[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 73 (Wednesday, May 25, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3341-S3343]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BLUMENTHAL:
  S. 1060. A bill to improve education, employment, independent living 
services, and health care for veterans, to improve assistance for 
homeless veterans, and to improve the administration of the Department 
of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Veterans' Affairs.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, we all have a shared commitment to our 
Nation's veterans. That shared commitment is reflected in many of the 
programs that are supported by yourself and my other colleagues in this 
body every year. I deeply respect the knowledge and dedication that my 
fellow Senators have brought to this critical issue. Each of my 
colleagues, almost without exception, has supported measures that have 
helped our veterans over the years.
  I rise to introduce my first piece of legislation, a bill to help our 
Nation's veterans.
  Our Nation must keep faith with the men and women who have served and 
sacrificed for our freedom. Unfortunately, and unconscionably, America 
is still failing them and their families by tolerating unemployment, 
homelessness, and inadequate health care. We must renew our commitment 
to the more than 250,000 veterans in Connecticut and 22 million across 
the country to ensure that no veteran is left behind.
  Our commitment to veterans must be unwavering. Despite our best 
intentions, we fail all too often to accord our veterans the support 
they have earned. Unfortunately, according to the Department of 
Veterans Affairs, more than 76,000 veterans are homeless on any given 
night and nearly twice that number will be homeless at some point 
during the year. The unemployment rate among veterans has doubled over 
the past 3 years. Twenty-seven percent of veterans in their early 
twenties are unemployed. That number is almost twice the unemployment 
rate of their peers who have not served in the military. The Bureau of 
Labor Statistics recently reported that unemployment for veterans who 
served their country after September 2001 to be 11.5 percent, again, a 
figure far higher than the national unemployment rate.
  Twenty percent of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are estimated to 
suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. When veterans return home, 
they must wait at least half a year, on average, for a claims decision 
by the Department of Veterans Affairs before they can receive benefits. 
Those numbers are simply unacceptable. As I speak today, America's 
longest war continues, with less than 1 percent of the Nation in 
uniform. Never in the history of the country have so few fought for so 
long, at such great personal cost and sacrifice.
  Under the leadership of Secretary Shinseki, the Department of 
Veterans Affairs has taken strong steps toward the goal of building a 
21st century system that supports caregivers of seriously injured Iraq 
and Afghanistan veterans, improving services to women veterans, 
expanding the availability of health care, and preventing veteran 
homelessness.
  Gaps in the system remain, and they are debilitating, destructive, 
and devastating for many veterans. We can do better and we must do 
more. The legislation I introduce today is entitled Honoring All 
Veterans Act of 2011. Its 16 comprehensive provisions are only the 
first phase of my efforts.
  This legislative proposal is a comprehensive package but only an 
opening salvo in a sustained, unceasing campaign to ensure that no 
veteran is left behind. It is a downpayment on a larger debt. The goal 
is to give all veterans the homecoming and the services they need and 
deserve. Our military men and women have kept their promise to serve 
and sacrifice for this country, and we must now keep faith with them. 
Our commitment to veterans should reflect the depth of their sacrifice. 
This measure is entitled Honoring All Veterans Act because all veterans 
are brave service men and women, serving today in places we can barely 
pronounce the names of. They are deployed around the globe, and they 
deserve to be honored for defending our freedom and democracy. We must 
honor that service not only in words but in deed.
  This legislation comes from veterans and their families--seeing and 
hearing their struggles and dreams, their achievements and defeats as I 
have worked for them during my 20 years as attorney general and 4-plus 
months as a Senator.
  In the VFW and American Legion halls, in living rooms, in school 
auditoriums, and in countless gatherings across the State of 
Connecticut, I have been privileged to listen and learn from veterans 
and their families who have shared their personal stories and insights.
  This legislation simply continues the work I have done as attorney 
general. I worked to make the Department of Defense release information 
on those who may have been improperly separated from military service, 
and urged the Department of Veterans Affairs to update its obsolete 
database systems that were preventing tens of thousands of disabled 
veterans from obtaining deserved tax benefits. In 2007, I worked with 
the Connecticut congressional delegation to make the Department of 
Defense provide accurate information about educational benefits to 
veterans. I have fought for them individually when they encountered 
bureaucratic resistance and red tape from an unresponsive system. I am 
proud of that work and proud, most important, of my partnership with 
veterans in Connecticut in proposing this legislation. My goal then, 
and it has been continuously, is to keep faith with our veterans, to 
honor our promises to them.
  This Honoring All Veterans Act of 2011 will address four key areas: 
first, expanding job opportunities for veterans; second, assisting 
homeless veterans; third, improving veterans health care, with a 
special emphasis on mental health services; fourth, modernizing the 
Department of Veterans Affairs.

