Political Quotes

“I thank the gentlelady for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to encourage my colleagues to support H.R. 6361, the Vulnerable Veterans Housing Reform Act of 2012. As stated, this bill would remove an unnecessary barrier that prevents our disabled wartime veterans from receiving the housing assistance they so critically need. It does this by preventing the Department of Housing and Urban Development from considering our veterans' aid and attendance benefits as income when calculating their eligibility for housing assistance. The aid and attendance benefit is an enhanced pension program provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs to our Nation's wartime veterans who are severely disabled and have little or no income. According to the VA, veterans eligible for the aid and attendance benefit are defined as those requiring the aid of another person in order to perform his or her activities of daily living, such as bathing, feeding, dressing, using the restroom, adjusting prosthetic devices, or protecting themselves from the hazards of their daily environment. In order to receive this benefit, our severely disabled veterans must first establish their eligibility for a low-income pension. Once eligibility is determined, those low-income disabled vets can receive an additional aid and attendance benefit annually to help defray the cost of their medical care. Now, this is an important point. The aid and attendance benefit is for medical care; it is not discretionary income.…”