Solid Start Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Ms. SLOTKIN. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the Solid Start Act, a truly bipartisan bill that I originally introduced on Veterans Day in 2020.

This bill requires the VA to connect with veterans during their first year when they transition out of service to ensure they are aware of the benefits and resources that they have earned.

I was thrilled to see this bipartisan legislation pass the Senate twice, both times by unanimous consent. It passed the House as part of the STRONG Veterans Act with overwhelming support by voice vote.

First, I would like to thank my Veterans Advisory Board back in Michigan and the other stakeholders in my district who have helped to craft this bill. I would like to thank The American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, and the VFW for their support, and the countless veterans and veteran families in the district who gave me their feedback to help us craft this bill.

It comes directly from their experience where, overwhelmingly, the sentiment was in that first year of separation, veterans do not understand all of the resources from education to healthcare that they are eligible for.

Madam Speaker, 40 percent of the veterans in Michigan are unconnected totally from the VA and the resources they are entitled to. This statistic, coupled with the experience of navigating those challenges in the VA, are unacceptable. Every veteran I know has their own story as they transition out of the military, whether it has been 3 years or three decades.

I watched this up close with my husband after 30 years of Active Duty in the Army. Newly separated veterans encounter changes in job status, lifestyle, housing, healthcare, and education. It is a period of enormous change, and also a period of vulnerability. Tragically, rates of veteran suicide are higher in those tumultuous first years than later after separation.

Veterans are entitled to a variety of resources, but they only can access them if they know about them. That is why I introduced the Solid Start Act with my Republican friend, Congressman Joyce.

This bipartisan bill codifies a pilot program, as Mr. Bost said, that was initiated under President Trump, and it shows great promise. But as we stand here tonight, this bill has now been unexpectedly thrown into jeopardy, and it is entirely because of political gamesmanship. Right now, at the last minute, before we vote on this bill, the Pro-Life Caucus from the other side of the aisle has acted to stop the bill from moving to prevent the 16 words that are on this page. This language has been in the bill since its inception when we created this: ``Providing women veterans with information that is tailored to their specific healthcare and benefit needs.''

To be clear, if we pass this bill, then it goes to the President's desk to be signed into law.

But just so we understand what was meant with the idea of providing women and veterans with information tailored to them, it is pregnancy and mental health care, maternity care, mammogram, breast health, breastfeeding and lactation, menopause, gynecological cancer, pre- pregnancy health, chronic pelvic pain, birth control, osteoporosis, prosthetics for women, intimate partner violence, disordered eating, and sexual assault. I can go on. There is a very long list of specific health issues that are specific to women.

Instead, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are holding this bill hostage. The 16 words that they apparently now object to are essential for women's healthcare and are already covered by the VA. None of this is controversial. None of this is objectionable. It doesn't change one thing about veterans' benefits or services. It makes no changes to what they are entitled to. All it does is require the VA to reach out to servicemembers three times in their first year from separation. It increases outreach to veterans.

So let's talk about what this is really about.

Earlier today, a letter went out from Ranking Member Bost and the Pro-Life Caucus saying that Members, while they supported it previously, should now turn against it. After publicly supporting this, they are now leaving it.

And why?

Because they are concerned about VA policy. They are concerned about the VA's decision to provide veteran women with access to abortion when they have been raped, when they are the victims of family incest, or when a doctor confirms that the pregnancy is a risk to the health or the life of the mother.

It is not abortion on demand and not extreme policies. These are very basic, commonly accepted instances when a woman veteran has gone through hell and has no other option.

The other side of the aisle, to be clear, is objecting to this bill because they object to any exceptions whatsoever on abortion. It is a political game. It is literally putting politics ahead of the 18 million veterans and 200,000 each year who separate.

It is our responsibility to honor the veterans, male and female. I find it disturbing that you would play politics in this way. I ask the other side of the aisle to reconsider and support this bill.

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Ms. SLOTKIN. Madam Speaker, there has been a lot of talk on the other side of the aisle, and I just want to be clear. No one in this room is in the judicial branch, and no one in this room that I am aware of is a medical doctor.

If you believe that the provisions that the VA has put forward have a legal problem, then you have the right to take up that case and put it through the courts. We are the legislative branch. We make laws, and we pass laws. We are not judge and jury. Take it to a court if you are concerned. That is your right.

In terms of making decisions on behalf of women, if you want to take a veterans' bill and make it about abortion, then let's do it. What you are saying, and you are saying it in front of the American people, is that you believe a veteran who has been raped, who is the victim of incest, or who is having a dangerous miscarriage does not deserve access to abortion.

You are saying--unless you correct me and tell me what you believe a woman deserves to have when she has been raped, the victim of incest, or is in the middle of a dangerous miscarriage, if you can't state it then be clear you believe in no exceptions for women--a cold, heartless, and violent approach to women's health.

You want to ban all abortions. That is your goal. Many of you have been open about that, and if you flip the House, we know that you will put forward a full ban on all abortions for all States. You have been clear about it.

If you want to turn a veterans' bill into an abortion bill, then let's do it. Not one of you are a medical doctor. Not one of you.

What the VA guidelines say is that if you have been raped or are the victim of incest or a medical professional deems that your pregnancy is a risk to your health. The one in four women in this country who has had a miscarriage, probably many women in this room, that you are a better judge of who gets to decide the future of their life and not a medical doctor? Who do you think you are?

You are politicians. We are all on this floor elected officials and not medical professionals. If it were your wife or your daughter who is suffering through a miscarriage, are you going to tell her she can't until her fever gets high enough or until she is bleeding harder?

That is what is happening in the State of Texas right now. If that is what you want for veterans, shame on you. Shame on you.

I am sorry we built this bill to be bipartisan. I sought your support particularly, sir, and you are making it a political issue.

Shame on you. You all have pictures of veterans in your office. You are proud to show your pride in our veterans. It should be the most bipartisan issue in the world, and you are making it political. Shame on you.

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