Timothy Walz

Mr. WALZ

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I thank everyone who spoke here. It is the way it is supposed to work. I am very excited about this. Mr. Speaker, I would encourage you to go and look. This is going to be spectacular. It is at nationalvmm.org, if you want to see where they are and the progress that is being made. We are going to be open here soon in the spring. I am going to take Mrs. Beatty up on this as a veteran myself. I think of the countless families and veterans who will take their children and walk through the halls and tell the story. This is an important piece of our history. It is important to tell the story and it is important for us to preserve these stories. Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this piece of legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WALZ

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as may consume. I rise in strong support of H.R. 2123, the VETS Act of 2017. Since its very inception, the Veterans Health Administration has been a leader in medical advancements and the delivery of healthcare. This legislation would ensure it continues this history of leadership by allowing VA providers to engage in the delivery of telemedicine to veterans all over the country, regardless of where the provider is located. These are paper barriers, these are legal barriers, not barriers of technology, to allow us to deliver care. Telemedicine and medicine, in general, is changing so rapidly, we need to make sure that barriers are not put in place, especially for rural veterans, and many of us have them all over. Last week, I did a field hearing in International Falls, Minnesota, which, by the way, will be 1 degree tomorrow for all of you, just so you know. Those folks are veterans. They have served, but they are miles from a VA facility. The technology that we have, and we know it works, allows them to get that. If we have veterans sitting on State borders, if we have veterans sitting in remote areas, it sometimes makes it difficult. It will give VA the tools it needs to remain a leader in the use of telehealth technology. I am particularly thankful to Representatives Thompson and Brownley for their leadership. They identified a problem, worked on it, and came up with a workable solution that we can put into statute, making sure, the bottom line, again, that every veteran, regardless of geographic location, gets the best, most advanced care possible. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, again, it makes sense. Removing some of these paper barriers, as the gentleman from Michigan said, geography, weather, other things, it makes sense to use the technology to improve the care. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 2123, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WALZ

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, again, it makes great sense. We are in full support of the bill. I urge my colleagues to join me in support of H.R. 2601. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2601, the VICTOR Act. This legislation will again eliminate barriers to high-quality organ transplant centers for certain veterans seeking their services by allowing veterans access to a transplant center, regardless of its location, when a provider determines there is a medically compelling reason to do so, or when the veteran would face unusual or excessive burden in receiving the transplant at a VA facility. That is smart. That is common sense. It makes the case that the transplant facilities at the VA are good, but, as Dr. Dunn pointed out, a diverse society, a diverse geographic spread of veterans, certain cases come up that make it medically wrong to try and transport someone to a further facility. And for all of those reasons, this is, again, one of those things that is just smart, all in the interest of the best care for our veterans. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WALZ

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3634, requiring the VA to provide electronic documentation of the GI Bill beneficiary housing stipend. Once again, I want to thank Mr. Himes, whom we are going to hear from in just a moment, for responding to constituents, responding to a need, and crafting a piece of legislation that makes sure--as currently the VA does not provide sufficient information about the exact amount of housing stipend that a beneficiary receives under GI Bill benefits. Many veterans rely on their housing stipend to pay for their housing while they are attending school; and, therefore, it can be necessary for them to show proof of their housing allowance as proof of income. Without this proof of income, veterans are often finding themselves unable to secure housing before the start of a school term. This is--once again, it is being used a lot today, but this is a case that I would concur--a commonsense piece of legislation that asks for documentation that the VA can electronically provide to allow all of our veterans to more easily use their earned benefits. Mr. Speaker, I urge support, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Himes), the author of this piece of legislation and a staunch supporter of our Nation's veterans.

