House passes Slotkin’s Solid Start Act to help vets transition to civilian life

After threatening to vote against U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin’s bipartisan Solid Start Act bill to better connect veterans tranitioning to civilian life with benefits and services offered by the Department of Veterans Affairs, House Republicans backed down to support the measure, which passed on Thursday.

On Wednesday night, the group of House Republicans — many of them co-sponsors of the bill — issued a late threat to vote down the bill over a single, 16-word provision: ensuring the VA is “Providing women veterans with information that is tailored to their specific health care and benefit needs.”

Although the provision had been in previous drafts of the bill, including the version that received unanimous support in the Senate only a few weeks ago, a group of House Republicans argued against the bill on the grounds that the provision could mean the VA could provide counseling and abortion services to women veterans who have been the victims of rape or incest, as well as those with life-threatening complications due to pregnancy.

In a fiery speech on the House floor, Slotkin blasted the group for their efforts to politicize a veterans bill. Slotkin continued to work to pass the bill on Thursday, and in the early evening, the Solid Start Act passed with broad, bipartisan support and is expected to be signed into law by the President in the coming days.

“This is a great, bipartisan bill that will make a real difference for veterans navigating their first year after returning to civilian life. I know how tough the transition out of the military can be, and thanks to this bill, the VA will now be mandated to proactively reach out to service members at least three times during their first year of separation from the military to connect them with the myriad of benefits they have earned,” said Slotkin, D-Lansing. “This was a bipartisan bill from the start: it passed the Senate unanimously just a few weeks ago and passed the House previously as part of the STRONG Veterans Act. That’s why it was so disturbing that some of my Republican colleagues threatened to defeat this veterans bill at the 11th hour, turning it into a political fight over abortion at the expense of our veterans.”

“The GOP turned a bipartisan bill into a partisan fight and tried to hold this legislation hostage for one simple reason: they continue to be hellbent on banning all abortion, for any reason, in both the states and at the federal level,” she said. “They object to veterans having access to abortion when they have been raped, are the victims of incest, or when a doctor confirms that a pregnancy is a danger to the mother’s health. They believe that politicians are a better judge than doctors when it comes to a woman’s life. They happily put politics over our veterans to prove how extreme they are on this issue. Luckily, their leadership saw what a mistake this was and reversed their opposition.”

A number of the Republicans who pledged to vote against the bill on Wednesday ended up voting in favor on Thursday. 

Slotkin’s bill will codify the VA’s Solid Start program so separating service members receive multiple outreaches from the VA within one year of separating from the military to ensure they are aware of the VA benefits and programs that are available to them. 

The bill also ensures that the VA continues to improve the program by specifying key requirements for the program, including:

• Calling each veteran three times within the first year after separation.

• Prioritizing outreach to veterans who accessed mental health resources prior to separation.

• Ensuring that calls are tailored to the needs of each veteran by conducting quality assurance testing.

• Collecting up-to-date contact information during the transition process.

• Encouraging transitioning veterans to authorize alternate points of contact who can reach them in the event the veteran is unavailable for direct outreach from the VA.

• Following up on missed phone calls through mailings and other outreach to ensure the veteran still receives similar information.

The Solid Start Act has been endorsed by Disabled American Veterans (DAV), the American Legion, and Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). 

As a military spouse and Army step mother, Slotkin said this issue is personal to her. She has prioritized legislation around supporting veterans during her time in Congress. Last year, she introduced the bipartisan Veterans Burn Pits Exposure Recognition Act, a bill aimed at addressing the specific needs of veterans exposed to open-air toxic burn pits while serving in the Armed Forces. That bill was signed into law in August as part of the Honoring Our PACT Act.

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The Livingston Post is the only locally owned, all-digital information and opinion site in Livingston County, Mich. It was launched by award-winning journalists who were laid off from the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus by Gannett Co. Inc. in 2009.