September 28, 2010

Buyer Blasts Democrats for Putting Politics over Policy; Ranking Member Praises/Opposes House Approved Veterans’ Legislation

For more information, contact: Brian Lawrence (202) 225-3527

Washington, D.C. — Today, the House of Representatives approved H.R. 3787, as amended, H.R. 5360, as amended, H.R. 5630, and H.R. 6132 by voice vote. A recorded vote was requested on H.R. 3685 and H.R. 5993, as amended, which will be conducted tomorrow. 

 

House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Ranking Member Steve Buyer expressed strong support for most of the measures considered, but he excoriated what he perceived as the majority party’s efforts to score political points at the expense of what is best for veterans and their families.

 

At the center of Congressman Buyer’s focus was a bill on retained asset accounts for veterans’ life insurance proceeds, and the elimination of provisions to protect veterans’ 2nd Amendment Rights, and to give disabled veteran business owners the same level of priority for federal contracting as women and minority business owners. 

 

Buyer argued that H.R. 5993 condones a controversial practice the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employs to pay life insurance proceeds to families of deceased servicemembers.

 

The issue gained national attention recently when a news story revealed that death benefit payments for Servicemembers Group Life Insurance policies are placed by insurance companies into interest-earning accounts, called retained asset accounts, instead of being provided immediately to beneficiaries in the form of a lump-sum payment.

 

“The use of these accounts in place of the SGLI lump sum payment called for in the federal statute is currently the subject of a federal fraud lawsuit in Boston by five plaintiffs against Prudential Life Insurance Company,” Buyer said “Prudential is VA’s contractor for managing the SGLI program and making the payments. New York’s Attorney General has launched an investigation of Prudential as well.”

 

“The Veterans’ Affairs Committee has not held hearings on the issue or the bill, and there is no record on which to base informed policy decisions or evaluate the views of life insurance experts. 

I think it is reasonable to ask how Congress can tell the VA to counsel anyone about Prudential’s practice that may be illegal without informing them that what Prudential is doing may be illegal and is being challenged in a federal court class action.”

 

“This issue requires careful deliberation by the Committee and we should not have to base decisions on media reports. We should not be effectively ratifying this practice by requiring VA to counsel beneficiaries about it.  Instead, we should give it careful scrutiny and make sure we understand it sufficiently to decide whether to expressly authorize it in law for the future.”

 

While Buyer voiced overall support for H.R. 5360, as amended,  to improve economic opportunities for veterans, he expressed regret that veteran-friendly small business provisions passed unanimously by the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs were stricken from the bill.

 

“I am deeply disappointed that the Democrats on the Small Business Committee led by Chairwoman Nadia Velazquez once again chose to favor other small business set aside groups over service disabled veteran-owned small businesses. Specifically, they stripped my provision which would have merely leveled the playing field for service disabled veteran-owned small businesses when competing with other set aside groups for VA contracts.”

 

“Despite my disappointment, I am delighted to see that the bill includes a measure I introduced to reestablish the VA small business loan program that expired in 1986.  Under this program, VA would be authorized to guarantee small business loans up to $200,000 for qualified veterans.”

 

“I am also pleased that H.R. 5360, as amended,  includes another  provision I introduced to establish a Homeless Veteran Reintegration Program for Women or HVRP-W.  This program will focus on homeless programs specially designed to serve homeless women veterans and veterans with children.  A veteran, especially one with children at their side should never be homeless. Unfortunately, about 10 percent of homeless veterans are women, and a significant portion of these women veterans have children with them.”

 

“H.R. 5360, as amended,  also contains a number of other beneficial provisions introduced by Economic Opportunity Subcommittee Ranking Member John Boozman to encourage research and development of assistive technologies to adapt the homes of severely injured veterans, provide one-year internship jobs at VA for up to 2,000 graduates of the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment program and to make a small increase in the grants made under VA’s Specially Adapted Home program.  These provisions would increase the existing small grant to $13,756 and the large grant to $65,780.”

 

H.R. 6132, as amended,  the Veterans Benefits and Economic Welfare Improvement Act of 2010, is a bipartisan omnibus veteran benefits bill that includes many provisions to help veterans and their families including a provision by Subcommittee on Health Ranking Member Henry Brown to increase the pension for Medal of Honor recipients to $2,000 a month.

 

“While all of the provisions in this bill are laudable it is unfortunate that certain provisions have been left out,” Buyer said. “Ranking Member Boozman’s provision to protect veteran’s 2nd Amendment rights to bear arms was stripped out on a technicality.”

 

H.R. 3685, introduced by Deputy Ranking Member Cliff Stearns, would require VA to include on its main internet website page a hyperlink to the VetSuccess Internet website. 

 

“Unemployment is at a record high today and unemployment in our veteran community is higher than at any time that I can remember,” Stearns said. “My bill would require VA to have a drop-down menu titled “Veterans Employment” on its homepage to provide links to VetSuccess, USA Jobs, Job Central and other appropriate employment websites.  It would also require the Secretary of VA to advertise and promote the VetSuccess website and require direct outreach to OIF and OEF veterans.

 

H.R. 5630, introduced by Congressman Boozman, would provide for qualifications for VA vocational rehabilitation counselors and employment coordinators.

 

H.R. 3787, as amended, would recognize the service in the reserve components of certain persons by honoring them with the status as veterans under the law. 

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