[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 83 (Tuesday, May 20, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H4185-H4187]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1230
                VETERANS BENEFITS AWARENESS ACT OF 2008

  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 3681) to amend title 38, United States Code, to authorize 
the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to advertise in the national media to 
promote awareness of benefits under laws administered by the Secretary, 
as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 3681

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Veterans Benefits Awareness 
     Act of 2008''.

     SEC. 2. AUTHORITY OF SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS TO 
                   ADVERTISE TO PROMOTE AWARENESS OF BENEFITS 
                   UNDER LAWS ADMINISTERED BY THE SECRETARY.

       (a) Authority To Advertise.--Subchapter II of chapter 5 of 
     title 38, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end 
     the following new section:

     ``Sec. 532. Authority to advertise in national media

       ``The Secretary may purchase advertising in national media 
     outlets for the purpose of promoting awareness of benefits 
     under laws administered by the Secretary, including promoting 
     awareness of assistance provided by the Secretary, including 
     assistance for programs to assist homeless veterans, to 
     promote veteran-owned small businesses, and to provide 
     opportunities for employment in the Department of Veterans 
     Affairs and for education, training, compensation, pension, 
     vocational rehabilitation, and healthcare benefits, and 
     mental healthcare (including the prevention of suicide among 
     veterans).''.
       (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections at the 
     beginning of such chapter is amended by inserting after the 
     item relating to section 531 the following:

``Sec. 532. Authority to advertise in national media.''

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Filner) and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Miller) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.
  Mr. FILNER. I would yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, we are in the midst of a package of 10 separate pieces 
of legislation that honors our Nation's veterans, our Nation's most 
deserving citizens, appropriately enough, as we prepare to honor them 
on Memorial Day. As we honor our fallen heroes, we cannot forget those 
who need either health or other benefits from our Nation.
  That is what these bills do. They extend benefits in a whole range of 
areas: Health care, substance abuse and spina bifida, reimbursement for 
emergency treatment outside the VA facilities, construction of new 
facilities to serve these heroes. We also address our responsibility 
for oversight of the VA by mandating the revision and update of 
administrative policies so that the VA can better serve our veterans.
  As you know, Mr. Speaker, we have had many opportunities for 
oversight recently. We have had in a court case the discovery of e-
mails which seem to indicate that our VA management was not being 
totally transparent on the number of suicides, for example, of our 
recent Iraqi veterans. Just last week, another e-mail was discovered 
that indicated that we should not adequately diagnose PTSD, post-
traumatic stress disorder, and instead give these young men and women 
lesser kinds of diagnoses, which would cost us less.
  It is unacceptable to the Congress of the United States and to the 
American people that the administration set up to serve our veterans 
would be finding ways to save money and not treating the veterans for 
their needs. We intend to root that kind of attitude out of the VA and 
to make sure that all our veterans, whether they are just coming back 
from Iraq or Afghanistan, or those that served us earlier in Vietnam or 
World War II and Korea and the Persian Gulf War I, to make sure that 
all of their needs are met, and that is what we are committed to and 
that is what these bills on the floor today indicate.
  We also address the compensation cost-of-living adjustment that is so 
important to our veterans who base their income on the dependency and 
indemnity compensation. They need an annual increase to cover the cost 
of living, and this bill before us today will assure that.
  It is my hope that on this Memorial Day we, as a Nation, remember the 
words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A half century ago he said 
``Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in 
time that men,'' and he would say, I am sure today, women, ``have died 
to win them.'' President Washington, over 220 years ago, said, ``The 
best guarantee of the morale of our fighting troops is a sense of how 
they are going to be treated when they come home.''
  So let us remember these words of Roosevelt, of Washington, as we 
prepare on Memorial Day to recognize and remember those heroes who have 
died in uniform. Our Nation has a proud legacy of appreciation and 
commitment, and we have to make sure that they know that we appreciate 
them and we know that our liberty, which we enjoy today, depended on 
them.
  The bills before us today have come from all of our legislative 
subcommittees. Members on both sides of the aisle and all the committee 
worked very hard. I want to thank Chairman Michaud of the Health 
Committee, with his Ranking Member Miller of Florida, I want to thank 
the chair and ranking member of the Subcommittee on Economic 
Opportunity, Ms. Herseth Sandlin of South Dakota, and Mr. Boozman of 
Arkansas, and also the chair and the ranking member of the Disability 
Assistance and Memorial Affairs, the gentleman from New York, Mr. Hall, 
and the gentleman from Colorado, Mr. Lamborn.

