House passes bills to boost veterans’ assistance

The House approved a package of legislation on Monday to enhance federal assistance programs for veterans.

One of the bills, passed 404-0, would authorize the Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) to give preference to entities that employ veterans on a full-time basis when awarding federal procurement contracts.

The measure’s sponsor, Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.), said it would provide an incentive for companies to employ veterans returning from wars in Iraq or Afghanistan who are struggling to find work.

{mosads}”We need businesses in the private sector to recognize the benefit of having veterans in their workforce. We need businesses to recognize that it is in their self-interest to actively seek out and employ veterans – not as an act of charity, but because are excellent workers who know how to get the job done,” Rice said.

Another bill passed by voice vote would exclude payments provided by the VA for health expenses, like assisted living or nursing home care, from calculations of veterans’ gross income when contemplating eligibility for federal public housing programs. 

Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nev.), who authored the legislation, said it would help more veterans obtain housing assistance. The Department of Housing and Urban Development found that there were 49,933 homeless veterans in 2014.

“Continuing to count the aid and attendance benefit as income does nothing more than reduce the housing assistance available to our low-income disabled vets and jeopardizes their ability to live independently,” Heck said.

Heck’s bill would further limit the total number of bonuses for VA employees to $350 million, down from $360 million, for each fiscal year through 2020.

The House also passed a bill by voice vote that would reauthorize the Homeless Veterans’ Reintegration Program through fiscal 2020. The program, currently authorized at $50 million per year, provides grants to organizations like nonprofits and local agencies to assist veterans with job training and finding employment.