On the recordFebruary 25, 2020
It is a tragedy any time a United States servicemember is killed or gravely injured in the line of duty. Those events, however, don't happen in a vacuum. They have lasting impacts on that hero's family and their loved ones. That is why I rise in support of this bill, H.R. 2227, which I introduced with Representative Bustos. Our legislation would give spouses and dependents of servicemembers who are killed or catastrophically injured in the line of duty the flexibility to move closer to family and friends for support, because no one enduring that type of life-altering event should go through it alone. In 2018, Representative Bustos and I worked together to pass the Gold Star Spouses Leasing Relief Act and get it signed into law. It gave Gold Star spouses the ability to terminate their property leases without penalty if their servicemember was killed in the line of duty. We expanded those protections to include auto leases, as well, in last year's National Defense Authorization Act. Now, this bill builds upon the good work of those two efforts by extending those protections to dependents of servicemembers in addition to spouses. I thank Representative Bustos and the members of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs for their work in bringing this important bill to the floor. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 2227.
