Preserving Our Commitment to Homeless Veterans Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 8 To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to ensure that the supported housing program of the Department of Veterans Affairs has not fewer than one program manager for every 35 rental assistance cases under such program, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JANUARY 3, 2019 Mr. RUBIO introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs A BILL To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to ensure that the supported housing program of the Department of Veterans Affairs has not fewer than one program man- ager for every 35 rental assistance cases under such program, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Preserving Our Com- 4 mitment to Homeless Veterans Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:45 Jan 03, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S8.IS S8 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 8 IS SEC. 2. STAFFING OF PROGRAM MANAGERS FOR SUP- 1 PORTED HOUSING PROGRAM OF DEPART- 2 MENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS. 3 (a) STAFFING.—Section 2003(b) of title 38, United 4 States Code, is amended— 5 (1) by inserting ‘‘(1)’’ before ‘‘The Secretary’’; 6 and 7 (2) by adding at the end the following new 8 paragraph: 9 ‘‘(2) The Secretary shall provide case management 10 support whenever requested by a local housing authority 11 under the supported housing program administered under 12 such section. 13 ‘‘(3)(A) Except as provided in subparagraph (B), the 14 Secretary shall ensure that in each fiscal year no case 15 manager is concurrently assigned to more than 35 vet- 16 erans under this subsection. 17 ‘‘(B) The Secretary may waive the requirement of 18 subparagraph (A) for a particular case manager in a par- 19 ticular fiscal year as the Secretary considers appropriate. 20 ‘‘(C) Not less frequently than once each fiscal year, 21 the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report on the 22 waivers made by the Secretary under subparagraph (B) 23 in the previous fiscal year. Each report shall include a de- 24 scription of the circumstances under which each waiver 25 was made. 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:45 Jan 03, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S8.IS S8 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 8 IS ‘‘(4) The Secretary shall ensure that each veteran to 1 whom a case manager is assigned under this subsection 2 is located within such distance of the case manager as the 3 Secretary considers reasonable. 4 ‘‘(5)(A) In any case in which a position within the 5 Veterans Health Administration for a case manager de- 6 scribed in paragraph (1) is vacant for a period of 180 days 7 or more, the Secretary shall seek to enter into a contract 8 with a local service provider with knowledge and expertise 9 applicable to a case manager in such position to furnish 10 the case management services that would otherwise be 11 provided by a case manager in such position. 12 ‘‘(B) The requirement in subparagraph (A) to seek 13 to enter into a contract shall cease to apply if the Sec- 14 retary fills the vacancy referred to in such subpara- 15 graph.’’. 16 (b) LIMITATION ON CONVERSION OF FUNDS.—The 17 Secretary of Veterans Affairs may not convert any of the 18 amounts appropriated or otherwise made available in a fis- 19 cal year to carry out section 8(o)(19) of the United States 20 Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)(19)) from a 21 specific purpose program to a general purpose program 22 unless the Secretary included a proposal to do so in the 23 budget justification materials submitted to Congress in 24 support of the Department of Veterans Affairs budget for 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:45 Jan 03, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S8.IS S8 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 8 IS such fiscal year (as submitted with the budget of the 1 President for such fiscal year under section 1105(a) of 2 title 31, United States Code). 3 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:45 Jan 03, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S8.IS S8 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS