From July 19, 2022 post
Three of Pappas’s bills to expand veterans' access to non-VA emergency health care, reduce veteran homelessness, and honor fallen heroes and their families advanced out of committee with bipartisan support
Today, during a House Veterans' Affairs Committee markup, three bills led by Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01), Chair of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, the Faster Payments to Veterans' Survivors Act, the Preventing Homelessness for Veteran Families Act, and the Removing Extraneous Loopholes Insuring Every Veteran Emergency (RELIEVE) Act advanced out of committee, setting them up to be considered on the House floor in the future.
"Our veterans already sacrifice so much in service to our country and should not face undue barriers to the services and benefits they have earned, including housing and health care," said Congressman Chris Pappas. "The RELIEVE Act cuts through red tape and makes vital improvements to VA by expanding non-VA emergency-related health care to veterans recently enrolled in the VA health care system. This will safeguard our veterans from being faced with costly medical bills or bureaucratic challenges for receiving critical care in the case of an emergency. The Preventing Homelessness for Veteran Families Act reauthorizes the Supportive Services for Veterans Families program - one of the most effective tools VA has to prevent at-risk veterans from experiencing homelessness - and funds a nationwide expansion of the Shallow Subsidy program to provide rental assistance to veterans and their families."
Pappas continued, "Our fallen heroes make the ultimate sacrifice and their family members contribute and sacrifice right alongside them. It is of the utmost importance that they receive their benefits and payments without delay. The Faster Payments to Veterans' Survivors Act will make much-needed reforms to allow the VA to better identify and locate surviving family members of recently deceased veterans and make sure they receive the payments they are owed in a timely manner, ensuring our veterans and their loved ones are never forgotten. I'm pleased that all three of my bills advanced out of the committee with bipartisan support, and I'll keep fighting so that all veterans and their family members receive the benefits and care that they have earned."
Background:
In July 2022, Pappas introduced the Faster Payments to Veterans' Survivors Act to improve the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) processes for identifying, locating, and paying hard-to-find survivors of recently deceased veterans.
In May 2022, Pappas introduced the Preventing Homelessness for Veteran Families Act to reauthorize the VA's Supportive Services for Veterans Families (SSVF) program for FY23 and FY24. The SSVF program makes grants to private non-profit organizations and consumer cooperatives to rapidly re-house veteran families and prevent homelessness for those at risk. The legislation also funds a nationwide expansion of the VA's Shallow Subsidy program, which provides rental subsidies for very low-income veterans to prevent them from falling into homelessness.
In February 2022, Pappas introduced the Removing Extraneous Loopholes Insuring Every Veteran Emergency (RELIEVE) Act to eliminate a glaring gap in veteran emergency care insurance coverage by expanding emergency coverage under Care in the Community for veterans.
Issues: Veterans
Original source can be found here.
