Chairman Bost Speaks at Rules Committee on Key Bills to Expand Benefits for Disabled Veterans and Survivors, Restore Constitutional Rights

Chairman Bost Speaks at Rules Committee on Key Bills to Expand Benefits for Disabled Veterans and Survivors, Restore Constitutional Rights

Today, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.), delivered the following opening remarks, as prepared, at the start of the House Committee on Rules hearing on two House Republican bills that will be considered on the House floor this week, H.R. 1041, the Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act, led by Chairman Bost and H.R. 6047, the Sharri Briley and Eric Edmundson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act, led my Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Mich.).

The Sharri Briley and Eric Edmundson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act would increase the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) monthly compensation benefit for service-connected, catastrophically disabled veterans and the surviving family of 100% disabled or deceased veterans. This tax-free benefit, meant to financially support the loved ones for the loss of their disabled veteran, has not been increased in decades. Read more here.

The Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act would ensure that no VA bureaucrat can strip a veteran with a fiduciary of their right to bear arms without a judge or court ruling first that the veteran is a danger to themselves or their community. Read more here.

Madam Chairwoman, Ranking Member, and Members of the Rules Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today.

I appear before you in support of two bills: H.R. 6047, the Sharri Briley and Eric Edmundson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act and H.R. 1041, the Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act.

I respectfully ask this 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 this legislation, 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 Edmundson was just 25 years old when his vehicle struck an I.E.D. near the Syrian border, in 2005.

The blast ruptured his spleen, fractured his spine, destroyed his kneecaps, and his heart stopped beating for thirty 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 parents became his caregivers, helping him do what he loves: hunting, painting, being a father, and 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 the financial costs that come with these injuries.

This bill would also be for surviving spouses like Sharri Briley.

Sharri's husband, Donovan "Bull" Briley, was killed in Somalia during the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993.

Their daughter was just five years old when her father came home wrapped in the American flag.

Sharri, a young widow, was left to raise a child alone.

V.A.'s Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, or D.I.C., exists for the over 500,000 survivors like Sharri.

This legislation would offer the first increase to D.I.C. in 30 years, an added 1.5 percent total, over the next 2 years on top of the annual inflationary increase.

This bill would also expand V.A.'s home loan program to make Guard and Reservists with just 14 days of active-duty service eligible, at a 1 percent higher rate.

They leave their civilian lives behind when called to serve and deserve access to the economic opportunity and stability that the V.A. home loan provides.

Ranking Member Takano and many of my Democrat colleagues say their issue with this bill is the offset or complain that the benefits in this bill should be more.

This bill contains this Committee's bi-partisan home-loan offset which has been voted on many times, extending current home loan fees.

It also contains our bi-partisan extension of current law, capping certain veteran's needs-based-pension if they are in government-funded, long term nursing care.

It also contains a small increase to the home loan funding 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 offset.

Madam Chair I ask unanimous consent that the joint letter from 19 Veteran 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 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 2nd Amendment Protection Act.

Under V.A.'s fiduciary program, veterans can be assigned a fiduciary for many reasons - injury, illness, age, or even due to a request for help.

For decades, V.A. automatically reported those assigned a fiduciary to the F.B.I.'s NICS list, prohibiting them from purchasing 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 previously reported names from the NICS list.

But H.R. 1041 would provide a lasting fix; veteran's constitutional rights should not depend on who runs the V.A.

That is why I have long championed my bipartisan provision in the yearly V.A. appropriations bill, prohibiting V.A. from reporting veterans with fiduciaries to NICS.

Veterans struggling with injuries, PTSD, 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.

Severely 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.

Thank you for your time, and I welcome any questions.

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