  On expanding job opportunities to honor all veterans and give them 
the welcome home they deserve, we need to focus first on jobs. Like all 
Americans, veterans are striving to provide for their families and 
participate in the economic recovery to find jobs in our slowly 
recovering economy. Good jobs require education and training, as well

[[Page S3342]]

as independent living services for veterans. Our Nation has done much 
to address this issue, such as the expanded post-9/11 GI bill, but gaps 
in the system remain. They are all too glaring. My legislation will 
expand job opportunities in five significant ways.
  First, the legislation raises the statutory cap for the Vocational 
Rehabilitation and Employment Independent Living Program to welcome 
hundreds of additional veterans. This vital program helps veterans with 
severe service-connected disabilities, enabling them to live 
independently. It helps veterans with those kinds of disabilities to 
participate in family and community life and increases their potential 
to return to work. There is a strong case for removing the cap on 
participation in the program. I would like to recognize the 
distinguished junior Senator from Hawaii for the work that he has done 
in this regard. I hope that my legislation will ensure the program can 
continue to assist veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, 
while Congress works to find funding to remove the cap completely.
  Second, the legislation authorizes veterans to reuse the Department 
of Defense Transition Assistance Program, known as TAP, and meet with 
counselors at any military installation for up to 1 year after their 
separation. This program was developed to assist military personnel 
leaving the service with information about jobs, education, and career 
development. Veterans returning to Connecticut wishing to participate 
again in the Transition Assistance Program should have that opportunity 
to participate for a second time, maybe even a third time. Coming back 
from deployment, servicemembers are often focused on other important 
aspects of the transition process, rather than how to find a job. They 
may have never written a resume before or attended a job interview. 
Having started the job search they have specific areas where they 
realize they need help. I discussed this idea at a recent Senate Armed 
Services Committee hearing with the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for 
Manpower and Reserve Affairs. He testified that the military is right 
now in the process of redesigning the TAP program. I am going to work 
toward having this provision included in the redesign of the TAP 
program so that TAP continues to be an opportunity once a servicemember 
returns home.
  Third, the legislation authorizes a study of how best to ensure that 
civilian employers and educational institutions recognize veterans' 
military training. The military recruits the most talented men and 
women in America to serve, and then it invests heavily in their 
professional development. Yet when they trade their uniforms in for 
civilian clothes, employers and others such as professional accrediting 
organizations often refuse to recognize or understand how to make use 
of their military experience and the expertise they have gained.
  The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America reported that 61 percent 
of employers do not believe they have ``a complete understanding of the 
qualifications ex-servicemembers offer,'' and recently separated 
servicemembers with college degrees earn on average almost $10,000 less 
per year than their nonveteran counterparts.
  One way to close this gap is to have the Department of Defense review 
the list of military occupations specialties, such as the 22 MOS's in 
Army engineering or 16 MOS's in Army communications, and ensure that 
completing MOS qualifications will provide those servicemembers with 
credentials recognized by civilian employers.
  The study authorized in this legislation will start that process. I 
am committed to working in the Senate to see this problem resolved.
  Fourth, the legislation reauthorizes the Veterans Education Outreach 
Program to provide money for campus-based outreach services to 
veterans. This program was first established in 1972 to provide 
colleges with a significant number of veterans on campus with 
additional resources to make sure those students get the most out of 
their educational experience and use VA benefits available to assist 