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Connecticut once again. This is a good piece of legislation. It will speed the benefits that were earned by our Nation's veterans. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3634, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WALZ

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I feel like we are on a roll, Mr. Speaker. We should stay here all day. Bipartisan, commonsense legislation improving the lives of veterans, it kind of feels like what we came here for. I rise in strong support of another one of those, H.R. 3705, as amended, the Veterans Fair Debt Notice Act introduced by the gentlewoman from Maine (Ms. Pingree). Again, you heard it from the vice chairman, if a veteran incurs an overpayment in benefits, VA sends out a series of letters notifying him or her of this debt and the steps that can be taken to address the issue. The letter is time stamped when mailed and, if what VA is asking for is not received within a specific timeline, the veteran loses the ability to take certain actions toward addressing or disputing the debt. Many veterans come to every one of our offices reporting never receiving these letters. I know all of us have heard that story. These are people who I know and trust. It got sent to the wrong address, something happened, and they never got it. Further, the letter VA is sending is full of complicated legal terms and citations of public laws. We know these letters alarm and confuse veterans unnecessarily. I have personally had them come in, show them to me, and as the ranking member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee-- and it is a VA letter--I don't understand what they are asking for in this from a veteran who receives it out of nowhere. The bill before us today represents a real bipartisan effort to ensure that veterans get timely notices of overpayments or debt, and that these notices are respectful, informative, helpful, and collaborative. It does it in three ways. First, H.R. 3705, as amended, directs the Secretary to develop a way veterans may elect to receive debt notification letters by email in addition to receiving standard mail notices. Imagine that in 2017. Second, it directs VA to conduct a study of the problem of veterans not receiving debt letters and to provide a description of the nonlegislative actions the Secretary could take to reduce the number of incorrect addresses, particularly by using the other VHA databases. At this point in time, I would also note we are taking steps in our committee to make sure now, when you leave the service, that we are able to capture emails, we are able to capture alternate addresses to make sure because a lot of times veterans are in transition, they are moving, those types of things are happening. Third and most importantly, the bill requires that, in the future, debt notices provide a clear explanation in understandable language for why the debt is owed and what due process options a veteran has available to her or him. The CBO has estimated the cost of this measure to be insignificant. The approaches in the bill are the first steps to remedying a longstanding problem and will make a positive change for the thousands of veterans who receive overpayment notices. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee Chairman Mike Bost and Ranking Member Elizabeth Esty for working together on this legislation, in addition to Dr. Roe. We are also going to hear from the author of this piece of legislation. Certainly I encourage support of H.R. 3705. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from Maine (Ms. Pingree), who is the author of this good, smart, overdue piece of legislation.

Mr. WALZ. In closing, Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Maine for her remarks. This is a good piece of legislation. As I have said, everybody who serves in this House has received veterans in their office either carrying this letter or talking about a letter they never received. This makes it much better. It gives the benefit of the doubt back to the veteran and makes it easier for them to get this solved in the right manner. Mr. Speaker, please join me in support of H.R. 3705, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WALZ

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3949 allows multi-State apprenticeship programs to go through GI Bill approval in just the State that they are headquartered in, streamlining the approval process so that programs have a lower administrative hurdle to jump over before being able to provide training to veterans. Currently, non-Federal apprenticeship programs that have locations in multiple States must go through the approval process with the State approving agency in each of the States where it operates before it can be approved for GI Bill benefits in that State. In order to encourage more high-quality apprenticeship programs to obtain approval for GI Bill benefits so that they can serve more veterans, this bill would allow multi-State programs to simply seek approval from the State approving agency in the State where they are headquartered. Once they have obtained the State's approval, the program will automatically be approved in all of the other States in which it operates. We are encouraging apprenticeships. They are a great way for our veterans to use their earned benefits to get into well-paying, long- term careers. We should encourage more companies and industries to do that. This piece of legislation is smart and does that. In just a moment we will hear from one of the authors of it explaining how it will do that. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Khanna), who is not just a national voice, but a global voice on manufacturing entrepreneurism, and apprenticeships; and who is one of the authors of this piece of legislation.

