[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 155 (Saturday, September 27, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10016-S10017]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               VETERANS' BENEFITS IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2008

  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask the Chair to lay before the Senate 
a message from the House of Representatives with respect to S. 3023.
  The Presiding Officer laid before the Senate the following message 
from the House of Representatives:

                                S. 3023

       Resolved, That the bill from the Senate (S. 3023) entitled 
     ``An Act to amend title 38, United States Code, to improve 
     and enhance compensation and pension, housing, labor and 
     education, and insurance benefits for veterans, and for other 
     purposes'', do pass with an amendment.

  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
concur in the amendment of the House to the Senate bill and the motion 
to reconsider be laid upon the table; further, that any statements be 
printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BURR. Mr. President, as ranking member of the Senate Committee on 
Veterans' Affairs, I rise today to applaud the passage of S. 3023, the 
Veterans' Benefits Improvement Act of 2008. This veterans' benefits 
omnibus bill, which is now on its way to the President, will make a 
wide assortment of improvements to benefits programs for our Nation's 
veterans and their families.
  I want to commend the chairman of the Senate Committee of Veterans' 
Affairs, Senator Akaka, and our colleagues on the House Committee on 
Veterans' Affairs, Chairman Filner and Ranking Member Buyer, for their 
efforts in crafting this compromise legislation. It reflects the 
bipartisan work of dozens of Members of both the House and Senate. The 
result of our work is an omnibus veterans' benefits bill with over 60 
provisions that will allow more veterans to access VA-backed home 
loans, will expand access to independent living services for severely 
injured veterans, and will address VA's disability claims backlog, 
among many other valuable provisions.
  I am particularly pleased that the bill includes an education benefit 
that draws its inspiration from a North Carolinian. Sarah Wade, spouse 
of Ted Wade, an Iraq War veteran who lost his right arm and has battled 
the effects of severe traumatic brain injury after an explosive 
detonated under his Humvee in 2004, has been at her husband's side as a 
primary caregiver from the beginning. She quit her job to take care of 
Ted and has doggedly ensured that he receives the highest quality of 
care. It is likely that her intensive involvement in Ted's ongoing 
recovery will last for several more years.
  Sarah's effort on behalf of her husband leaves little time for 
herself. Sarah would one day like to go to school. Although VA provides 
an educational assistance benefit for the spouses of totally disabled 
veterans and servicemembers, the law requires that the benefit be used 
within 10 years of the date the veteran receives a total disability 
rating. For a spouse like Sarah Wade, there is next to no time to take 
advantage of this benefit within that timeframe. The recovery period 
for a TBI-afflicted veteran--the very period that Ted needs Sarah the 
most--simply precludes her from pursuing that option.
  In recognition of hundreds of spouses like Sarah, the Veterans' 
Benefits Improvement Act of 2008 would extend from 10 to 20 years the 
period within which certain spouses of severely disabled veterans could 
use their education benefits. That longer window will allow Sarah and 
others to focus on their first priority, the care of their injured 
spouses, while giving them some flexibility to pursue their educational 
goals later on. This provision is simply the right thing to do for 
those who have sacrificed so much.
  Another provision I would like to mention would require human 
resource specialists in the Federal executive branch to receive 
training on the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights 
Act, or USERRA. This law provides a wide range of employment 
protections to veterans, future and current members of the Armed 
Forces, and Guard and Reserve members. For returning servicemembers, it 
requires that they be given their jobs back when they return home. It 
also requires that they receive all the benefits and seniority that 
would have accumulated during their absence.
  While every employer should strive to meet or exceed the requirements 
of USERRA, Congress has stressed that ``the Federal Government should 
be a model employer'' when it comes to complying with this law. In my 
view, this means the Federal Government should make sure that not a 
single returning servicemember is denied proper reinstatement to a 
Federal job. But unfortunately, this is not happening yet. The Federal 
Government often violates this law because Federal hiring managers 
simply don't understand what it requires or how to apply it.
  That is why I championed a provision to require the head of each 
Federal executive agency to provide training for their human resources 
personnel on the rights, benefits, and obligations under USERRA. My 
hope is that this training will help prevent future violations of 
USERRA before they ever occur, so our returning servicemembers will not 
experience delays or frustrations in resuming their civilian jobs. In 
short, this provision will move the Federal Government toward becoming 
the ``model employer'' that it should be.
  This bill also provides a number of enhancements to VA's Home Loan 
Guaranty Program, which are particularly important in light of the 
ongoing home loan crisis. For starters, the bill temporarily increases 
the maximum amount of VA's home loan guaranty from just over $104,000 
to more than $182,000, allowing veterans purchasing homes in higher 
cost areas to benefit from a VA guaranty. Another key provision will 
significantly increase the maximum amount of VA's guaranty for 
refinance loans. This means veterans with large, high-interest 
conventional loans may be able to switch to lower interest rate VA-
backed loans, helping them keep their homes by lowering their monthly 
payments.
  Also, the bill would decrease from 10 percent to 0 percent the amount 
of equity required in order to refinance from a conventional loan to a 
VA-backed loan. So, even veterans who have seen declining home values 
may