them. I believe that the return of veterans from deployments during the 
Global War on Terror requires the same kind of on-campus support. While 
there are other programs helping veterans pay the cost of tuition and 
many colleges have great veterans services on-campus, the Veterans 
Education Outreach Program is the missing link to ensuring veterans are 
informed about their VA benefits and maximizing the opportunity to 
study and obtain employment.
  Fifth, the legislation authorizes a comprehensive program at the 
Department of Labor to assist veterans with TBI or PTSD in the 
workplace. It provides technical assistance to employers of veterans 
living with those conditions and provides best practices relating to 
helping those employees develop successful strategies for on-the-job 
success. The legislation requires the Office of Disability Employment 
Policy to coordinate an inter-agency working group which will produce a 
federal homecoming plan for reintegration of these veterans. These 
tasks have been conducted to a limited degree by the Department of 
Labor through the America's Heroes at Work program and the Veterans 
Employment & Training Services and they are to be commended for their 
efforts to date. However, by defining these requirements in statute, it 
is my hope that these programs will expand to reach all veterans that 
need help.
  This legislation also reaches veterans in a variety of other key 
areas. Recently, a female veteran visited my office. She and her two 
children were homeless and needed help. In their case, we could find 
temporary shelter. But on the issue of homelessness, many veterans do 
not know where to turn or are hesitant to do so. The current per diem 
given to homeless veterans does not address rising costs and regional 
variations in helping homeless veterans. Women are particularly 
underserved now, and my hope is that new housing projects take care of 
female veterans. For example, the Newington Mission Homeless Project in 
my state will help forgotten heroes find shelter. The Honoring All 
Veterans Act reforms the per diem program and helps military families 
avoid homelessness by permanently extending their foreclosure 
protection for servicemembers.
  On improving veteran health care and mental health services, as I 
have traveled Connecticut meeting with veterans, I have seen firsthand 
how veterans with traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress 
disorder face unique challenges in accessing the Department of Veterans 
Affairs for benefits and medical assistance. Veterans deserve the best 
possible medical care, particularly when it comes to treating TBI or 
post-traumatic stress. These are the signature wounds of the conflicts 
in Afghanistan and Iraq. More than a quarter of these injuries are 
undiagnosed, according to the military itself. Then too often, even if 
they are diagnosed, servicemembers are screened but do not receive a 
full course of treatment.
  To address this issue, my legislation requires the Department of 
Defense to identify and then close the gap between screenings and 
treatment. Simply diagnosing a soldier or a marine with symptoms of 
PTSD or TBI does not heal them.
  This legislation also addresses the problem of finding qualified 
psychiatrists, psychologists, and nursing professionals to work in VA 
medical hospitals and outpatient clinics by accessing graduates from 
the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. This 
university trains outstanding medical professionals for military 
service. Under existing law the Secretary may exempt graduates from 
working in a military hospital after graduation, based upon forecast 
demand. The Honoring All Veterans Act allows those graduates identified 
by the Secretary as excess to military requirements to serve out their 
commitment in the VA medical systems, rather than releasing them to 
private hospitals. This provision is just one example of how the 
legislation is crafted to better utilize the existing resources of the 
DOD and VA medical systems.
  Modernizing the Department of Veterans Affairs is the final section 
of this legislation. It addresses the DOD and VA transition process 
through improved monitoring and oversight. It increases pension 
benefits and gives veterans grounds for appeal at the Board of Veterans 
Appeals if the VA has misplaced or misfiled their documents.
  I hear about this problem, as my colleagues do, again and again as I 
listen to veterans. Recently, a veteran visited

