[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 20]
[Senate]
[Pages 27794-27795]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 27794]]

                   LEGISLATION IN BEHALF OF VETERANS

  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I have sought recognition to comment 
briefly on legislation acted upon during the first session of the 107th 
Congress which will make a dramatic difference in the lives of hundreds 
of thousands of service members and veterans, and in the lives of every 
American. Four bills relating to veterans benefits now await the 
President's signature. These bills, coupled with another major piece of 
legislation adopted by the Congress immediately prior to Memorial Day 
of this year, will substantially enhance veterans' benefits in the 
areas of health care, education, homeless assistance, disability 
compensation, and other areas. They are a testament to the good which 
can come when House and Senate, Republicans and Democrats, come 
together to achieve a common end.
  The first bill now awaiting the President's signature, the 
``Veterans' Compensation Rate Amendments of 2001'', H.R. 2540, provides 
a 2.6 percent increase in the rates of veterans' disability 
compensation and survivors' compensation. The increase, effective 
December 1, 2001, reflects inflation which occurred during the 
preceding 12 months, and is the same percentage increase Social 
Security recipients most recently received. H.R. 2540 will ensure that 
the purchasing power of compensation and survivor benefits is not 
compromised by inflation.
  A second bill, the ``Veterans Education and Benefits Expansion Act of 
2001'', H.R. 1291, is a comprehensive bill which enhances education, 
disability compensation, housing, burial, and other benefits that 
veterans have earned through service to the Nation. The education 
provisions of H.R. 1291 build on legislation, S. 1114, which I 
introduced earlier this year, by increasing the Montgomery GI Bill, 
``MGIB'', monthly educational assistance benefit from $672 to $985, a 
47 percent increase, over the next 3-year period. With the opportunity 
to ``buy-up'' an additional $150 per month in benefits as a result of 
legislation I authored during the 106th Congress, veterans the 
potential will now exist for a monthly benefit in excess of $1,100 per 
month for veterans attending school in the Fall of 2003. Such a benefit 
level will pay the average cost of tuition, fees, books, room and 
board, and travel expenses at a 4-year public college or university. 
These improvements are not just good for veterans; they are good for 
the Nation. The national security dictates that the services attract 
well-qualified, highly motivated men and women to serve. As was most 
recently recognized by the United States Commission on National 
Security/21st Century, enhancements in Montgomery GI Bill benefits are 
necessary to attract such recruits.
  The ``Veterans Education and Benefits Expansion Act of 2001'' will 
further enhance educational assistance benefits by providing needed 
flexibility to students by allowing veterans to claim benefits on an 
accelerated basis so that they can pay the significant ``up front'' 
expenses of high-cost technology courses. It will also expand distance 
learning and independent study benefits. Further, this legislation 
incorporates provisions from a bill authored by Senator Thompson to 
allow certain Vietnam-era veterans the ability to use benefits, and it 
expands work-study opportunities available to veterans while they're 
attending college. And it will provide increased educational assistance 
benefits to the spouses and children of service members killed in the 
line of duty or who are permanently disabled as a result of service. 
Finally, this legislation preserves the suspended education entitlement 
of service members or reservists who had to leave school as a result of 
being called to active duty, such as a call to active duty 
participation in Operation Enduring Freedom.
  In addition to these improvements in educational assistance benefits, 
the ``Veterans Education and Benefits Expansion Act of 2001'' keeps 
faith with veterans who served in past conflicts by expanding the 
eligibility of Vietnam and Gulf War veterans for presumptive 
compensation based on exposures and experiences which occurred during 
those conflicts. A Persian Gulf War veteran will now be eligible for 
compensation if he or she has a medically unexplained, chronic, multi-
symptom illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome or irritable bowel 
syndrome, in addition to undiagnosed illnesses already covered in law. 
Further, this legislation gives VA explicit authority to compensate 
Gulf War veterans for any diagnosed condition. Given the Secretary's 
December 10, 2001, announcement of the increased prevalence of Lou 
Gehrig's disease among Gulf War veterans, this provision is 
particularly timely.
  For veterans who served in the Vietnam war, the ``Veterans Education 
and Benefits Expansion Act of 2001'' will repeal the 30-year limit on 
the time period during which a Vietnam veteran must have contracted a 
respiratory cancer if he or she is to be presumed eligible for 
compensation based on exposure to Agent Orange. According to a recent 
National Academy of Science/Institute of Medicine report, there is no 
scientific evidence which suggests an upper limit can be placed on 
respiratory cancer latency. Given this, I believe the formerly-existing 
30-year limit was arbitrary; this bill removed it. I owe thanks to Mr. 
Joseph R. Mancuso, a Vietnam veteran from Pennsylvania who was stricken 
by, and who, very sadly, has succumbed to, lung cancer for bringing 
this legal anomaly to my attention. This provision is a memorial to 
him. I just wish the Congress might have acted while Mr. Mancuso was 
still alive.
  I should mention a few of this legislation's other important 
provisions. It increases VA's home loan guaranty to enable veterans 
living in high-cost regions of the country to afford a home with little 
or no down payment. It increases burial benefits available to the 
families of veterans who die due to a service-connected cause, and it 
increases grants provided to severely disabled veterans so they may 
purchase an automobile or make modifications to their homes to 
accommodate disabilities. The legislation also expands outreach and 
information services for departing service members, veterans, and 
family members, and it streamlines the eligibility determination 
process for low-income, disabled veterans seeking non service-connected 
pension benefits.
  A third major piece of veterans' legislation which now awaits the 
President's signature, the ``Homeless Veterans Comprehensive Assistance 
Act of 2001'', H.R. 2716, is an additional step toward achieving the 
goal of ending chronic homelessness among America's veterans. This 
legislation would authorize VA to provide grants and per diem payments 
of up to $60 million in 2002, rising to $75 million in 2003, to 
entities which provide outreach, rehabilitative, vocational counseling 
and training, and transitional housing services to homeless veterans. 
It would expand mental health services, and direct each VA primary care 
facility to develop and carry out a plan to provide mental health 
services to veterans who need them. This legislation would also 
authorize the provision of dental care to homeless veterans by VA in 
recognition of the fact that such care is a necessary prerequisite if a 
homeless veteran is to gain, or regain, meaningful employment. Finally, 
this bill would ensure proper oversight of these programs through the 
creation of a VA Advisory Committee on Homeless Veterans.
  A fourth and final bill which is now pending executive action, the 
``Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Programs Enhancement Act 
of 2001'', H.R. 3447, would address a number of critical issues 
affecting veterans' health care. First, this legislation addresses the 
looming, and in some places already-present, VA nursing shortage by 
permanently authorizing the Employee Incentive Scholarship Program, a 
program which allows VA to provide up to $10,000 per year, for up to 
three years, to employees engaged in full-time academic studies. 
Additionally, this legislation reduces the minimum period of employment 
required for eligibility in the program from two years

