Disabled Veterans Housing Support Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 224) to amend section 102(a)(20) of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 to require the exclusion of service- connected disability compensation when determining whether a person is a person of low and moderate income, a person of low income, or a person of moderate income, and for other purposes.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

The text of the bill is as follows: H.R. 224

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``Disabled Veterans Housing Support Act''. SEC. 2. SERVICE CONNECTED DISABILITY COMPENSATION.

Section 102(a)(20) of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5302(a)(20)) is amended by adding at the end the following:

``(C) Service-connected disability compensation.--When determining whether a person is a person of low and moderate income, a person of low income, or a person of moderate income under this paragraph, a State, unit of general local government, or Indian tribe shall exclude any service- connected disability compensation received by such person from the Department of Veterans Affairs.''. SEC. 3. REPORT.

The Comptroller General of the United States shall, not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, submit to the Congress a report that--

(1) examines how service-connected disability compensation is treated for the purposes of determining eligibility for all programs administered by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development;

(2) identifies any instances where service-connected disability compensation is treated in a manner inconsistent with the amendment made by section 2; and

(3) with respect to each program administered by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in which service- connected disability compensation is treated inconsistently, provides legislative recommendations relating to how such program could better serve veteran populations, and under- served communities.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 224, the Disabled Veterans Housing Support Act, introduced by my good friend from Texas, Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz.

It has been said that what the American people desire is not bigger government but a much better and more effective government. The reforms proposed in this bill would accomplish just that. This bill would reform a program meant to assist those in need, HUD's, Housing and Urban Development's, Community Development Block Grant program. This includes helping our Nation's low-income veterans with the housing challenges that many of them face across our Nation. However, the bureaucratic obstacles at HUD know no bounds.

Mr. Speaker, today, veterans are being turned away from this very positive CDBG program. How is that? The formula HUD tells communities to use to see if veterans qualify as low income and are therefore eligible to participate in the CDBG program counts service-connected disability compensation as income, whereas other government programs correctly do not.

The result has been, in some places, especially in our most rural areas, communities have to tell low-income, disabled veterans they are too wealthy to qualify for help.

Truly, Mr. Speaker, you cannot make this up.

Excluding low-income veterans because they are disabled is not what Congress intended for communities to take action on by receiving CDBG funds. Of course, HUD understands this exclusion has been happening. Yet, rather than fix the issue by providing clear rules on how to calculate the income of disabled veterans, the Biden administration kept saying that it was someone else's problem.

Mr. Speaker, that ends today with this good bill.

This bill would reform CDBG's income calculation formula, telling HUD, in no uncertain terms, to stop including service-connected disability compensation as income.

Fixing programmatic flaws and bureaucratic obstacles is exactly what the American people have sent these Members to this House floor to do. It is unfortunate that HUD has had several opportunities to fix its flawed guidance without Congress, but it has refused to act even with multiple letters from our Financial Services Committee.

This commonsense fix, which passed out of the committee with strong bipartisan support and on suspension in this House during the previous Congress, ensures that disabled veterans who have served our Nation with honor receive the benefits that they have earned and deserved. Under the leadership of Representative De La Cruz, we will ensure that HUD stops excluding our Nation's heroes.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, Mr. Vargas from California, for his strong support of this bill.

De La Cruz), who is the lead sponsor of the bill.

Ms. De La CRUZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 224, the Disabled Veterans Housing Support Act.

Veterans, particularly disabled veterans, have made extraordinary sacrifices for our Nation, and it is simply unacceptable that those who selflessly defended our freedoms are met with bureaucratic red tape when they return home.

Government overregulation should never stand in the way of veterans' ability to receive the help they need. That is what this legislation will fix.

Due to inconsistencies in the way income eligibility is determined for Community Development Block Grant assistance, a veteran could be disqualified simply because their service-connected disability compensation is counted as income in one case but excluded in another. This simply doesn't make sense.

This is the result of HUD currently allowing multiple different definitions of income for CDBG assistance, some of which count service- connected disability received from the VA as income while one does not. To put it more simply, the same veteran who may have been disqualified for assistance could very well be eligible if the grantee would only have used the proper definition of income.

This legislation will create a standard and ensure VA service- connected disability income is always excluded from income calculations when determining eligibility for CDBG assistance.

By passing this bipartisan legislation, we are correcting an issue that HUD has failed to address. Further, we will require a report from the GAO to identify any additional inconsistencies in the treatment of service-connected disability income within housing programs.

Last Congress, I was proud to see this legislation garner bipartisan support in the Financial Services Committee and pass out of this House as recently as this past December. We will continue to build on this progress to ensure federally funded programs best serve our veterans and do not penalize them for the benefits that they have earned.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the bipartisan cosponsors for this legislation, including Congressman Brad Sherman, and I urge my colleagues to join me and vote in favor of H.R. 224.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 224 as put forward by the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. De La Cruz). She has heard strong support on a bipartisan basis on both sides of the aisle from our friends, Mr. Vargas and Mr. Sherman in the minority, and Mr. Nunn in the majority.

Mr. Speaker, I urge Members to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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