[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.
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