John Rutherford: “I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank my good friend from Pennsylvania for this opportunity. Madam Speaker, I…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank my good friend from Pennsylvania for this opportunity. Madam Speaker, I rise today to talk about one of the fundamental roles for a Member of Congress, and that is to help our constituents navigate the Federal bureaucracy and get the documents or benefits that they need and they deserve. This is especially true for veterans, who often run into difficulty at the VA, even when it is not the VA's fault. Unfortunately, the National Personnel Records Center is still today not fully open, and this is after we gave them money in last year's appropriations bill to safely reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic. This has prevented caseworkers in my office from properly assisting my constituents in a timely manner. In fact, there is a backlog that was just mentioned of over 500,000 requests from veterans and their families--over 500,000. To fix this problem, I am proud to support the RECORDS Act, and I urge the Speaker to bring to this bill to the floor. This bill will ensure that the National Personnel Records Center is operating full time and at fully-staffed capacity now. American veterans deserve better than what they are currently getting from this administration. Let's pass the RECORDS Act.”