[[Page 27795]]

to one year, and extends authority to increase the award amounts based 
on federal national comparability increases in pay. Further, in an 
effort to encourage nurses who have already completed school to come 
work for VA, the bill would permanently authorize the Employee Debt 
Reduction Program, EDRP, extend to five the number of years that a VA 
employee might participate in the EDRP, and increase the gross award 
limit to any participant to $44,000. The EDRP program allows VA to 
assist employees with the repayment of education debt, and it allows VA 
to compete with private sector health care systems that offer similar 
programs. Finally, this legislation creates the National VA Commission 
on Nursing, which will consist of experts in the nursing profession as 
well as economists and education professionals. The Commission will 
report findings and recommendations relating to nurse recruitment and 
retention and other nurse employment issues within two years.
  The ``Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Programs Enhancement 
Act of 2001'' also contains elements of a bill, S. 1188, which I 
introduced earlier this year to provide priority access to VA care to 
poor veterans residing in relatively high cost areas like Philadelphia 
or Pittsburgh. Currently, VA provides priority access to care, and it 
waives co-payments, only for veterans whose incomes are below a 
nationally-determined annual amount. This ``one-size-fits-all'' formula 
does not take into account local variations in the cost of living. As a 
consequence, veterans in high-cost areas, typically urban areas, who 
are poor by most standards, do not qualify for priority access for VA 
care. And they must pay the full amount of co-payments charged to 
other, much better off, veterans. This legislation would relieve much 
of the burden of co-payments on, and raise the relative priority for VA 
health care of, these near-poor veterans.
  The ``Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Programs Enhancement 
Act of 2001'' also addresses other important health issues. It provides 
service-dogs, trained to accomplish tasks such as opening doors and 
retrieving clothing, to disabled veterans. It directs VA to focus its 
attention on the maintenance of special programs in each geographic 
region of the country, and it creates a program for chiropractic care 
in the VA. Finally, this legislation authorizes the construction of a 
power plant in Miami, FL, that was destroyed over one year ago by a 
fire that left two employees critically injured.
  Finally, I note the enactment of the ``Veterans' Survivor Benefits 
Improvements Act of 2001,'' Public Law 107-14, which was signed by the 
President on June 5, 2001. This legislation retroactively increased 
insurance benefits provided to, and guaranteed additional health care 
coverage for, the survivors of service members killed in the line of 
duty. This legislation also expanded health care coverage to the 
spouses of veterans who have permanent and total disabilities due to 
military service and to the spouses of veterans who have died as a 
result of wounds incurred in service. Further, this Act extended life 
insurance benefits to service members' spouses and children, and 
authorized, and directed, VA to conduct outreach efforts to contact 
these survivors, and other eligible dependents, to apprize them of the 
benefits to which they are entitled. Finally, the ``Veterans' Survivor 
Benefits Improvements Act of 2001,'' made technical improvements to 
Montgomery GI Bill education benefits, and make other purely technical 
amendments to title 38, United States Code.
  This first session of the 107th Congress has produced five 
outstanding bills benefitting veterans. The enhancements contained 
within them send an unmistakable message to Americans that this Nation 
values military service and honors those who risk their lives so that 
we may be free. I complement all those who worked so hard to make these 
legislative accomplishments a reality.

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