[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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