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California and his coauthors. Again, this is smart. He is leaning into this, bringing innovation. He came to the Veterans' Affairs Committee and looked at ways that we can streamline this process. It is a good piece of legislation. Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WALZ

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I, too, rise in support of H.R. 4173. I would like to thank the gentleman, Mr. Banks of Indiana, for his work on this. This is a piece of legislation very near and dear to my heart. One of the first pieces of legislation I worked on when I got to this House in 2007 was the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act, which was dealing with the loss of a young warrior from Iowa. One of the pieces of legislation that came out of that was the Veterans Crisis Line, with the idea that we needed that. That was a good piece of legislation, but as time has gone by, Mr. Banks has pointed out ways to improve that. I am in full support. I am grateful for the thought that he has put into this. I am grateful for the gentleman from Florida's recognition that we may never know with absolute certainty how many lives we save, but I think each of us know that this has been an invaluable service. It is one we should continue and try to make better. Mr. Speaker, I am in full support, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, over the last 2 days, we have passed 14 bills out of this committee, the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, affecting everything from suicide and suicide prevention to transplant, to the delivery of GI bills, to the streamlining of the bureaucracy inside the agency, all with a bipartisan effort on what can we do as a nation to best deliver on our promise of the earned benefits that we so deeply owe to those who served us. It is appropriate that we are doing it the week of Veterans Day. But I want to remind people, this is what is possible, Mr. Speaker. This summer, the New York Times wrote a story, and it said, if you really want to know how Congress is supposed to function, look at the VA Committee. They were pointing out, these are not easy things. People, Mr. Speaker, may think, well, everybody supports veterans, but it is hard to get policy right. It is hard to find funding. It is hard to agree on the best way to deliver it. But I would have to say, the last 2 days are proof positive of it. We can do it. We must do it. We are obligated to do it. When people think of Veterans Day, ways that you can observe Veterans Day, I am always of the belief that the best way to honor veterans is to attempt to live our life in a manner that reflects the dignity and the sacrifice that they gave in their service. As we sat here today, it may be easy to take it for granted. The public gets frustrated over what happens or what doesn't happen here. The idea that there are billions of human beings on this planet who don't get the chance to self-govern, who don't get the chance to openly and freely debate, to try and craft a society we want to live in, and we do it here because of the sacrifice that was given to keep this Nation free. So the work we do here--and it is often said, you shouldn't get a pat on the back for doing what you are supposed to do. That is not what this is about. This is about a recognition that this Nation cares deeply about the daughters and sons who will serve us. This Nation expects the Congress to make sure that they are cared for in a manner that reflects their sacrifice, and they want us to do it in a bipartisan manner that celebrates the idea of self-governance. So with that, I would say, Mr. Speaker, I am proud to support this piece of legislation as the final piece of this package. I am proud of the work and to call my friend from Florida a dear friend, someone who I know that, between you and your father, has given decades of service to our Nation's veterans. There are reasons to be optimistic. There are reasons to believe that we can get through this. There is reason to believe that, come Veterans Day, our better days lie ahead of us. Mr. Speaker, I support H.R. 4173, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WALZ

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I was absent for Roll Call Nos. 542 (on the passage of H.R. 3823), and 543 (on the passage of H.R. 2792). Had I been present, I would have voted No on both these votes.

Mr. WALZ

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the time and, more importantly, for his eloquent words. I appreciate the support both for The American Legion and for this piece of legislation. Mr. Speaker, thank you for bringing the bill to the floor, H.R. 2519, The American Legion 100th Anniversary Commemorative Coin Act, for a vote today. For nearly a century, The American Legion has worked tirelessly day and night to improve the lives of veterans and their families. For that reason, words cannot express the gratitude that we have for the men and women of The American Legion. As both a veteran and a legislator, I see firsthand the results they achieve for veterans on a daily basis. This bipartisan piece of legislation has the support of over 370 of our peers, including the entirety of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, the Financial Services Committee, and the majority and minority leaders. The Senate has passed a similar piece of legislation, and I look forward to continue working to get this to the President's desk. These commemorative coins are just a small token of thanks to show the millions of American Legion members that we appreciate what they do for our servicemembers, for our veterans, for our national security, and for our local communities. In full disclosure, Mr. Speaker, as a longtime member of The American Legion, I am proud to stand here sponsoring this piece of legislation. I look forward to it being signed into law, and then I look forward to Americans getting a piece of this history that we should all be proud of.

