American veterans. However, the National Cemetery Administration and the institutions of higher education that most often receive and utilize these contracts tell us that working with grants is much more efficient and easier for them to administer than contracts. For instance, grants allow an award cycle that more closely aligns with the academic calendar of schools and colleges. Administrators of the Veterans Legacy Program said grant programs would help increase the reach of the program beyond large universities to smaller groups that want to become involved. A grant program also allows for faster funding. Contracts involve a onetime payment for work at the end of the project. A grant configuration, however, would allow for fluid and regular payments throughout the course of the work. Memorializing veterans is a primary responsibility of this committee, and we need to support innovative ideas for bringing energy and interest into national veterans' cemeteries. The Veterans Legacy Program is just that. Those currently working with the program at the National Cemetery Administration, in institutions of higher learning, and in community groups tell us that a grant program, as opposed to a Federal contract program, would solve most, if not all, of the administrative problems related to accessing funds in a consistent and flexible way. H.R. 2385 does that by simply allowing the VA to provide grant funding to the Veterans Legacy Program. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Lamb), my good friend and vice chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, a veteran himself and author of H.R. 2385.

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. In closing, I do want to mention a couple of important stories related to the Veterans Legacy Program. Earlier this year, Professor Hedge Coke of the University of California, Riverside presented testimony supporting H.R. 2385, as amended. Her research on the veterans buried at the Riverside National Cemetery--by the way, the largest national cemetery in terms of its geography in my district. She developed teaching curricula for local teachers. She has remarkable energy in the remarkable attention that she has brought to the cemetery. Her students use her educational programs to revitalize the stories of the men and women buried there. And, Mr. Speaker, at our hearing, Professor Hedge Coke told us that the Veterans Legacy Program doesn't just bring students and community members to the cemeteries; it takes the history of the cemeteries back to the classrooms. Undergraduates, graduate students, and recent alumni of UC Riverside go to local classrooms, from kindergarten through high school, to foster this programming. She said that in almost every classroom, a good third of the students have significant ties to the cemetery they didn't know anything about. This allows discovery of family and neighborhood ties and encourages cultural development within the community. To date, her program has produced dozens of lesson plans, and she has worked with over 2,700 students in local public schools, including the Sherman Indian High School. I also want to say that one of the heroes that is buried at that cemetery, Riverside National Cemetery, is Ysmael ``Smiley'' Villegas from Casa Blanca, who earned the Medal of Honor by charging enemy foxholes in World War II. He was killed 1 day short of his 21st birthday. Smiley Villegas' neighborhood, Casa Blanca, is a small neighborhood of about 225 families; yet this neighborhood of 225 families sent 254 troops to serve in World War II. Mr. Speaker, the Veterans Legacy Program helps to memorialize veterans like Smiley and the enormous contributions of minority communities like Casa Blanca. The program recently created an interactive web app and digital mapping of Riverside National Cemetery. It includes gravestone tributes from local students, along with information about the cemetery's construction, history, and notes of interest, such as Native American and indigenous American veterans buried there. In Professor Hedge Coke's words: ``The Legacy Program delivers this terrific meeting of story and culture to the university, K-12 schools, and the surrounding cultures and communities that make up our region.'' Mr. Speaker, I wholeheartedly encourage all of my colleagues to join me in passing H.R. 2385, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. TAKANO

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1199) to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to conduct a study regarding the accessibility of websites of the Department of Veterans Affairs to individuals with disabilities.

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous material on H.R. 1199.

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1199, the VA Website Accountability Act of 2019, introduced by Representative Elaine Luria, chair of our Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs. This bill directs VA to conduct a study regarding the accessibility of VA websites to individuals with disabilities. Since 1998, Federal law has required VA to make electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Unimpeded access to VA resources, including websites and mobile apps, is crucial because it serves as a gateway to VA services and benefits. However, VA has a long history of stating that it is ``working toward compliance,'' while failing to ensure that all of its websites are accessible to the blind via use of electronic readers. In fact, VA has had more than 20 years to comply with the law. Mr. Speaker, this was especially concerning last year when the Veteran Crisis Line was updated, and because the chat feature was no longer accessible for the visually impaired, it left blind veterans unable to access this lifesaving resource. Other barriers visually impaired veterans face when accessing VA websites include forms that are incompatible with the screen reader software or magnification programs; small buttons that are hidden among other items, making them very difficult to find; elements like checked boxes and buttons that are not properly labeled; and tables that cannot be navigated cell by cell so screen reader software and magnification programs cannot read them. Now, H.R. 1199 does not propose any changes to existing Federal law; instead, it requires VA to examine all of its websites to determine whether or not they are accessible to individuals with disabilities so it can comply with the law. H.R. 1199 also requires VA to compile a complete list of noncompliant websites and kiosks and submit a plan to Congress detailing how it plans to bring those websites into legal compliance. Mr. Speaker, the Blinded Veterans Association estimates there are currently over 130,000 legally blind veterans living in this country and another 1.5 million veterans with low vision. But last year, over 42,000 of these veterans had cases open with a visual impairment services team coordinator at VA because they could not access websites and mobile apps. The number of visually impaired veterans is expected to grow as the U.S. population ages in the next 20 years. We cannot wait another 20 years for VA to comply with the law. This growing population will need to access VA's websites, apps, medical center information kiosks, telehealth tools, disability benefits, and other programs and services administered by VA both now and for the foreseeable future. Since many veterans are comfortable accessing information, scheduling appointments, and communicating using information technology, visually impaired veterans want the same access to these tools that VA offers to other veterans. When concerns about the accessibility of websites, documents, and other equipment and media used to communicate with veterans are minimized or ignored, some of our Nation's most vulnerable veterans-- those with catastrophic disabilities--are left behind. So Mr. Speaker, when these veterans are denied access to information and services, they are at risk for further aggravation of their disabilities and, in some cases, even suicide. The longer we wait, the greater the risk. I urge all Members to support H.R. 1199, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Virginia (Mrs. Luria), my good friend and chairman of the Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs, also the sponsor of H.R. 1199 and a veteran herself.

