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[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1433-E1434]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
VA OVERPAYMENT ACCOUNTABILITY ACT
______
speech of
HON. J. FRENCH HILL
of arkansas
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Tennessee
and my good friend from California for their leadership of our
Veterans' Affairs Committee. They are a dynamic duo.
Their visits to Little Rock, Arkansas, both as Chairman of the House
Veterans Affairs Committee, gave local Arkansans a direct voice to
leaders in Congress to discuss many of the issues they deal with on a
daily basis.
It was a pleasure to host them, and the accessibility they have shown
to hear from people in Arkansas and across the Nation speaks to the
type of leadership both provide atop the House Veterans Affairs
Committee.
I appreciate their kind words about Arkansas and my veterans team in
the district, which works tirelessly to ensure the brave men and women
who serve in our armed forces receive the benefits and care they
deserve.
I appreciate the opportunity to be on the floor to be in support of
this list of good bills tonight.
Mr. Speaker, I particularly want to thank my friend from New Jersey,
Mr. Kim, for his hard work and collaboration on this important bill for
our veterans.
[[Page E1434]]
Mr. Speaker, in the last 5 years I have served in this House, I have
had over 3,200 cases completed and closed for veterans in my district.
As a former community banker, when I look at those cases and I listen
to these stories, this too often is a challenge for our veterans. It is
a crazy challenge. Mr. Speaker, that withholding a payment can have
severe consequences for our brave veterans who are out there just doing
their job, through no fault of their own and through a computer mess up
or an IT problem, our veterans receive an overpayment and then suddenly
get a letter a few weeks later saying, ``Oh, hey, we made a mistake.
You owe us $5,000 back.''
Well, the normal American, Mr. Speaker, doesn't have that kind of
financial planning expertise, and relies on the quality of our VA
services to not make mistakes like that.
So, it is a pleasure to work with Mr. Kim on this measure to try to
improve that situation and answer the IG's own report at the VA that
this is a serious problem affecting over 1.5 million veterans.
This bill tries to tackle this issue by improving Veterans
Administration IT systems, which are often the cause of this challenge,
and offers veterans that unknowingly are forced to go without their
earned benefits for extended periods of time some recourse on being a
victim of an overpayment and have their credit impaired.
I am proud to represent veterans from Camp Robinson and Little Rock
Air Force Base in our central Arkansas area. I am proud to work on
something that rectifies a common problem across this country.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from New Jersey for his work and for
the leadership of the committee for bringing this bill to the House
floor.
____________________
