[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12920-12922]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS EXPIRING AUTHORITIES ACT OF 2016

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
proceed to the consideration of H.R. 5985, which the clerk will report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 5985) to amend title 38, United States Code, 
     to extend certain expiring provisions of law administered by 
     the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. There will now be 30 minutes of debate equally 
divided in the usual form.
  The Senator from Connecticut is recognized.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I see my friend and colleague, the 
chairman of the VA Committee, here. I will happily yield to him to 
speak first, or

[[Page 12921]]

I can proceed and then yield to him afterwards.
  Mr. ISAKSON. I appreciate that. I yield to the Senator from 
Connecticut to begin.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I am pleased and honored to be here 
today to speak in support of H.R. 5985, the Department of Veterans 
Affairs Expiring Authorities Act. We will vote on it shortly. I thank 
my colleagues for what I expect to be an overwhelmingly positive vote 
to affirm our commitment to the veterans of America and that neither 
dysfunction nor distraction of what is happening during this season of 
elections will prevent us from keeping the lights on in the Veterans 
Affairs Department.
  As its name implies, this measure would maintain 27 vital ongoing 
programs and services that the VA provides through the next year. I 
commend Chairman Miller and Ranking Member Takano in the House for 
drafting this bipartisan measure that is so important and necessary. We 
have worked collaboratively with them. Chairman Isakson and I have met 
with them numerous times, and it has truly been a cooperative and 
collaborative effort.
  This legislation authorizes an increase in the existing VA caregivers 
program of $10 million, going from $724 million to $734 million, as 
well as a grants program that assists homeless veterans and provides 
them with support services.
  The bill we will vote on this evening will also give the Secretary of 
the VA the exact same power as the Secretary of Education has with 
respect to title IV in the event of a university's sudden loss of 
accreditation. It is critically important. As we have seen with ITT and 
Corinthian, for-profit colleges have abruptly closed, leaving veterans 
stranded. This bill will empower the VA Secretary to provisionally 
approve programs for use with the GI bill so that veterans may 
transition to another course of study. Without this provision becoming 
law now, veterans who attended those schools like ITT may find 
themselves in a similar untenable, unacceptable, unfair situation. They 
lose education benefits and, equally troubling, benefits for their 
housing and food allowance, which they so critically need.
  I am pleased we can vote on this measure tonight and send it to the 
President's desk for his signature. But the simple, stark fact is that 
this bill is simply a small down payment--a small step in the direction 
that we must move and that the Senate must accomplish in the days that 
remain in this session to honor all who have served. It is just one of 
a series of congressional actions that are needed before we recess to 
ensure that for-profit schools that put their profits before veterans' 
rights to an education do not hurt our veterans as their business model 
collapses.
  The Senate should also pass the Veterans Education Relief and 
Reinstatement Act that Senator Tillis of North Carolina and I have 
introduced. This bill is bipartisan, as is this bill, and would grant 
an emergency housing stipend to those students who are adversely 
affected by destabilizing permanent school closures. Corinthian College 
and, more recently, ITT give a voice and face to this staggeringly real 
problem for so many veterans who are the victims of the exploitation by 
these for-profit schools.
  Our mission of ensuring that no veteran is left behind will not be 
completed by the vote we take this evening. It is just a down payment. 
I urge my colleagues to join with me in supporting H.R. 5985 and 
beginning and concluding the hard work of passing other bills that have 
been reported out of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, with the 
strong bipartisan work, collaboration, and partnership among the 
chairman, Senator Isakson, and myself.
  I thank Senator Isakson for being here this evening, and I will be 
honored to yield to him now.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Georgia.
  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I am honored to join the ranking member, 
Senator Blumenthal from Connecticut, on this important day.
  This morning when I woke up, I began preparing for a speech I made at 
Oglethorpe University at 11 o'clock this morning on Constitution Day, 
and it reminded me of what an important September day today is.
  Senator Robert Byrd, the distinguished Democrat, majority leader, and 
President pro tempore of the Senate for many years and who served here 
for many decades, amended an appropriations act on September 19, 2004, 
to designate today as Constitution Day. So it is a great honor for me 
to speak on the floor to honor our veterans on the day we honor our 
Constitution because, without our veterans, there would be no 
Constitution. Without those who fight to defend our freedom and our 
liberty around the world, there would be no Constitution. So it is a 
great day to do this.
  I wish to express my agreement with exactly what Senator Blumenthal 
said. This is a mere down payment. It is an acknowledgment. There is 
lots of work to be done. Critically, though, this extender bill 
addresses any number of programs in the VA that will expire at the end 
of the fiscal year unless they are extended. Most importantly are 
homeless programs, which are critically important, and adaptive sports 
programs, which are critically important as well.
  So by adopting this bill, our homeless programs will stay in place 
and our adaptive sports programs will stay in place. As Senator 
Blumenthal said, should the Secretary of Education shut down an 
institution midterm, this provides help to that student who is a 
veteran to see to it that they don't lose their benefit and they can 
continue their education.
  Again, this is a small down payment. We have other things yet to be 
done. Hopefully, they will be done after we come back for the lameduck 
session after the election. But tonight, all Members of the Senate from 
both parties--Republicans and Democrats--can help us make a down 
payment on Constitution Day to those who make our freedom and liberty 
possible--our veterans of the United States of America.
  I urge an ``aye'' vote from each Member of the Senate.
  I yield back the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I yield back all time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time is yielded back.
  The bill was ordered to a third reading and was read the third time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill having been read the third time, the 
question is, Shall the bill pass?
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant bill clerk called the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the 
Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Johnson), the Senator from Illinois (Mr. 
Kirk), the Senator from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski), the Senator from South 
Carolina (Mr. Scott), the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Sessions), and the 
Senator from Alaska (Mr. Sullivan).
  Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. 
Johnson) would have voted ``yea'' and the Senator from South Carolina 
(Mr. Scott) would have voted ``yea.''
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Coons), 
the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Kaine), the Senator from Maryland (Ms. 
Mikulski), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from 
Virginia (Mr. Warner) are necessarily absent.
  I further announce that, if present and voting, the Senator from 
Virginia (Mr. Kaine) would vote yea.

[[Page 12922]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lankford). Are there any other Senators in 
the Chamber desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 89, nays 0, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 143 Leg.]

                                YEAS--89

     Alexander
     Ayotte
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Blunt
     Booker
     Boozman
     Boxer
     Brown
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Capito
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Cassidy
     Coats
     Cochran
     Collins
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Donnelly
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Flake
     Franken
     Gardner
     Gillibrand
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hatch
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Heller
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     King
     Klobuchar
     Lankford
     Leahy
     Lee
     Manchin
     Markey
     McCain
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Moran
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Paul
     Perdue
     Peters
     Portman
     Reed
     Reid
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Udall
     Vitter
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--11

     Coons
     Johnson
     Kaine
     Kirk
     Mikulski
     Murkowski
     Sanders
     Scott
     Sessions
     Sullivan
     Warner
  The bill (H.R. 5985) was passed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.

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