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers and am prepared to close. Mr. Speaker, I, again, want to urge all of my colleagues to join me in passing H.R. 1199, Mrs. Luria's legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. TAKANO

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2334) to designate the Department of Veterans Affairs community-based outpatient clinic in Odessa, Texas, as the ``Wilson and Young Medal of Honor VA Clinic''.

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous material on H.R. 2334.

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the lives of Army Staff Sergeant Marvin ``Rex'' Young and Marine Corps Private First Class Alfred ``Mac'' Wilson. I thank my colleague from Texas (Mr. Conaway) for bringing this bill before us so that we all may be able to pay tribute to two of our Nation's heroes. As soon as the law allowed, both men signed up to serve our country during the height of the Vietnam war. It was during this war that both Staff Sergeant Young and Private First Class Wilson would ultimately give their lives in defense of our country. Private First Class Wilson was born on January 13, 1948, in Olney, Illinois. His family moved to Odessa, Texas, in 1950, where he attended local schools before graduating from Odessa Senior High School in 1967. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve at Abilene, Texas, on November 1, 1967, and was discharged to enlist in the Marine Corps on January 14, 1968. At the time of his death, Private First Class Wilson was a rifleman with Company M, 3rd Battalion, 9th Marines, 3rd Marine Division. Staff Sergeant Young was born on May 11, 1947, in Alpine, Texas, the youngest of three children born to Roy Clinton and Marilyn Young. He joined the Army from Odessa, Texas, in September 1966 and by August 21, 1968, was serving as a staff sergeant in Company C, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. At two different points of the Vietnam war, these two brave men gave their lives to support the mission of their respective units and were both posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. For Private First Class Wilson, it was March 3, 1969, when the first platoon of Company M was ambushed by the North Vietnamese Army after returning from patrol. Intense automatic weapons fire and grenade attacks wounded the platoon's gunner and assistant gunner. Acting as squad leader, Private Wilson put himself in between enemy fire and his men to retrieve the machine gun from the wounded marines so that his platoon could maintain a heavy volume of fire against the enemy. When he reached the M-60 machine gun, a North Vietnamese soldier threw a grenade at him, landing between Private First Class Wilson and another marine. Private First Class Wilson first fired a burst from his M-16 rifle, killing the enemy, and then shouted to his companion and, unhesitatingly, threw himself on the grenade, absorbing the full force of the explosion with his body. Because of his selfless act of valor, his platoon members were able to give maximum effort to aggressively and successfully defeat the enemy. On August 21, 1968, a regimental sized force of the North Vietnamese Army attacked Staff Sergeant Young's platoon while on a reconnaissance mission. Staff Sergeant Young assumed command of the platoon after the acting platoon leader was killed, organizing and deploying his men to repel the enemy force. While wave after wave of the enemy attacked, he courageously moved from position to position, encouraging and directing fire at the North Vietnamese Army while exposing himself to enemy bullets. When Staff Sergeant Young noticed that parts of his squad were unable to retreat, he fought his way to them, despite sustaining a critical head injury, so they could safely withdraw. While fighting with the squad as it fought its way to the rear, Staff Sergeant Young was seriously wounded in the arm and his leg was badly shattered. Without wanting to slow the retreat of his squad, he refused assistance and ordered their withdrawal while providing protective cover until the enemy engulfed his position. These two heroes sacrificed their lives for their fellow servicemembers and our freedom. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues and I, and a grateful Nation, owe a debt of gratitude to Private First Class Alfred ``Mac'' Wilson and Staff Sergeant Marvin ``Rex'' Young, and to their families and to their legacies. I fully support the naming of the Department of Veterans Affairs community-based outpatient clinic in Odessa, Texas, as the ``Wilson and Young Medal of Honor VA Clinic'' so that we never forget their sacrifices. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this bill and urge our Senate colleagues to take up this bill without delay, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record letters from The American Legion, Department of Texas; from the DAV, Disabled American Veterans, Department of Texas; and the VFW, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, in support of Mr. Conaway's bill to name the clinic in Texas after these gentlemen. The American Legion, Department of Texas, Austin, TX, May 30, 2019. Chairman Mark Takano, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Washington, DC. Ranking Member Phil Roe, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Washington, DC. Dear Chairman Takano and Ranking Member Roe: On the behalf of The American Legion, Department of Texas, I am honored to extend my support to the efforts of U.S. Representative K. Michael Conaway and the Members of Congress from Texas to rename the Department of Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in Odessa, Texas to the ``Wilson and Young Medal of Honor VA Clinic''. As Medal of Honor recipients raised in Odessa, it is fitting that Alfred ``Mac'' Wilson and Marvin ``Rex'' Young be memorialized by naming a facility that serves their brothers and sisters in arms in their time of need. It is a testament to their bravery and self-sacrifice. May it also be a reminder for us all to live up to their examples. ``For God and Country'', Lloyd Buckmaster, State Commander. Attest: William West, State Adjutant.

