VETERANS BENEFITS

On 2026-09-16, Representative Mark Takano (D-CA-39) delivered a floor speech titled "VETERANS BENEFITS" in the House.

VETERANS BENEFITS

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 146 (Wednesday, September 16, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 146 (Wednesday, September 16, 2026)] [House] [Pages H5974-H5976] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] VETERANS BENEFITS (Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Mr. Takano of California was recognized for 19 minutes.) General Leave Mr. TAKANO. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material in the Record. The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Fedorchak). Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from California? There was no objection. Mr. TAKANO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to highlight for the American people just how badly the Republican majority has failed veterans in this Congress. First, before I get into that, I want to talk about something especially important. September is Suicide Prevention Month. We lose far too many veterans to suicide. Suicide Prevention Month is a perfect time to bring attention to this critical issue and to show support for veterans who need it. It is important to remind veterans that the Veterans Crisis Line is always reachable at 988 and you need to press 1. Responders are standing by to offer help and support. Unfortunately, my Republican colleagues declined to hold a single suicide prevention hearing in the month of September last year, and, sadly, no hearings were planned for this year. I will take this opportunity to say to any veterans watching: You are not alone and support is available. We all have a role to play in preventing veteran suicide by reaching out, checking in, and letting veterans know that they have support. Now, one of the most important things that Congress should do for veterans is to ensure that they have the resources and programs that they need. House Democrats have been demonstrating our commitment by leading the charge to do what is right for veterans without consideration for politics or party. For example, last night, the discharge petition Representative Raul Ruiz and I introduced on the Major Richard Star Act received the 218th signature to force a vote in the House. This bill, sponsored by my honorable Republican colleague, Representative Gus Bilirakis, has for years sat without action as veterans service organizations came to Congress repeatedly to demand relief for combat-injured veterans. My Republican colleagues offered excuses that it was too expensive, that helping wounded veterans would require cuts to other benefits, and my Democratic colleagues and I refused to accept that. Now, together with veterans service organizations and veteran partners and a few courageous Republicans who put veterans before partisanship, we can finally have a vote on this priority legislation. I thank every person in this room, in the galleries, people watching at home who use their voice to advocate to end the wounded veteran tax. This victory belongs to them, but our work is not over until the Major Richard Star Act is signed into law. We have come too far, built too much momentum, and brought together too powerful a coalition to stop now. We must force the majority to act. Madam Speaker, the House has spoken, and these veterans have waited far too long for the benefits they deserve. Do not make them wait another 2 months for a vote on this bill. I ask this question to the Speaker: Is it more important for Congress to leave town than for us to stay here and take care of these 59,000 combat veterans? Instead of sending everyone home this evening, we should vote on this bill so it can be sent to the Senate and passed during this work period. Combat-injured veterans fulfilled their duty to this country. Will Congress fulfill our duty to them? Right now, veterans are struggling to access their care and benefits, including mental health care. Too many veterans are facing the affordability crisis, which is leading to spikes in homelessness and home foreclosures. Republicans have failed to advance a single bill to move the needle on those issues and others over the last 2 years. Instead, they have focused their attention on cobbling together politically divisive mega bills that would expand care and benefits for some veterans only at the cost of cutting benefits to others. Meanwhile, the administration's big donors continue to line their pockets with taxpayer money while they bilk the government for billions of dollars in lucrative VA contracts. Now, my Republican colleagues wasted months pushing their deeply flawed taking benefits away from America's veterans act, which they claim was the ``only viable path for the Major Richard Star Act''. However, in reality, H.R. 9237 never had a path to passage. They brought it to Congress, to the House floor twice, but it was resoundingly rejected by the VSO and the veteran community because it includes the largest