[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 121 (Thursday, July 18, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4939-S4940]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Texas Veterans
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I am proud of the fact that 1 out of every
10 persons who wears the uniform of the U.S. military calls Texas home.
It is no surprise that with more than a dozen military installations in
the State, many servicemembers choose to live in Texas when they return
to civilian life. We have the second highest veteran population of all
of the States, with an estimated 1.6 million veterans living in Texas.
As you might suppose, in having the honor of representing these 1.6
million veterans, I talk to them quite a bit and hear from them often.
I hear about the challenges they face when they transition back to
civilian life. Whether the challenges are the big ones or the little
ones, whether the challenges are of navigating complicated trails of
paperwork, getting the timely healthcare they need, or finding
employment when they return to civilian life, I am eager to help them
identify solutions.
Over the last few years, we have made some major progress. In the
last Congress, for example, we passed the historic VA MISSION Act,
which modernized the veterans' appeals process and the electronic
health records system. The bill reformed GI benefits, improved
accountability within the VA Administration, and provided the largest
funding increase in history for veterans' care and services.
We have also passed other bills to help veterans transition from
military service. For example, our Jobs for Our Heroes Act made it easy
for veterans to get commercial driver's licenses. Believe it or not, it
is hard for the private sector to find the truckdrivers it needs. After
somebody has driven a large vehicle in the military as part of his
daily duties, you can imagine that his transitioning to a commercial
driver's license would be a relatively simple thing. Given the
paperwork and the bureaucracy and the challenges of one's applying for
a commercial driver's license, we were able to pass legislation to
facilitate that transition.
We also passed the American Law Enforcement Heroes Act, which ensures
that veterans get hired by local law enforcement agencies. If you think
about that, it is a skill set that many learn in the military, whether
they served in the military police or otherwise. If you talk to one of
your local police departments, one of the things the department is
short on is the number of people who work for local law enforcement.
That is also true for Federal law enforcement agencies, particularly
for the Border Patrol. Many military servicemembers come out of the
military with the very skills that are needed most by the police
agencies that work to keep our communities safe.
To improve the educational opportunities that are available to these
men and women, in the last Congress, we passed a bipartisan bill called
the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act, also known as
the Forever GI Bill. President Trump signed it into law in August of
2017. With a stroke of a pen, he enhanced and expanded education
benefits for veterans, servicemembers, and their families.
The Forever GI Bill made much needed updates for veterans who face
school closures while they are enrolled. It expanded work study
activities. It also created a scholarship program for students who
pursue degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math, the so-
called STEM fields.
It established the Edith Nourse Rogers STEM Scholarship, which
provides student veterans with an additional 9 months of GI bill
eligibility to ensure they have the time and the financial assistance
they need in order to complete their studies in some of our most needed
fields. We later learned that there is an issue, though, that prevents
many students from taking full advantage of that program. The current
law mandates that students must be enrolled in a STEM program for more
than 128 credit hours, but the Department of Veterans Affairs found
that there are only three States in which the average STEM degree
exceeds that minimum. That places many students in an unfair position
of either picking from a limited list of schools or forgoing the
scholarship money, which can provide up to $30,000 in financial
assistance. That is a Hobson's choice for our veterans, and it is time
for Congress to fix that error.
To ensure that all veterans who want to take advantage of the Nourse
scholarship are able to, on a bipartisan basis with several of my
colleagues, I recently introduced legislation called the Veteran STEM
Scholarship Improvement Act, which would lower the 128 credit hour
requirement to the more common 120 credit hour requirement. Now,
changing a number from an eight to a zero may not seem like a big deal,
but for the veterans who have been frustrated by this impediment that
prevents them from using the benefits they were promised, it can be
life-changing. This would ensure that Texas's veterans who are
interested in pursuing STEM programs that are offered in their
communities are able to do so while they receive their GI benefits.
I just want to say a word about the GI bill because it is personal to
me and my family. My dad, who was a B-17 pilot in the Army Air Corps
and was stationed at Molesworth Air Force base in England, flew a total
of 26 bombing missions over the English Channel into the industrial
heartland of Germany to try to end that terrible, terrible war.
Unfortunately, he was shot down and was captured as a prisoner of war
on his 26th mission, and he served the last 4 months of World War II as
a prisoner of war. Thankfully, he survived that experience.
To my point here, when he came back to Corpus Christi, TX, he took
advantage of the GI bill so he could continue his education. He
received a 2-year associate of arts degree from, as it was called then,
the Del Mar Community College. He also met my mother at about that
time, and they married. Lo and behold, he ended up deciding, I think I
want to go to dental school. So, after he had been shot out of the sky
by German anti-aircraft guns, maybe a nice, placid dentist's life
sounded pretty good, and that is what he chose.
It was thanks to the GI bill that the whole generation of that so-
called ``greatest generation'' was able to come back from the war and
get the tools and the education they needed in order to contribute to
our country and help make our economy and our country as strong as we
inherited it and welcome it today.
Even for this next greatest generation of veterans who fought in Iraq
and Afghanistan and for those who still serve today, it is important
for us to keep this opportunity of the modern GI bill benefits when
they take off the uniform as Active-Duty servicemembers and transition
to civilian life.
I thank my colleagues--particularly Senators Rubio, Cruz, Manchin,
and Sinema--for supporting the STEM bill I described a little earlier.
The House passed the legislation this last month, and I hope the Senate
will do the same soon so we can get this bill to the President's desk
for his signature.
In addition to this legislation, I am eager to vote on the final
passage of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020.
Last month, the Senate passed our version of the bill with broad,
bipartisan support. As a matter of fact, only eight Senators voted
against it. It is hard to find many things that are that bipartisan in
the Senate or in Washington, DC, today.
In addition to investing in military modernization and in providing
the largest pay raise in a decade for our troops, this legislation also
included other provisions to support our veterans.
A bill I introduced with Senator Baldwin, of Wisconsin, called the
HAVEN Act, was included as a provision of the NDAA. This bill would
shield VA and Department of Defense disability benefits in bankruptcy
proceedings in the same way Social Security disability is exempted.
Veterans shouldn't be penalized for receiving
[[Page S4940]]
disability compensation that they are rightly due.
I hope this provision will be included in the final version, which
will follow the conference committee on the national defense
authorization bill. The House passed its version of the NDAA last week,
and I hope the conference committee will quickly iron out the
differences between the two bills so we can approve this legislation.
Like all of my colleagues, I am grateful for the dedicated service
and sacrifice of millions of men and women across our country who
defend our freedoms. I want to make sure, as we all do, that their
transitioning to civilian life after their military service is as
smooth as possible.
By improving access to healthcare, employment, and education, the
Senate is working hard to support America's veterans, and we are
demonstrating in a country that has an all-volunteer military that we
will keep our commitments to our military members while they wear the
uniform and keep our commitments to our veterans when they transition
to civilian life. This is an important part of our continuing to
recruit and retain the best and brightest to serve in the U.S.
military.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in
morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.