Student Veteran Emergency Relief Act of 2022

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 7939, as amended, the Student Veteran Emergency Relief Act of 2022.

This is a bipartisan bill led by Chairman Levin and Ranking Member Moore of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity. The base text would provide emergency protection for maintaining current GI bill payments for student veterans if a pandemic like COVID-19 hits our country again.

I am supportive of the entire package, but I am especially pleased that five Republican proposals have been included. This bill includes Congressman Joyce's language that would extend full post-9/11 GI bill benefits to the servicemembers who have been discharged under DOD's sole survivor rules.

A sole survivor discharge is designed to protect the members of a family if they have already lost family members to military service.

This issue directly impacts Congressman Joyce's constituents, the Weninger family, whose son, Sergeant Weninger, tragically passed away in 2020. I am happy to honor Sergeant Weninger for his service to the United States and provide this benefit to his brother.

I thank his family, Congressman Joyce, and the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors for bringing this important issue to our attention.

Now, this package also includes text from Congressman Moore's bill that would improve the way that schools are approved for the GI bill to help prevent waste, fraud, and abuse.

Recently, there has been a rise in schools abusing this benefit. GI bill fraud both takes away a veteran's benefit and wastes taxpayer dollars. This bill would make it much harder for a bad school to be approved for GI bill benefits and well before they could harm veterans.

I thank the Student Veterans of America, the VFW, and Veterans Education Success for assisting us in writing this provision.

I also thank the Office of Inspector General and Inspector General Missal for their hard work in protecting veterans by helping us draft this text.

H.R. 7939, as amended, also includes a GOP proposal that would help improve access to study-abroad programs while using the GI bill.

I thank the Student Veterans of America and other higher education groups for bringing this issue to our attention.

Another proposal in this bill would amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to make it easier for military spouses to transfer licenses across the States.

This bipartisan proposal would allow spouses to transfer their State- based medical and professional license when they move due to their spouse's military orders. This is an important change that would help reduce unemployment among military spouses. I thank Congressman Mike Garcia for originally proposing this legislation, and I am pleased to see it in the list of bills today.

The bill also includes the text for H.R. 4702, originally introduced by Congressman Cawthorn, that would help clarify the State that a military spouse can file taxes in when their family is deployed to another State.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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