Washington, D.C.—Friday, Congresswoman Aumua Amata welcomed House passage earlier this week of several Veterans’ bills, including two that she cosponsored.

This week, the House passed the bipartisan Homeless Veteran Families Act, H.R. 95, introduced by Rep. Julia Browley (D-CA), a bill which Amata cosponsored. This bill increases the per diem rate for entities providing services that a homeless Veteran can receive to include also providing assistance for a dependent child. If a homeless Veteran has a child of minor age the daily assistance would be increased by 50 percent to ensure care can be provided for the child’s basic needs.

The House also passed another Amata-cosponsored bill, the bipartisan VA Website Accessibility Act of 2019, led by Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Virginia). This bill requires a report to Congress regarding the accessibility of VA websites (including attached files and web-based applications) to individuals with disabilities. The report will identify the ways in which these features are not accessible and create the VA's plan to make them accessible.

Also of interest to Veterans, the House passed H.R. 2385, a bipartisan bill to provide for the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a grant program to conduct cemetery research and produce educational materials for the Veterans Legacy Program. This program’s special mission is to preserve national memory of our Veterans and share their stories of service.

“Caring for our Veterans is a national commitment,” said Aumua Amata, Vice Ranking Member of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. “I’m happy to see these bills that came through our Committee pass with such broad support. Each of these efforts will make a difference in the lives of some of our Veterans.”

Congresswoman Aumua Amata during a listening session held with our local veterans who were in Honolulu for VA appointments at Tripler Hospital last week. [courtesy photo]