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers and am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Let me say how much I appreciate this legislation from the gentleman from Texas. Reading through the medal citations, it was certainly very moving. I found myself even finding my voice very halting as I read through it with my staff. I see that the gentleman still, today, remembers his friend with great memories. He was a great ballplayer. It is always poignant to take note of young servicemembers who give their lives for our country, and we certainly want to join together, on a bipartisan basis, as a Nation, to express our gratitude. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in passing H.R. 2334, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I urge all of my colleagues to join me in passing H.R. 2334, honoring Staff Sergeant Marvin ``Rex'' Young and Private First Class Alfred ``Mac'' Wilson, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. TAKANO

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous material on H.R. 95.

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 95, the Homeless Veteran Families Act. H.R. 95 was introduced by Representative Julia Brownley, chair of the Subcommittee on Health and a tireless advocate for women veterans and their children. This bill would ensure that children of homeless veterans are included in the calculation of per diem grants to organizations supporting homeless veterans and their families. By including children in this calculation, homeless veterans and their children will receive much-needed housing and supportive services, which will reduce the rate of homelessness among the veteran population. Mr. Speaker, since 1994, VA's homeless grant and per diem program has provided homeless veterans with community-based transitional housing and supportive services. The grant per diem program annually offers funding to community agencies that provide supportive services to homeless veterans. It promotes the development and provision of supportive housing and supportive services, with the goal of helping homeless veterans achieve residential stability, increase their skill levels and income, and obtain greater self-determination. However, many homeless veterans with children are unable to obtain transitional housing and support assistance through the program because providers only receive payments from VA for the veteran, not their dependent children. Many housing providers have been unable to house homeless veterans who are accompanied by their dependent children without additional financial support. Mr. Speaker, current law limits VA's authority to reimburse the additional costs associated with sheltering the dependent children of homeless veterans, which has resulted in many grant per diem service providers not accepting homeless veterans with dependent children. This has resulted in a lack of access to supportive housing and services for veterans with children, as these veterans are forced to choose between receipt of housing assistance and supportive services and caring for their children. This is especially true for many women veterans who have children and who are also homeless. This legislation would authorize VA to pay a partial per diem to grant per diem service providers supporting our Nation's homeless veterans with children. For each child accompanying a homeless veteran, the service provider would receive per diem at a 50 percent rate for each child. This committee is committed to addressing and ending homelessness, and this legislation is one step toward this end. Mr. Speaker, earlier this year, Economic Opportunity Subcommittee Chairman Levin and Ranking Member Bilirakis held two field hearings in San Diego, California, and Tampa, Florida, to learn more about how VA can better coordinate with local organizations to end veteran homelessness. This bill is the first of many solutions, some of which have been identified from these bipartisan hearings of the Economic Opportunity Subcommittee. The full committee will continue to work together to find bipartisan solutions to end veteran homelessness. H.R. 95 has 301 cosponsors, which demonstrates this Chamber's commitment to ending veteran homelessness and to working together to improve the lives of the veterans we represent. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Brownley), my good friend, the chairwoman of the Health Subcommittee, and the author of this bill.

Mr. TAKANO. I yield the gentlewoman from California an additional 1 minute.

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I certainly also want to congratulate and thank Congresswoman Brownley, the Chair of our Health Subcommittee, for bringing this legislation forward. And I also want to also express my gratitude to Ranking Member Roe, former Chairman Roe. We both made a commitment to the territory of Puerto Rico, and we want the people of Puerto Rico to know that on a bipartisan basis the Veterans' Affairs Committee cares about the service and the benefits that are owed to the veterans of Puerto Rico. So I urge all of my colleagues to pass H.R. 95, which addresses a critical need for veterans that have children and who are in need of housing to prevent them from being homeless. I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. TAKANO

Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Brindisi), who serves on our Economic Opportunity and Health Subcommittees and who also is the author of H.R. 4285.