[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.