[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 124 (Tuesday, July 24, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H7140-H7141]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  GOLD STAR SPOUSES LEASING RELIEF ACT

  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
pass the bill (H.R. 5882) to amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act 
to provide for the termination by a spouse of a lessee of certain 
leases when the lessee dies while in military service, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 5882

       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 ``Gold Star Spouses Leasing 
     Relief Act''.

     SEC. 2. TERMINATION OF LEASES OF PREMISES OF DECEASED 
                   SERVICEMEMBERS WHO DIE WHILE IN MILITARY 
                   SERVICE.

       Section 305(a) of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 
     U.S.C. 3955) is amended--
       (1) in the subsection heading, by striking ``by Lessee'';
       (2) in the heading for paragraph (1), by striking ``In 
     general'' and inserting ``Termination by lessee''; and
       (3) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
       ``(3) Death of lessee.--The spouse of the lessee on a lease 
     described in subsection (b)(1) may terminate the lease during 
     the one-year period beginning on the date of the death of the 
     lessee, if the lessee dies while in military service or while 
     performing full-time National Guard duty, active Guard and 
     Reserve duty, or inactive-duty training (as such terms are 
     defined in section 101(d) of title 10, United States 
     Code).''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Roe) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Tennessee.


                             General Leave

  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their 
remarks and insert extraneous material.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Tennessee?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I 
may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5882, as amended, the 
Gold Star Spouses Leasing Relief Act.
  The death of a servicemember can have a profound impact on their 
loved ones. Our government should take every measure necessary to help 
family members through such a time of need.
  In recognition of that, the Gold Star Spouses Leasing Relief Act 
would amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, the SCRA, to allow a 
spouse of a servicemember who has died due to military service to break 
their residential lease without penalty within 1 year of the 
servicemember's death.
  Mr. Speaker, paying fees for breaking a lease should be the last 
thing on someone's mind when they are confronting life without their 
spouse.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the sponsor of this bill, Congresswoman 
Cheri Bustos of Illinois, for her commonsense solution to this problem. 
I also want to thank Ranking Member Walz and his staff for their 
suggestion to improve the bill by including in it a provision that 
would extend protection to surviving spouses of members of the National 
Guard and Reserve whose death occurred while on Active-Duty orders.
  We should recognize the service of all servicemembers on Active-Duty 
orders, and I am glad the amended version of this bill includes that 
provision.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to support this bill, and I reserve 
the balance of my time.
  Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5882, as amended, the Gold 
Star Spouses Leasing Relief Act.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to first start by thanking the gentlewoman 
from Illinois (Mrs. Bustos) for drafting this bill. It would allow the 
spouse of a servicemember to terminate their lease after the death of 
the servicemember.
  Oftentimes, servicemembers and their families are required to move 
far away from home due to the needs of the service and where the 
servicemember is stationed. In the difficult time after the passing of 
a servicemember, spouses should not be stuck in a lease far away from 
their home and support network. This may seem like a small detail, but 
it is something that can make life just a little bit easier in a very 
trying time.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the chairman for working with us 
on including National Guard and Reserve servicemembers who are killed 
while on duty.
  As we move the Reserve components from a Strategic Reserve to an 
Operational Reserve concept, we are seeing too many deaths of National 
Guardsmen and -women and reservists while they are in uniform. It is 
critically important that we modernize our statutes to ensure benefits 
parity while servicemembers are in uniform.
  Mr. Speaker, again, I would like to thank the gentlewoman from 
Illinois (Mrs. Bustos), for working on this issue and Mr. Wenstrup for 
joining her in introducing the bill. I would also like to thank our 
fellow committee members, Ms. Kuster, Ms. Brownley, and Miss Gonzalez-
Colon, for cosponsoring this bill and raising the profile of this 
issue.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman 
from Ohio (Mr. Wenstrup). He spoke a moment ago. He has previously 
served as chair of the Health Subcommittee of the House Veterans' 
Affairs Committee.
  Mr. WENSTRUP. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Gold Star Spouses 
Leasing Relief Act, legislation that I am proud to have introduced 
alongside my colleague Congresswoman Bustos, and I thank her for 
bringing this situation to my attention so that we could bring this 
forward.
  Part of our Nation's commitment to our men and women in uniform is a 
commitment to their families, especially if they endure the loss of 
life in the line of duty. As Gold Star families grieve, they should 
have the freedom to relocate to fit their family's needs. Sadly, that 
is all too often not the case.
  Cindy Southern, a native of Portsmouth, Ohio, lost her husband while 
he was serving in the Navy overseas during the first Desert Storm war. 
As she grieved, all she wanted to do was move home, but she had signed 
a 1-year lease on a home in North Carolina. Her landlords refused to 
waive her lease without massive termination fees.
  Cindy has suffered enough. Others have as well. This legislation 
would protect Gold Star families by ensuring they are not trapped in a 
jointly held residential lease after the death of a servicemember. They 
have grieved enough.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this important 
legislation.
  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from 
Illinois (Mrs. Bustos), my good friend and the author of this bill.
  Mrs. BUSTOS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, the Gold Star 
Spouses Leasing Relief Act. This bipartisan bill would support the 
widows and widowers of our fallen heroes by allowing them to terminate 
residential leases without penalty in the wake of a servicemember's 
death.
  This issue first came to my attention when I met a Gold Star spouse, 
Kylie Riney of Farmington, Illinois, which is in a central part of the 
congressional district that I serve.

