Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 570, as amended, the American Heroes COLA Act. I wish to thank Mr. Runyan, the sponsor of H.R. 570, and the chairman of the Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee, as well as Ms. Titus, our subcommittee ranking member, for their hard work on this measure. I'd also like to thank Chairman Miller for working closely with me, and with the veterans groups, to make the key improvements in this particular bill. H.R. 570 would permanently index the annual veterans cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, to the increase provided to Social Security beneficiaries, but only if the Social Security COLA continues to be determined using the current methodologies. This guards against automatically passing on any decrease to veterans that result from any future actions to implement a chained CPI regime. Second, H.R. 570 extends a COLA round-down provision set to expire this year for 5 years, instead of making it permanent. This round-down provision was implemented many years ago as a means of budget savings, and many veterans groups voiced opposition to making such a decrease permanent. Third, the savings generated from the round-down extension will be reinvested in veterans programs, namely, increasing the monthly amount provided to some of our veterans most in need of assistance and care. H.R.…”