Chris Smith: “Mr. Speaker, after 22 years on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Pat Ryan, our chief counsel and staff director…”

“Mr. Speaker, after 22 years on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Pat Ryan, our chief counsel and staff director, is retiring from government service. I want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to his extraordinary career and his many, many accomplishments. For over 2 decades, Pat Ryan has made tremendous contributions to many of the most important new veterans laws that have been approved by Congress. He worked on numerous bills to expand services for aging veterans and those in need of long-term health care. He was instrumental in helping to establish domiciliaries for homeless veterans and was the principal drafter of legislation to authorize VA's transitional housing guarantee program to benefit homeless veterans. Pat played an essential role in helping to establish the Department of Veterans Affairs and in creating the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Pat has been deeply involved in numerous successful committee initiatives that expanded and strengthened programs to assist surviving spouses and children of servicemembers killed in action or who later died of service-related causes. Over the past 20 years, Pat has helped to increase the Montgomery GI Bill benefit for qualified veterans from $300 per month when he joined the committee to over $1,000 per month today.”