  Kylie's life was forever changed on October 19, 2016, when her 
husband, Sergeant Douglas Riney, tragically died defending our freedom 
in Kabul, Afghanistan.
  Kylie and her two young children, James and Elea, were living in 
Texas at the time. This is their beautiful family before tragedy hit. 
They had moved there when Sergeant Riney was

[[Page H7141]]

assigned to Fort Hood before deploying in support of Operation 
Freedom's Sentinel.
  After her husband's death, Kylie chose to be back in Illinois with 
her family, surrounded by those whom she loves and love her so they 
could mourn together this inconceivable loss. But in the wake of this 
tragedy, their landlord refused to allow Kylie to terminate the lease 
that she and her husband had signed--I mean, it is just hard to even 
get those words out--refused to allow them to get out of their lease.
  The families of our fallen heroes have already sacrificed far too 
much, and we should do everything in our power to ensure grieving 
spouses receive the support that they need. For this reason, I was 
proud to introduce this commonsense, bipartisan bill, the Gold Star 
Spouses Leasing Relief Act.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague, Congressman Brad Wenstrup, 
who is also an Army Reserve officer and a physician, who helped 
introduce this with me. I would also like to thank Chairman Roe and 
Ranking Member Tim Walz for their work in bringing this to the floor.
  Currently, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act protects 
servicemembers from lease termination fees when they deploy or receive 
a permanent change of station. Our legislation narrowly extends that 
law's residential leasing protections to the surviving spouses of 
servicemembers who are killed while serving their country.
  Ranking Member Walz helped ensure the bill would protect all these 
families, including those who lose a member of the National Guard or 
Reserves. He has been a tireless advocate for the National Guard in 
Congress, and it is a pleasure to be able to work with him.
  I can hardly think of anything worse than taking advantage of a 
grieving widow or widower whose spouse made the ultimate sacrifice for 
our country. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support this bill to 
ensure this does not happen again.
  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I have no more speakers. I am prepared to 
close, and I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close.
  Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in passing 
H.R. 5882, as amended.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Illinois for introducing 
this important piece of legislation. I am dumbfounded that we have 
landlords who would not recognize the situation of a fallen soldier, 
but this law is necessary, and I urge all my colleagues to support it.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I, too, associate my comments with 
Mr. Takano.
  I grew up in a military town, Clarksville, Tennessee, where, during 
the Vietnam war, I saw all too many families broken apart, had to move. 
I find it almost unimaginable that a landlord would insist that 
somebody not separate, not do this when they have lost a spouse.
  That beautiful family that she showed, their lives are changed 
forever, and the last thing that young widow needed to worry about was 
that. She needed to take care of those children, to explain why their 
father was not coming home or, in another case, their mother might not 
be coming home.
  Mr. Speaker, I can't think of any bill that deserves the support more 
than this one does, and I encourage all Members to support H.R. 5882, 
as amended.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gaetz). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Roe) that the House 
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 5882, 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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