Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolution

Floor Speech

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Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, today, I am pleased to be joined by my colleague from West Virginia, Senator Joe Manchin, in introducing the Advancing Uniform Transportation Opportunities for Veterans Act. Our bill, known as the AUTO Act, would lessen the financial burden for severely disabled veterans who require special adaptive equipment to drive a motor vehicle by increasing the access to the Department of Veterans Affairs automobile grant program.

The VA is currently authorized to provide eligible veterans with a one-time grant of approximately $21,400 to be used to purchase a new or used automobile and necessary adaptive equipment, such as specialized pedals or switches. This grant is often used together with the VA special adaptive equipment grants, which help veterans purchase adaptive equipment, such as powered lifts, for an existing automobile or van to make it safe for a veteran's use.

Although veterans can receive multiple special adaptive equipment grants over the course of their lives, they are, for some reason, limited to a single grant for the vehicle. The current limitation fails to take into account that a disabled veteran will need more than one vehicle in his or her lifetime. In fact, the Department of Transportation reports that the average useful life of a vehicle is 11.5 years, and a vehicle that has been modified structurally tends to have a shorter useful life.

According to the VA Independent Budget prepared by the Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the average cost to replace modified vehicles ranges from $40,000 to $65,000 when the vehicle is new and $21,000 to $35,000 when the vehicle is used. These are significant costs for a severely disabled veteran to bear to replace his or her primary mode of transportation. That is why veterans should be eligible to receive an automobile grant once every 10 years. Our bipartisan bill would do exactly that.

One disabled veteran in Maine, Neal Williams, from Shirley, used a VA automobile grant in 1999 to purchase an adapted vehicle--a Ford Econoline van. He has had to purchase several adaptive vehicles since 1999, with each one lasting 250,000 miles, until they were no longer roadworthy. Two hundred and fifty thousand miles is a lot of miles, particularly over Maine's roads and highways. Neal's current vehicle now has over 100,000 miles, and he probably only has a short time before he will need a new one. He told me that purchasing a new van, which he uses for his wheelchair, and then he transfers to the driver's seat--he is such an extraordinary person in what he is able to do, but he has told me that new van will cost him well over $50,000, which is more than he paid for his home in rural Maine.

This is an enormous burden on veterans like Neal who need to purchase expensive adaptive vehicles in order to drive safely and, also, in order to maintain their independence.

Our Nation owes American veterans our deepest gratitude. We must continue to honor that commitment to our veterans by supporting their needs, including the needs of disabled veterans who need adaptive technology for their vehicles long after they are discharged or retired from Active Duty. The AUTO for Veterans Act is an important step in helping those who have served our Nation so honorably and have sacrificed so much for our freedom.

I urge all of our colleagues to join Senator Manchin and me in honoring and supporting our Nation's disabled veterans.

I send the bill to the desk.

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