Souder Votes for Three Bills to Help Veterans
Press Release
U.S. Rep. Mark Souder voted today for House passage of three bills designed to help veterans. All three bills passed the House with bipartisan support.
"The brave men and women who wear the uniform perform a tremendous service to our nationoften at great sacrifice to themselves and their familiesand we need to look after them once their service ends," Souder said. "Quite simply, we owe it to them. The three pieces of legislation passed by the House today are small bills, but they're still steps forward."
"Because of better protection, more servicemen and women are surviving their battlefield injuries than in the past," Souder added. "An unfortunate consequence, however, is that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is on the rise. Haunted by their wartime experiences, some veterans have a difficult time readjusting to civilian life. I'm hopeful that the suicide prevention bill we've passed will help them overcome their troubles."
The three House-passed bills are:
* H.R. 327, the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act, which would develop and implement a comprehensive program designed to reduce the incidence of suicide among veterans. Souder is a cosponsor of this legislation.
* H.R. 797, the Dr. James Allen Veteran Vision Equity Act, which would expand benefits for veterans who have vision loss. Under current policy, disability compensation is provided for veterans who are blind in one eye, and it increases only if the patient goes completely blind in the other eye. No compensation is provided if veterans are visually impaired in the second eye. The bill would offer additional benefits for veterans who are beginning to lose sight in their second eye, rather than waiting until their vision is gone altogether.
* H.R. 1284, the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Act of 2007, which would increase, effective December 1, 2007, the rates of compensation for veterans with service-connected disabilities and the rates of dependency and indemnity compensation for the survivors of certain disabled veterans. The actual COLA percentage, which the bill ties to the Social Security COLA, will be determined later this year.
The bills will now be sent to the Senate for further action.
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