cut to veteran benefits in history. Now the House is recessing with nothing for veterans. For my Republican colleagues to try and rip veterans' benefits away now, while we are in an active conflict with Iran, is a slap in the face to every servicemember in harm's way. They should have to look in the eyes of our sailors who were on the USS Lincoln, our soldiers and our airmen and marines in the Middle East and tell them: Thank you for your service, but we are cutting your benefits. Nothing illustrates this point more than the majority's inaction on any new presumptions of service connection for veterans who desperately need help. The presumptions include blast overpressure, the Nevada Test and Training Range, missileer cancer, Atsugi Air Base, Fort George, Fort McClellan, Guam, Panama, infertility, fast boats, Red Hill, toxic base housing, cultural support teams, and the list goes on and on and on. All these veterans and their families are looking to us for relief. Yet all has been left by the wayside by this majority. Republicans haven't seen fit to address even one of the issues I just mentioned. Why? I can only speculate. {time} 2130 History has shown that when push comes to shove on veterans benefits, [[Page H5975]] my Republican colleagues' first question is always about cost and never about need. We see what they are doing right now, trying to actually cut benefits. What makes it even worse is that the $60 billion in benefits that my Republican colleagues want to cut in H.R. 9237 would not just fund increases in benefits for some veterans. Most of those cuts would go to lining the pockets of government contractors and privatizing the VA. Their bill even includes a $500 million slush fund for VA IT contractors at a time when the agency is preparing to spend $17 billion more on its Electronic Health Record Modernization program with Oracle. Billions of dollars are going to private industry on the backs of veterans serving our country. Oracle isn't the only company getting rich or richer while the rest of America struggles with rising healthcare costs, expensive groceries, and sky-high gas prices. VA is also giving American taxpayers the opportunity to line the pockets of healthcare conglomerates, like UnitedHealthcare and private equity giants, with the VA's new community care contracts, amounting to $1 trillion. That is trillion with a t. I would say I am surprised, but I am not. It is no secret that this administration and sycophants in Congress like to pat themselves on the back, professing to put America first, all the while picking America's pockets. We should all be watching what they are doing instead of what they are saying and just follow the money. For instance, in 2022, after Oracle purchased Cerner for $28.3 billion, Oracle's CEO Mike Sicilia testified that they would actually eat the cost for the deployment of VA's electronic health records system in the case of cost overruns. However, we know that this is no longer the case. After Larry Ellison, Oracle's executive chairman and the eighth richest man in the world, made more than $45 million in donations to Donald Trump, Oracle is getting a $17.5 billion contract augmentation, a shocking amount that was initially hidden from both Congress and the public. Look at this contract that shows the augmentation of Oracle's contract by $17.5 billion. As you can see, VA has redacted, meaning blacked out, this number when it was quietly posted on SAM.gov on August 11, 2026. In fact, VA never even notified Congress of this $17 billion increase. To this day, VA still has not provided the committee or the public with an unredacted copy of this justification. The fact that Secretary Collins chose to hide the amount that the American taxpayer will be shouldering in order to shore up Oracle's bottom line should be concerning to all of us. Everyone can certainly draw their own conclusions here, but it is extremely clear to me that we are in desperate need of more facts. We need more information about how VA landed on this $17 billion number and just what led Oracle to be awarded this massive sum, despite no proven success. This is exactly what I am attempting to do. On September 2, the Veterans' Affairs Committee voted unanimously to adopt Congresswoman Maxine Dexter's motion to subpoena Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison and Oracle Health CEO Mike Sicilia. While I was glad to see that the subpoena was finally issued Monday night by Chairman Bost, I would like to reiterate that compliance with the subpoena must occur in a public hearing this Congress. Congress has a duty to examine the sequence of events that led us to this point, especially while the administration and congressional Republicans contemplate tens of billions of dollars in cuts to benefits that veterans earned for their service. Chairman Bost scheduled Mr. Sicilia and Mr. Ellison's appearances before the Veterans' Affairs Committee for November 19 and December 10, respectively. I can't help but cynically wonde

Referenced legislation: HR9237