[[Page H4186]]

  We are now looking at H.R. 3681, which would authorize the VA 
Secretary to purchase national media outlets to inform veterans of 
their benefits. You would think we would not have to do such 
legislation, Mr. Speaker, but apparently we do. Over the past 2 years, 
the Committee on Veterans' Affairs has conducted several hearings to 
determine how to improve the outreach to our veterans, and while 
various agencies have made tremendous improvement, more needs to be 
done to inform veterans of the entitlements they rightfully deserve and 
how to access those benefits.
  Providing our veterans the information they need on television is a 
crucial component that can affect the livelihood of our veterans and 
their dependents. So I ask all of you to join me in supporting H.R. 
3681.
  I would reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  I rise in strong support of H.R. 3681, as amended, called the 
Veterans Benefits Awareness Act of 2008, which would amend title 38 of 
the U.S. Code to authorize the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to 
advertise in the national media to promote awareness of benefits under 
laws administered by the Secretary.
  I additionally want to thank my colleague, Mr. Boozman, for 
introducing this bill, as well as Chairman Herseth Sandlin of the 
Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, and Chairman Filner of the full 
committee, for expediting this bill through the committee process to 
bring it to the floor.
  Mr. Speaker, as anyone who watches TV or listens to the radio 
experiences advertising aimed at convincing them of the need for, or 
the quality of a product or a service, businesses buy advertising, 
sometimes at very expensive prices because it works. VA should be doing 
the same thing to bring its outreach programs into the 21st century. 
H.R. 3681 will clarify VA's authority to use advertising to increase 
veterans' awareness of the benefits and services that are offered by 
VA.
  I urge my colleagues to support this fine measure and reserve the 
balance of my time.
  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to a 
very hard working new member of our committee, in fact, the highest 
enlisted man ever elected to the Congress of the United States, Command 
Sergeant Major Tim Walz of Minnesota.
  Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Thank you to the chairman for his outstanding 
and tireless work for our veterans. A special thank you also to Mr. 
Boozman, who has been an unending friend and supporter and effective 
leader in helping our veterans. I thank you. This is just one more 
example of your continued work.
  I stand in strong support of H.R. 3681, the Veterans Benefits 
Awareness Act. This just simply, as you have heard the speakers talk 
about, ensures the ability of the VA to reach out and gather our 
veterans back in, making sure that those veterans understand all the 
benefits that are available to them, from suicide prevention to health 
care benefits, training, education, pension benefits, vocational 
rehabilitation, assistance for homeless veterans, veterans owning small 
businesses.
  This Nation and this past Congress in the 110th Congress has done 
much to care for our veterans. One of the problems is that when our 
veterans return home, only about 36 percent of them enter into the VA 
system or apply for benefits, and what this does is take advantage of 
what all 435 Members of this body know well, is you need to advertise 
well to get that message out. The Department of Defense has done a 
great job of advertising for recruitment. It's time for the VA to put 
that money into making sure our veterans get their care.
  The Rand Corporation said the capacity of the DOD and the VA to 
provide mental health services has increased substantially, but 
significant gaps in access and quality remain. There is a large gap 
between the need for mental health services and the use of those 
services.
  Last year, this Congress put in a hotline for veterans seeking help 
with possible suicide and suicide prevention, and that hotline has 
received over 9,000 calls. Those may have been calls that would have 
never been received. So this 24-hour national hotline is working. I am 
pleased that the amendment that I put in to address this with the 
veterans suicide issue has been addressed. I would also like to thank 
the ranking member, Representative Buyer from Indiana, for his 
perfecting amendment on this bill.
  This piece of legislation is a great example of bipartisan support 
that rises above and transcends politics to care for our Nation's 
veterans. This will be a good piece of legislation. It will get our 
veterans in. It will fulfill our moral obligation to care for our 
veterans and it will ensure that future generations of our young 
Americans understand that if they raise their hands, take an oath, and 
service this Nation, we will be there to serve them.
  With that, I again thank Mr. Boozman. I thank the ranking member and 
I thank the chairman for continuously moving information and moving 
legislation forward that helps our veterans.
  This bill will ensure that the Department of Veterans Affairs is able 
to use the power of modern advertising to reach out in as wide-ranging 
and an effective way as possible to our veterans.
  The bill authorizes the Secretary of the VA to purchase advertising 
in the national media about the benefits VA makes available to 
veterans. VA offers health care and mental health care benefits, 
including for the prevention of suicide, an issue that we have been 
vigorously addressing on the House Veterans Committee; education, 
training, compensation, and pension benefits; vocational 
rehabilitation; assistance for homeless veterans, opportunities for 
veteran-owned small businesses; and direct opportunities for employment 
in the Department itself, among other things.
  But if veterans don't know about these benefits, they're not in a 
position to take full advantage of them.
  There is more than enough evidence that advertising works to promote 
awareness of whatever the advertising is about. Study after study has 
shown that advertising through the major media works. In fact, the 
Department of Defense itself knows that. That's why it devotes a lot of 
time and energy to advertising, including on television, as a means of 
recruitment.
  We advertise to recruit our servicemembers, many of whom will put 
themselves in harm's way; that same means should be used to tell them 
what benefits they have earned when they return. In effect, we are 
saying to VA, ``If our veterans aren't coming to you, use the modern 
media to go to them!''
  This bill is also a perfect illustration of how we on the House 
Veterans Affairs Committee strive to work on a bipartisan basis to 
serve our veterans. This bill was introduced by Congressman Boozman on 
behalf of himself and Congresswoman Herseth Sandlin. I offered an 
amendment to the bill, and then one of my Republican colleagues offered 
a perfecting amendment, which I was happy to accept. In that way, we 
worked together to produce a bill that is good for our veterans.
  My amendment specified that the advertising VA would do could and 
should include a focus on suicide prevention, which has been an issue 
of much concern and some controversy lately. There have been several 
recent reports about VA's sometimes halting efforts to address what 
appears to be a series of major emerging mental health problems among 
our veterans. I have a great deal of confidence in the new Secretary of 
VA, whom I have been working with on a number of issues, and his 
commitment to resolve the problems that exist at VA and better serve 
our veterans.
  An excellent and disturbing new report from the think tank the Rand 
Corp. observed that ``The capacity of DoD and the VA to provide mental 
health services has increased substantially, but significant gaps in 
access and quality remain,'' and went on to say in particular, ``There 
is a large gap between the need for mental health services and the use 
of those services.'' My amendment was meant to encourage VA to bridge 
that gap.
  On July 25, 2007, the VA began operation of a 24-hour national 
suicide prevention hotline for veterans. The hotline reported greater 
than 9,000 calls. Callers included veterans who previously would have 
called a non-VA suicide hotline, veterans who would not have utilized a 
non-VA hotline, family members and friends of veterans, and other 
distressed non-veterans. Bottom line--veterans are calling the hotline. 
It is common sense that with more outreach, more veterans are likely to 
call the VA hotline. And advertising in the national media is one form 
of that outreach.
  I am pleased that my amendment to this legislation was adopted, and 
perfected with the help of the Ranking Member on the VA Committee, 
Representative Buyer.
  I strongly urge the passage of H.R. 3681.
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield such time as 
he

