[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 18034-18035]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        SUPPORTING OUR VETERANS

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, this week we honor the men and women who 
serve our Nation with honor and their families who also sacrifice--whom 
we do not remember enough--who sacrifice so much for the servicemembers 
they love and for all of us in our country.
  The sacrifice of our veterans demands that we fulfill the promises we 
have made. This body is always willing to spend more dollars in 
armaments and on weapons, but when it comes time to fulfill our 
obligations to veterans, too many in this body are not generous enough.
  I am the only Ohioan ever to serve a full term on the Senate 
Veterans' Affairs Committee. I take that duty very seriously. I know 
the Presiding Officer, Senator Tillis from North Carolina, does too. 
That means working to end the VA backlog. It means putting a better 
system in place. It means ensuring that our veterans have a roof over 
their heads and a place to call home. It means providing veterans with 
health care and the educational opportunities they deserve and which 
they have earned.
  Too many veterans face mental health challenges that can end in 
tragedy. More than 8,000 veterans each year take their own lives--154 a 
week, 22 a day. Hundreds of thousands of veterans struggle with 
invisible injuries. Nearly 300,000 have been diagnosed with post-
traumatic stress, and 300,000 have faced traumatic brain injuries--all 
because of the service they gave to us.
  Earlier this year we passed the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for 
American Veterans Act. It is a good start yet not enough. We need to 
make sure that when servicemembers return home, they have the 
educational and the employment opportunities they need, not only to 
survive but to thrive.
  The GI bill's educational benefits are critical, but veterans, 
unfortunately, have a limited amount of time before their GI benefits 
expire. In crowded colleges--whether in North Carolina, Oklahoma or 
Ohio--general education requirements and prerequisites often fill up 
quickly. Many colleges and universities in my State offer priority 
registration to veterans. All of our colleges and universities need to 
follow Ohio's lead. That is why I worked with Senator Tillis, the 
Presiding Officer, on legislation to ensure that all veterans and 
servicemembers and their qualifying dependents can use their GI 
benefits to their full potential and be guaranteed priority 
registration.
  The Senator from North Carolina and I also introduced the Fry 
Scholarship Enhancement Act, which would expand eligibility for the 
VA's Yellow Ribbon Program to help students avoid out-of-pocket tuition 
and fees for programs that cost more than the allowance set by the 
post-9/11 GI bill.
  Sadly, for too many veterans, they are far from the goal where they 
should be. They struggle just to find a place to call home.
  According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 
some 50,000 veterans were homeless during a survey conducted on a 
single night in January 2014. That is 50,000 too many. It is a disgrace 
that after serving our country with honor, thousands of veterans are 
left without a roof over their heads.
  Earlier this month I visited the Joseph House in Cincinnati, where 
Nathan Pelletier and his team of dedicated staff and volunteers provide 
addiction treatment and traditional housing.

[[Page 18035]]

  A group of us meeting there, mostly veterans who are homeless or were 
homeless, listened to Britton Carter, who was formerly homeless. He 
completed his treatment program in the Joseph House. He now works as a 
case manager there helping other struggling veterans.
  Veterans such as Mr. Carter have served our country with honor. We 
owe them support, and we owe them counseling when they return home. 
That is why I joined my colleagues in introducing the Veteran Housing 
Stability Act of 2015, which would make meaningful improvements to 
services for homeless veterans that would give veterans more access to 
permanent housing opportunities.
  We know in the Veterans' Affairs Committee a number of things. We 
know that the unemployment rate of veterans is generally higher than 
society's unemployment rate. We know that veterans' suicide rate is 
higher than society's suicide rate. We know that veterans' drug 
addiction is higher than society's drug addiction rate. We know that 
veterans have suffered from PTSD and traumatic brain injury in numbers 
much higher than the general population. That is why we owe them so 
much. We in this body so rarely think about the cost of war.
  We, as I said earlier, are willing to send more money to buy more 
weapons, to spend more money in armaments. We are not so generous when 
it comes time to take care of our veterans.

                          ____________________