Senator Brown: (5:35 PM)

• Spoke on the Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Education Relief and Restoration Act.
  • "One of those issues which I hope we can agree on is the need to provide relief to veterans who, through no fault of their own, were -- there's no other way to say it - bilked by the for-profit school ITT. Veterans and other students were betrayed and bilked. Taxpayers were fleeced. Veterans attending ITT at the time of its closure lose the GI bill or VA benefits used to pay for their education. Meanwhile, all other students who are enrolled at ITT are eligible to have their federal student loans discharged. So if you were not a veteran and you had federal student loans, you could get those loans discharged. If you were a veteran under the GI bill or VA benefits, you couldn't. It wasn't anybody's intent to do that, but that's what the law says."
• Unanimous consent –
  • The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 2253, the Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Education Relief and Restoration Act.
  • The Senate pass S. 2253.
  • (Senator Tillis objects)

 

Senator Tillis: (5:40 PM)

• Spoke on the Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Education Relief and Restoration Act.
  • "It may seem odd, a bill that I'm one of the lead Republican sponsors, to come to the floor and object to the UC. But let's talk about structurally what's going on here. We said well, the only reason there is a problem is there is no pay-for. In other words, we're trying to pass a policy that we haven't taken the time to make a decision about how to pay for it. We can say that we're authorizing the VA to pay for it, but what are they going to do? We haven't provided them with any funds to do it, so what potentially suffers as a result? That's one piece. We just did a number of speeches here with Republican freshmen and a couple of veteran members on the floor talking about being responsible in the budgeting process and actually living within our means and paying for things."

 

Senator Carper: (5:44 PM)

• Spoke on the Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Education Relief and Restoration Act.
  • "This legislation is really about making sure the veterans continue to receive the benefits they've earned in service to our country. Our nation's veterans did not cause ITT Tech to collapse. Our nation's veterans and our nation's taxpayers deserve better than they received at the hands of ITT Tech. The least that we can do is to provide at least some very modest relief during this tough period of transition, and I think passing this bill or something similar to this legislation is the least we can do. My hope is when we return from the recess after the elections, I hope we can start crossing across the aisle about doing more to protect our student veterans in the post-9/11 GI bill."
• Spoke in tribute to FEMA employees.
  • "To continue highlighting National Preparedness Month and to recognize the important lifesaving work done by FEMA and its people, I want to take a moment tonight to thank just a few of the employees at FEMA, one of the 22 component agencies all told that make up the Department of Homeland Security. As my colleagues may know, just last month historic flooding inundated much of the state of Louisiana. What some may not know is that even before the flood waters had peaked, FEMA employees and personnel were on the ground. They were setting up incident support bases to provide supplies, coordinating with state and local officials, and supporting first responders and rescue efforts."