[[Page H4187]]

may consume to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Boozman), who has been 
a strong supporter of VA issues his entire time here in the House of 
Representatives.
  Mr. BOOZMAN. Thank you, Congressman Miller. Thank you, Congressman 
Walz. I always feel like he speaks with such authority when I am around 
him; I am always concerned he is going to ask me to do 10 pushups or 
something.
  I rise in support of H.R. 3681, the Veterans Benefits Awareness Act. 
This simple, straightforward legislation authorizes VA to purchase 
advertising in national media outlets for the purpose of promoting 
awareness of veterans benefits.
  When was the last time you saw the Super Bowl or other prime time 
recruiting advertisement for one of the military services? Now, when 
was the last time that you saw the Super Bowl or other prime time ad 
for veterans health care and benefits sponsored by the Department of 
Veterans Affairs. Probably never. It's one reason that many veterans 
and their dependents are not aware of the benefits due to them.
  Over the years, Congress has authorized millions to improve outreach, 
and the results are disappointing. In spite of the additional funding, 
VA still relies on the public service announcements, pamphlets, 
meetings with small groups of veterans, and the one-on-one outreach to 
deliver its message to veterans. Unfortunately, PSAs are often most 
broadcast at times when few people are watching, and small groups and 
individual meetings are often difficult to arrange and are not very 
efficient.
  Our veterans continue to tell us that they were not aware of the VA 
programs that would improve their lives. That is why I introduced H.R. 
3681, the Veterans Benefits Awareness Act of 2008, which authorizes VA 
to purchase advertising in national media outlets for the purpose of 
promoting awareness of veterans benefits.
  H.R. 3681 will provide VA with the authority to buy radio and TV time 
to ensure that veterans and their dependents are aware of health care 
options and benefits for education, disability compensation, 
nondisability pensions, training, loan guarantees, and survivors' 
programs.
  I want to thank Chairwoman Herseth Sandlin for moving this bill, for 
her cooperation in working with the subcommittee; Chairman Filner, and 
Ranking Member Buyer for their support; and also to our staffs that 
worked so hard in preparing these bills. I urge my colleagues to 
support H.R. 3681.
  Mr. FILNER. I have no further speakers.
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. We have no further speakers. We urge adoption 
and yield back the balance of our time.


                             General Leave

  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include 
extraneous material on H.R. 3681, as amended.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. HERSETH SANDLIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 
3681, the ``Veterans Benefits Awareness Act'' which authorizes the 
Secretary of Veterans Affairs to advertise in the national media to 
promote awareness of benefits under laws administered by the Secretary.
  As an original cosponsor of H.R. 3681, and the Chairwoman of the 
Veterans' Affairs Economic Opportunity Subcommittee, I would like to 
thank Representative Boozman,  who serves as the Subcommittee Ranking 
Member, for introducing this important bill. I also would like to 
recognize Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Filner and Ranking 
Member Buyer for their strong leadership and for working to quickly 
move this bill to the House floor.
  It is important that Congress not only provide the VA with the 
resources to properly care for our nation's veterans, but that we also 
provide them with the authority to promote awareness of benefits that 
are available to veterans and their dependents.
  Again, I thank Representative Boozman for introducing this important 
bill. I encourage my colleagues to support it.
  Mr. FILNER. I urge all my colleagues to support H.R. 3681 and yield 
back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Filner) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 3681, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________