Department of Veterans Affairs Expiring Authorities Act of 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I see my friend and colleague, the chairman of the VA Committee, here. I will happily yield to him to speak first, or I can proceed and then yield to him afterwards.

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I am pleased and honored to be here today to speak in support of H.R. 5985, the Department of Veterans Affairs Expiring Authorities Act. We will vote on it shortly. I thank my colleagues for what I expect to be an overwhelmingly positive vote to affirm our commitment to the veterans of America and that neither dysfunction nor distraction of what is happening during this season of elections will prevent us from keeping the lights on in the Veterans Affairs Department.

As its name implies, this measure would maintain 27 vital ongoing programs and services that the VA provides through the next year. I commend Chairman Miller and Ranking Member Takano in the House for drafting this bipartisan measure that is so important and necessary. We have worked collaboratively with them. Chairman Isakson and I have met with them numerous times, and it has truly been a cooperative and collaborative effort.

This legislation authorizes an increase in the existing VA caregivers program of $10 million, going from $724 million to $734 million, as well as a grants program that assists homeless veterans and provides them with support services.

The bill we will vote on this evening will also give the Secretary of the VA the exact same power as the Secretary of Education has with respect to title IV in the event of a university's sudden loss of accreditation. It is critically important. As we have seen with ITT and Corinthian, for-profit colleges have abruptly closed, leaving veterans stranded. This bill will empower the VA Secretary to provisionally approve programs for use with the GI bill so that veterans may transition to another course of study. Without this provision becoming law now, veterans who attended those schools like ITT may find themselves in a similar untenable, unacceptable, unfair situation. They lose education benefits and, equally troubling, benefits for their housing and food allowance, which they so critically need.

I am pleased we can vote on this measure tonight and send it to the President's desk for his signature. But the simple, stark fact is that this bill is simply a small down payment--a small step in the direction that we must move and that the Senate must accomplish in the days that remain in this session to honor all who have served. It is just one of a series of congressional actions that are needed before we recess to ensure that for-profit schools that put their profits before veterans' rights to an education do not hurt our veterans as their business model collapses.

The Senate should also pass the Veterans Education Relief and Reinstatement Act that Senator Tillis of North Carolina and I have introduced. This bill is bipartisan, as is this bill, and would grant an emergency housing stipend to those students who are adversely affected by destabilizing permanent school closures. Corinthian College and, more recently, ITT give a voice and face to this staggeringly real problem for so many veterans who are the victims of the exploitation by these for-profit schools.

Our mission of ensuring that no veteran is left behind will not be completed by the vote we take this evening. It is just a down payment. I urge my colleagues to join with me in supporting H.R. 5985 and beginning and concluding the hard work of passing other bills that have been reported out of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, with the strong bipartisan work, collaboration, and partnership among the chairman, Senator Isakson, and myself.

I thank Senator Isakson for being here this evening, and I will be honored to yield to him now.

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