Political Quotes

“I thank my good friend and classmate, Chairman Takano, for his tremendous leadership as well as the leadership of the ranking member and all of the distinguished members of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2093, the Veterans and Family Information Act, a bipartisan bill that will serve those who have served our Nation with distinction. This commonsense legislation would improve non-English language accessibility for veterans, their families, and caregivers. The Veterans Benefits Administration provides critical information to all veterans about their benefits that have been hard earned, including service-connected disability benefits, home loans, vocational rehabilitation, employment information, and how to access assistance for trauma. For veterans of limited English proficiency, there is no guarantee that this critical information is made available in their primary language, thereby creating barriers for them and for their families. As Chairman Takano indicated, there are over 500,000 foreign-born veterans that live in the United States, and additionally 1.9 million veterans who are the U.S.-born children of foreign-born parents. Not only are our veterans increasingly diverse in terms of country of origin, but tens of thousands of veterans have self-identified to the VA that they speak English less than well.…”