[[Page S10017]]

be able to benefit from these VA-guaranteed refinance loans. 
Collectively, these changes will help more of our Nation's veterans 
purchase their own homes or keep their existing homes.
  Other very important provisions in this bill will expand access to 
VA's independent living services program. This program helps veterans 
with severe service-related disabilities improve their ability to 
function more independently in their homes and communities and, in some 
cases, it gives them hope for a productive life. These services are 
more important than ever before, as veterans return home from Operation 
Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom with catastrophic injuries 
and as the overall veteran population ages. But VA is not authorized to 
allow more than 2,500 disabled veterans to enter this program each 
year, which may prevent or delay veterans from receiving these crucial 
services.
  Also, VA is generally precluded from providing more than 24 months of 
independent living services to a disabled veteran. This may not be long 
enough for a veteran suffering severe disabilities, such as traumatic 
brain injuries, which can have lengthy, complex, and unpredictable 
recovery periods. So, this bill will increase from 2,500 to 2,600 the 
number of veterans who may enter the independent living services 
program each year and will allow any severely disabled veteran of OIF/
OEF to receive more than 24 months of services. These changes will help 
ensure that veterans who have suffered devastating injuries in service 
to our Nation will have access to the services they need to lead 
fulfilling, independent lives.
  This bill also includes a provision that would require VA to provide 
Congress with a plan for updating its disability rating schedule and a 
timeline for when changes will be made. This rating schedule--which is 
the cornerstone of the entire VA claims processing system--was 
developed in the early 1900s, and about 35 percent of it has not been 
updated since 1945. It is riddled with outdated criteria that do not 
track with modern medicine, and it does not adequately compensate 
young, severely disabled veterans; veterans with mental disabilities; 
and veterans who are unemployable.
  To address this situation, VA conducted studies on the appropriate 
level of disability compensation to account for any loss of earning 
capacity and any loss of quality of life caused by service-related 
disabilities. To make sure these studies don't get put on a shelf to 
collect dust--as has happened in the past--this bill would require VA 
to submit to Congress a report outlining the findings and 
recommendations of those studies, a list of the actions that VA plans 
to take in response, and a timeline for when VA plans to take those 
actions. My hope is that this will finally prompt the type of complete 
update that is necessary to ensure the VA rating schedule is meeting 
the needs of our injured veterans.
  This bill would also help ensure that the U.S. Court of Appeals for 
Veterans Claims consistently has the judicial resources it needs to 
provide timely decisions to veterans and their families. In recent 
years, the court has struggled in the face of a massive caseload, with 
record levels of incoming cases and record levels of pending appeals.
  To help the court deal with this workload, this bill will temporarily 
increase the size of the court from seven judges to nine judges. This 
temporary increase will provide the court with more judicial resources 
in the near term. At the same time, it will allow Congress to gather 
more information about the court's workload before deciding whether a 
permanent expansion of the court is the best way to make sure veterans 
receive timely decisions in the future. To that end, the bill would 
require the court to provide annual reports to Congress with details 
about who is actually doing the work, what type of work they are doing, 
and where there are bottlenecks.
  This temporary expansion to nine judges will also help with an 
ongoing problem--the prospect of having multiple judicial vacancies 
when judges retire. When the court was created in 1988, the terms of 
the judges were not staggered, so six judges retired between 2000 and 
2005, with four retirements in a single 11-month period. This led to a 
serious disruption in service to veterans. To try to avoid a similar 
disruption in service when the existing judges retire, the terms of the 
judges appointed as a result of this expansion would extend well beyond 
the retirement dates of all of the existing judges.
  In addition to all these good provisions, the bill includes some 
commonsense reforms to the court's pay structure and the rules on 
recalling retired judges. It would remove the current cap on the number 
of days a retired judge may voluntarily serve in recall status each 
year. It would create a three-tier payment structure for the judges, 
which reserves the highest pay for judges actually serving either as 
active judges or as recalled retired judges. It also would exempt 
retired judges from being involuntarily recalled after they have served 
at least 5 aggregate years as a recalled judge. These reforms should 
create meaningful incentives for retired judges to come back to work 
for longer or more frequent periods of time. With their experience and 
expertise, the increased involvement of retired judges will be of 
significant value to the veterans seeking justice from the court.
  Mr. President, these are only a few of the over 60 items in this 
comprehensive veterans' benefits bill. I am confident this bill will 
improve the lives of veterans and their families, even if only in small 
ways. I applaud the passage of this bill, and, again, I thank my 
colleagues, Chairman Akaka, Chairman Filner, and Ranking Member Buyer.

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