Mr. WALZ

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3819, the Department of Veterans Affairs Expiring Authorities Act of 2017. I want to thank the gentleman from Florida for his hard work on this, as the entire committee did. H.R. 3819, as the gentleman said, makes sure that some of the vital programs we have in place to provide for our veterans continue past the end of the fiscal year and continue to help our veterans. Included in this bill are provisions related to their healthcare, their benefits, homeless veterans, and other related issues. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to support extending programs related to the support for caregivers, childcare for certain veterans receiving healthcare, and the pilot program on counseling in retreat settings for women veterans newly separated from service. It also has provisions to extend the authority related to rehabilitation and vocational benefits to members of our Armed Forces with severe injuries or illnesses, homeless veterans reintegration programs, homeless women veterans, and homeless veterans with children, and providing housing assistance and counseling to homeless and at-risk veterans. Also included are extensions of authority for programs to help disabled veterans as well as authority to enter into agreements with the National Academy of Sciences to review the research on links between diseases and dioxin exposure. This is a critical step in creating any new Agent Orange presumptions that still may be there. Both of these provisions are critical in helping our aging Vietnam veterans as well, as we move forward. The final section contains, as the gentleman said, a technical fix to the Forever GI Bill, an important piece of legislation once again crafted in a bipartisan manner with the help of our veterans service organizations and passed earlier this year. The correction will simply help make VA implement the law correctly, and all sides agree it must become law as quickly as possible. Mr. Speaker, in short, this bill that both the majority and the minority support, we all agree it must be signed into law as soon as possible. Mr. Speaker, with that, I urge my fellow Members to support its passage, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida for his strong words, for his commitment and service to this country, and I appreciate his support on this piece of legislation. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano), my good friend, the vice ranking member of the full Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I want to thank the gentleman from Louisiana for his support and work on the committee. Once again, the old saying is you shouldn't get a pat on the back for what you are supposed to do; but around here, it is harder than you might think, and I am incredibly grateful and proud. I want to thank the majority staff for their work on this piece of legislation, always including the minority staff, always including us in decisions, so that when we get to the floor, we bring a piece of bipartisan legislation that we can all support. It is must-pass legislation, and that is why it will pass today. I thank the gentleman from Florida for his continued leadership. We have been on this committee for over a decade together, and it seems like it is always that way, so I am grateful for that, grateful we are able to move this forward. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3819. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WALZ

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise today and associate myself with the words of my friend and our chairman, the gentleman from Tennessee. I strongly recommend support for the newly amended S. 114, a bill, as the chairman so clearly stated, that not only extends veterans' access to care in the community, but provides additional funding for 28 critical leases to expand capacity and also makes sure we can recruit and retain the best medical professionals. Mr. Speaker, I would like to note that on Monday, someone, another Member, mentioned that they felt a disturbance in the force on Monday is the way they described it. There has been a reputation that I think is rightfully earned from the leadership of the chairman and the members of the committee that the House Veterans' Affairs Committee is here to do the business of this Nation's veterans and the taxpayers and that the politics that are necessary and that are a part of getting things done take a backseat to that. What you saw on Monday were disagreements. We could not come to an agreement. But instead of the theatrics of partisanship and instead of the politics of deconstruction, it was the politics of the possible. So instead of sulking away or sending out competing press releases, we came back together to try to find compromise on this. For that I am grateful. I am grateful as a veteran, and I am grateful as a citizen that, on a morning when many Americans are waking up wondering about our politics and seeing the theatrics that go on, I am here to tell you that under the chairman's leadership, the honorable gentleman from Tennessee, he is guiding this House and tying it into the Senate in the best interests of our Nation's veterans, taking in the concerns of the minority side and taking in the concerns of the veterans service organizations in a way that also means compromise on my Republican colleagues' side. That is hard to do, asking people to put their own personal ideology aside if it is in the best interests of building a coalition and producing a piece of legislation that can pass through this House, the Senate, and be signed by the President. That is a tough order around here right now, and I am proud to stand with someone who has done it. I am proud to give my little piece of what it takes to do that. I would encourage my colleagues, let's show a strong sign not just to our veterans, not just to this piece of legislation that, the gentleman was right, is absolutely critical for the care of our veterans; let's send a sign to our fellow citizens that this democracy still can function, this democracy still can find answers, this democracy can put American citizens first, and we can walk away from this knowing that our job was to come here and do exactly that, and it will be done. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.