[[Page S3343]]

my office. He has been waiting on a hearing date with the Board of 
Veterans Appeals for over a year.
  His story is typical.
  This legislation provides much needed improvement to the Board of 
Veterans Appeals. I look forward to working with my colleagues to 
address other much needed improvements.
  We can honor our veterans whose claims are stuck in the Board of 
Veterans Appeals by confirming judges to the court that reviews them. 
Three of those nine seats are now vacant, and each judge must preside 
over 600 cases per year, far more than any other Federal appellate 
court.
  Finally, in closing, let me recognize the many veterans throughout 
the State of Connecticut who helped me craft this measure.
  I thank CDR Richard DiFederico of the VFW and CDR Daniel Thurston of 
the American Legion for their very dedicated work, not only in 
assisting me but day in and day out on behalf of veterans.
  I thank Bob Janicki, who has spent recent years after serving this 
country in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam era, for providing 
help to homeless veterans and veterans seeking jobs.
  Paul ``Bud'' Bucha is a veteran and friend with the most 
distinguished service record possible in winning the Medal of Honor. 
His life after military service, giving back to other veterans and 
managing several successful companies, has been an example of how 
veterans continue to provide leadership with courage and vision.
  MSG Frank Alvarado has made a number of very helpful suggestions, 
including, for example, reauthorizing the Veterans Education Outreach 
Program.
  I would also like to acknowledge my deep respect to Dr. Linda 
Schwartz, who has been a tireless advocate for all veterans.
  Connecticut is blessed to have the leadership of veterans who help 
each other, care for each other, look out for each other. I look 
forward to working with them in ensuring that this legislation is 
passed. I have no illusions that accomplishing passage of these kinds 
of measures will be easy, but I hope for support across the aisle. This 
kind of goal certainly ought to unite us, not divide us. We have so 
much more in common on this issue than in conflict. I am hoping we can 
work together to ensure that we keep faith with our veterans, that we 
honor their service, ensure that we welcome them home with the kind of 
services they need and deserve so that no veteran will be left behind.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record 
a summary of this legislation.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                 The Honoring All Veterans Act of 2011

                      Section by Section Analysis


  Title 1--Education, Employment, and Independent Living Services for 
                                Veterans

       1. Raises the statutory cap for Vocational Rehabilitation 
     and Employment Independent Living program participants from 
     2,700 new, per annum, to 3,000.
       2. Authorizes veterans to retake the Transition Assistance 
     Program (TAP) and meet with counselors at any military 
     installation again up to 1 year after separation.
       3. Authorizes a study of how best to ensure the recognition 
     of military training and qualifications that veterans have by 
     civilian employers and education institutions.
       4. Reauthorizes the Veterans Education Outreach Program to 
     provide $6 million for campus-based outreach services to 
     veterans.
       5. Directs the Secretary of Labor to provide technical 
     assistance to employers of veterans living with Traumatic 
     Brain Injury (TBI) and/or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder 
     (PTSD) as they transition to the civilian workplace. Directs 
     the Secretary of Labor to provide best practices related to 
     helping employees with TBI and/or PTSD find and develop 
     successful strategies for on-the-job success. Directs the 
     Office of Disability Employment Policy to coordinate inter-
     agency working group ``federal roundtables'' on TBI and PTSD 
     to produce a national homecoming plan that identifies the 
     role of each federal agency in the reintegration of these 
     veterans.


               Title 2--Assistance for Homeless Veterans

       1. Permanently extends foreclosure protection for service 
     members under the Service Members Civil Relief Act.
       2. Reforms the daily Homeless Housing per diem voucher 
     program to take account of service costs and geographic 
     disparities. Allows use of other funds (such as those 
     authorized under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance 
     Grant) without offset.


      Title 3--Health Care and Mental Health Services for Veterans

       1. Directs DOD and VA to monitor referrals for mental 
     health care to ensure that individuals receive care.
       2. Directs to VA to ensure that all TBI and PTSD patients 
     leave VA medical treatment with a plan for their long-term 
     care needs that utilizes a ``one-VA'' approach to capture and 
     employment and vocational services that can assist in long-
     term care and rehabilitation.
       3. Authorizes VA medical facilities to provide counseling 
     to family members of deployed service members.
       4. Authorizes the VA medical system to receive graduates of 
     the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USU) to 
     serve veterans in Community-Based Outpatient Clinics and 
     readjustment counseling Vet Centers of the Department of 
     Veterans Affairs.
       5. Authorizes the VA to Access State Prescription 
     Monitoring Programs to address substance abuse.


     Title 4--Administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs

       1. Directs the DOD and VA to establish a monitoring 
     mechanism to identify and address challenges as they arise in 
     all DOD and VA facilities and offices involved in the single 
     separation physical process.
       2. Authorizes an independent review board on the DOD to VA 
     transition process that includes the Inspector General from 
     each Agency and the GAO.
       3. Reforms the Board of Veterans Appeals process to help 
     veterans with misfiled documents.
       4. Increases the pension for disabled veterans married to 
     one another who require aid and attendance.
                                 ______