Chairman Bost on Expanding Benefits for Disabled Veterans & Survivors, Restoring Veterans' Rights

Thank you, Madam Chairman, Ranking Member, Members of the Rules Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. I appear before you to support two bills, H.R. 6047, the Sherry, Briley, and Eric Edmondson Veterans Benefit Expansion Act, and the H.R. 1041, the Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act. I respectfully ask the committee to issue an appropriate rule for consideration of these bills. If you choose to make any amendments in order, I ask that they not undermine the purpose of the legislation or increase its cost or distract from the veterans and families these bills are intended to serve. H.R. 6047 is led by my friend and fellow veteran, Representative Tom Barrett. Today I want to speak about the people this bill would benefit. Sergeant Eric Edmondson was just 25 years old when his vehicle struck an IED near the Syrian border in 2005. The blast ruptured his spleen, fractured his spine, destroyed his kneecaps, and his heart stopped beating for 30 minutes. Most people do not survive that, but by the grace of God, Eric did, without the ability to walk or speak. Eric is still here today fighting 20 years later. His wife and his parents became his caregivers, helping him to do what he loves, hunting, painting, being a father, going to church on Sundays. H.R. 6047 would increase special monthly compensation for severely disabled veterans like Eric. Roughly 7,000 veterans qualify for these benefits, requiring around-the-clock help for their basic needs. This bill would provide an additional $10,000 annually to help those families with financial costs that come with the injuries. This bill would also be for survivors and spouses like Sherry Briley. Sherry Briley's husband, Bull Briley, was killed in Somalia during the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993. Many of you might understand that he was the pilot in Black Hawk Down that was killed. Their daughter was just five years old when her father came home wrapped in an American flag. Sherry, a young widow, was left to raise a child alone. VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, or DIC, exists for over 500,000 survivors like Sherry. This legislation would offer the first increase to DIC in 30 years, and adding 1.5% total over the next two years, on top of the annual inflationary increases. This bill would also expand VA's home loan program to make Guard and Reservists with just 14 days of active duty service eligible at a 1% higher rate. They leave their civilian lives behind when called to serve and deserve access to the economic opportunity and stability that the VA home loan provides. Ranking Member Takano and many of my Democratic colleagues say that their issue with this bill is the offset, or complain that the benefits in this bill should be more. This bill contains the committee's bipartisan home loan offset, which has been voted on many times extending current home loan fees. It also contains our bipartisan extension of current law capping certain Veterans' needs-based pensions if they are in government-funded long-term nursing care. It also contains a small increase to the home loan fund fee for those refinancing, which during the 116th Congress then-Chairman Takano supported and voted in favor of a similar proposal at a lower amount. Most importantly, Veteran Service Organizations support these offsets. Madam Chair, I ask unanimous consent that the joint letter from 19 Veteran Service Organizations is included in the record. In addition to this letter, the bill is supported by the Veterans of Foreign War and the American Legion. This bill would be paid for and fully compliant with the House rules that require we do not increase the national debt. If these groups support the bill's offset, why are my colleagues opposed? We should listen to them and stop playing political games. I would also like to highlight the importance of H.R. 1041, the Veterans' Second Amendment Protection Act. Under VA's fiduciary program, Veterans can be assigned a fiduciary for many reasons—injury, illness, age, or even due to the request of themselves. For decades, VA automatically reported these assigned fiduciaries to the FBI's NICS list, prohibiting them from purchasing a firearm or even having a firearm. VA reported them not because they committed a crime, were subject to a court ruling, or were deemed a danger to themselves or others. They were reported because they could not balance their checkbook. Secretary Collins and the Trump administration have changed that and removed previous reported names from the NICS list. But H.R. 1041 would provide a lasting fix. Veterans' constitutional rights should not depend on who runs the VA. That is why I have long championed my bipartisan provision in the yearly VA appropriation bill prohibiting VA from reporting Veterans with fiduciaries to the NICS list. Veterans struggling with injuries, post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injuries, or old age face enormous barriers asking for help. Veterans should not have to choose between receiving support and preserving their constitutional freedoms. Madam Chair, Memorial Day is approaching. Across this country, families will visit cemeteries and join Veterans' parades. Surviving spouses will remember husbands and wives they could not grow old with. Several disabled Veterans will wake up to fight battles most Americans never see. Veterans will exercise the freedoms they fought to protect. These bills would be for those great Americans.