Gus Bilirakis

I thank the ranking member and the chairman. I appreciate them working with us on this very good bill. Also, Chairman Levin, who is not here at the time, does an outstanding job, and I look forward to working with him on many more bills…

I offer congratulations again to Chairman Engel and Ranking Member McCaul for this very important Turkey sanctions bill. Mr. Speaker, for nearly 13 years, I have felt like I have been one of the lone voices in the wilderness decrying the…

It has been more than 100 years since the atrocities committed against innocent Armenians and other ethnic and religious minorities at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire genocidal campaign from 1915 to 1923 killed 1.5…

I was happy to be the Republican lead on that.

I previously worked on a bipartisan basis to reauthorize the program with Mr. Welch, and our bill this year will fix and extend the funding source for Brand USA through 2027.

The bottom line is, you need certainty.

Brand USA is responsible for increasing international visits to the U.S. by 6.6 million since 2013 and generating $47.7 billion in economic impact, all at no cost to the taxpayer.

I will encourage all Members to please cosponsor this bill.

Under your leadership--your capable leadership--you know, we've already proven it this year, early this year, we can come up with a good bill and we can all agree on it and, of course, it must pass the Senate.

We love you all, all the veterans. But again, the Vietnam veterans stand out because they are selfless in their service.

From your point of view at the local level, what is the one message that I need to take back to Washington with me that would make your job easier or would reduce homelessness among veterans?

Today we are here to examine and highlight programs and benefits that help combat veteran homelessness.

It is great to work with a thoughtful legislator, again, like Chairman Levin, on our continued goal to provide economic opportunities for veterans.

Public awareness is so very important.

I am incredibly grateful to Congressman Bilirakis for his leadership in our area.

We can do better. So we want to know what works and what doesn't work, and we need to know how well these programs are doing.

We are designed to exist and to provide, try to provide affordable housing communities for our most at-risk populations.

If we can't build housing, then we have problems, Congressman, and it is access to capital, especially when there is a project like this that will easily cash flow.

To me, that should be a pretty simple thing to do because HUD has backed loans historically to build housing communities across the country.

While we have had success in combating veteran homelessness in our community, I know we all share the common goal to ensure those who have worn the cloth of our country are never homeless.

But I would say this to the gentleman who oversees Haley: it is access to capital, quite frankly, to build affordable veteran housing units for families and for single people, folks that are homeless.

I am grateful to our witnesses for giving us an opportunity to hear directly from those on the ground in this fight against veteran homelessness about what they believe works, doesn't work, and how we in Congress can help combat this…

There has been a significant amount of progress made nationwide in reducing homelessness among veterans, but we still have much more work to do.

Thank you very much. Thank you for your service, again, to our country. It is an honor to represent you in the United States Congress.

Who says Republicans and Democrats don't get along? We work together in a bipartisan fashion for true American heroes.