Free Veterans From Fees Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. KIND. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Michigan for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, I was an original cosponsor with my good friend and colleague, Mr. Steube from Florida, of H.R. 1029, the Free Veterans from Fees Act.

H.R. 1029 would waive application fees for special use permits for Honor Flights and Gold Star Family events and other veterans demonstrations and special events at our Nation's war memorials. It is the right thing to do, to try to reduce the cost for a lot of these important commemorative occasions happening right here in our Nation's Capital.

Throughout the years, I have had the privilege of being able to attend many of the Freedom Honor Flights that emanated from my hometown in La Crosse, Wisconsin. They are joyous occasions, with much celebration honoring the service and sacrifice of our veterans, celebrating their achievements, but more importantly, allowing them, many for the very last time, to be able to hop on a plane, come to Washington, and pay their respects at the memorials of conflicts that they were involved in and for the fallen comrades who didn't come home.

Oftentimes, on the way home--I know this is true for our La Crosse Honor Flights--there is a mail call where the relatives of these veterans, family members, write letters of thanks to them as they are coming home. When they arrive, it is a huge celebration of music and thanking them for their service and sacrifice. It is a great thing to behold.

The thought that the cost of this is compounded with unnecessary application fees in order to attend these events at our war memorials is something we can rectify, and that is exactly what we are doing under H.R. 1029, along with Gold Star events that occur here and other veterans' events.

I also am the original author of the Veterans History Project, trying to record our veterans' stories before they pass away, archiving it at the Library of Congress, so that we never forget the service and sacrifice that came before us.

We are trying to capture many of these veterans coming to our Nation's Capital--again, many for the very last time--to have them share their story of what it was like to serve our country during times of conflict and peace. So it has been a great avenue in order to reach out and expand the number of oral histories that we have collected at the Library of Congress, close to 120,000 veterans' stories so far and counting.

So if this is a way for us to reduce cost, to ease the burden, to make it easier for veterans to come here, a chance for us to reach out to them, asking them to share their memories of what it was like to serve our Nation, then that is a good thing for us to do.

I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1029, and I thank my colleague from Florida (Mr. Steube) for partnering with me on this legislation.

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