[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 17019-17020]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       THE INTRODUCTION OF THE VETERANS LEGAL SUPPORT ACT OF 2013

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 13, 2013

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, at a time when 900,000 veterans and 5,000 
active duty service members face Supplemental Nutritional Assistance 
Program cuts, I introduce a bill to allow the U.S. Department of 
Veterans Affairs

[[Page 17020]]

(VA) to provide financial support to law school clinical programs that 
provide pro bono legal and support services to veterans, including, 
among other things, assistance with disability claims and appeals and 
foreclosures. The enormous backlog of disability claims at the VA and 
homelessness among veterans remain critical problems for our veterans. 
Approximately 107,000 veterans are homeless on any given night in this 
country and over 600,000 veterans are waiting for their disability 
claims to be processed by the VA. Providing clinical programs with the 
resources to assist veterans can result in faster processing of claims 
and quicker housing assistance to our veterans, who have repeatedly put 
their lives on the line for this country.
  This bill, introduced by my colleagues Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Amy 
Klobuchar and Chris Murphy in the Senate, would allow the VA to work 
with and support clinical programs for veterans. This bill merely 
builds on what some law schools have begun to do for the last several 
years while providing vital legal services to our veterans and reducing 
the backlog that has plagued the VA for many years. However, more needs 
to be done to sustain these programs and to recruit and retain 
qualified attorneys to supervise law students.
  Mr. Speaker, just as we honored our veterans on Veterans Day, I urge 
my colleagues to support this bill, which would further honor and 
assist our veterans in their daily lives.

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