. >> hello, this is mark tacoma. -- mar takano and i am the only lgbtq chairman of a full stanng committee in the house of representatives, the committee on veterans affairs. it's my distinct honor and privilegeo send a message of congratulations to speaker nancy pesi upon her receiving the inaugural lgbtq history makers awar for her achievement and leadership in overturning the "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the lame-duck session of the 111th congress. e guided the repeal of that policy, which was so harmf to so many lgbtq svicemembers. and it is so reflective of who she is as a person, as a human bein someone guided by basic decency, and horrified, horrified by any kind of cruelty that human beings inflict on one other. >> ely on in my careerur biggest fights were not stopping constitutional amendments, from prohibiting gave people getting married and trying to protect people from discrimination. it was hard tomagine today's rld where now i'm unable to may my wife, raise our daughter andn the protected. and that is within possible without the great work out the victory fu. it wouldn't

i know that mark takano and josh harder on our side worked very hard on this issue and i thank them for that. it's crucially important. i also want to take a moment to address the concerns that represented gaetz raised. he is not accurate in saying that we stopped the president from being able to move troops. all we do in afghanistan is we say, make sure you give us a reason. and frankly, if the president doesn't give us a reason, he can exercise a national security waiver and not follow our advice. it is simply advice that says, yes, in my opinion, we need to get out of afghanistan, but we need to do it responsibly. it is a way crazy overstatement to say that we prevent a chief executive from pulling out of afghanistan. this bill does not do that. if you do it make sure you do it right so we protect our troops. overall i want to remind people it's incredibly important we pass this piece of legislation for a cusm basic reasons. number one, we are the legislative body. the one thing we have in common, house, senate, democrat, republican, is that we are all legislators. we all represent p

package and its support across the aisle is a testament to the outstanding leadership of chairman mark takano. we are very proud of him, as a californian, as a member of this house, and the bill has been all hands on deck effort and i salute the many members whose provisions and perspective have strengthened it. congresswoman brownley, on the women's veterans task force who has worked tirelessly to achieve gender equity at the v.a. including through the land mark debra sampson act included in this omnibus. congressman mark levin, pride of the freshman class, who has been a champion for the financial security of our veterans on everything if the g.i. bill to anti-homelessness initiatives. and to you, mr. ranking member roe, thank you for your leadership and your friendship and prioritizing our veterans and i'm so proud that this bill was named for you. congratulations to you an thank you. i also want to recognize former senator johnny isakson. what a great person he is. what a great member of the senate he has been. i enjoyed being with him when we were saluting our veterans, hether it was at

i know that mark takano and josh harder on our side worked very hard on this issue and i thank them for that. it's crucially important. i also want to take a moment to address the concerns that represented gaetz raised. he is not accurate in saying that we stopped the president from being able to move troops. all we do in afghanistan is we say, make sure you give us a reason. and frankly, if the president doesn't give us a reason, he can exercise a national security waiver and not follow our advice. it is simply advice that says, yes, in my opinion, we need to get out of afghanistan, but we need to do it responsibly. it is a way crazy overstatement to say that we prevent a chief executive from pulling out of afghanistan. this bill does not do that. if you do it make sure you do it right so we protect our troops. overall i want to remind people it's incredibly important we pass this piece of legislation for a cusm basic reasons. number one, we are the legislative body. the one thing we have in common, house, senate, democrat, republican, is that we are all legislators. we all represent p

years of bipartisan work and the strong leadership of house veterans' affairs committee chairman mark takano and senate veterans' affairs committee ranking member jon tester. it includes numerous legislative initiatives from dozens of house democrats and provisions from nearly 60 house-passed bills. it includes the homeless veteran coronavirus response act, a bill i introduced to expand and strengthen va services for homeless veterans during the pandemic, allowing the va to use existing funds for a wider range of services. it includes the reducing veteran homelessness act, a bill i introduced to fill gaps in hud-vash case management. it includes the protect the gi bill act, a bill i introduced to increase transparency and accountability among educational programs that receive funding from the va, and it includes the pandemic assistance for student veterans act, which will minimize the impact of the pandemic on student veterans. it also includes the brian tally va employment transparency act to support veterans who are the victims of medical malpractice by the va or its contractors, and the b