Sheila Jackson Lee: “My first task is to thank the ranking member, Mr. Bishop, and the chairman of the subcommittee, Mr. Dent, both of whom I…”

“My first task is to thank the ranking member, Mr. Bishop, and the chairman of the subcommittee, Mr. Dent, both of whom I have worked with, and I consider them champions of veterans and champions of the legislation that we have before us in terms of the needs that are there. {time} 1800 However, there are many needs that should be addressed, Mr. Chairman. I hold in my hand a list of veterans who have fallen upon hard times, one in particular who has three grown daughters who are serving in the military. She, herself, served in the Navy for 5 years, had a divorce, and really needed to have housing assistance and medical care, but her options were insufficient. My amendment is a simple amendment to, again, remind us of the importance of these individuals who still suffer. The Jackson Lee amendment makes a modest but important improvement to the bill by increasing the amount of funding for Supportive Services for Veteran Families account by $2 million, offset by a reduction in the same amount to the $4 billion allocated to the VA's information technology systems. Today in our country, there are approximately 107,000 veterans, male and female, who are homeless on any given night, and perhaps twice as many--200,000--experience homelessness at some point during the course of the year. All you need do, Mr.…”