Honoring Our Veterans

Hello,

Every Veterans Day, we honor those who have dedicated themselves in service to our nation. To America’s veterans: thank you for your dedication to this country. This Veterans Day, we commit to honoring our veterans by remembering their service, expressing our gratitude for their sacrifices, and delivering on the promises we’ve made to them. 
 
But we must do more than say “thank you for your service." We owe the men and women who bravely serve our nation in the military, and their families, the highest quality support programs when they come home — including the nearly 40,000 veterans in California’s Second District.  
 
During the 116th Congress, it has been my honor to work on and move forward legislation to support our veterans. This session, I introduced the RURAL Veterans Act to improve the VA’s ability to provide quality health care access for veterans in rural areas. Staffing shortages lead to low quality care, longer wait times, and disrupt veterans’ overall access to necessary health care. My bill would solve the problem by creating a new and specialized VA rural recruitment office, requiring VA to develop a targeted, nationwide plan for recruiting doctors to serve veterans in rural areas, and providing annual reports on the status of rural VA health care to make sure we are meeting our goals.  
 
I’m also working with colleagues to make good on our promise to support our veterans. In the 116th Congress, I’ve signed on to legislation that would bolster veterans’ access to suicide prevention services by distributing grants to familiar places our veterans turn to when they need help the most, including tribally designated housing entities and community-based organizations. I’ve also supported efforts to study Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, so we can learn how best to care for our loved ones suffering from PTSD. 
 
We know that access to the outdoors is often linked with better health outcomes, so I have been an advocate for the Accelerating Veterans Recovery Outdoors Act, which will help more veterans gain access to public lands and outdoors spaces for medical treatment and recreational therapy.  
 
I am also supporting the Reduce Unemployment for Veterans of All Ages Act, to give veterans the tools they need to succeed in the transition back to the civilian workforce. Additionally, I am a cosponsor of the Homeless Veteran Families Act, which would increase per diem payments for homeless veterans to include funding for the children of homeless veterans. I’m glad to report that this bill passed the House last October with bipartisan support.  
 
If you have had any difficulty getting VA services please contact my office and we will do our best to help you. We can help you with the following services: 
 

 
I will continue to fight to improve access to health care and make sure that housing, employment, and educational opportunities are there for our current and former service members and their families. 
 
This is just some of the work I’ve been doing in my role as your representative. If you would like to keep up with what I am doing, please subscribe to my newsletter, and follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 
 
Thank you, and stay well. 
 
Jared Huffman 
Member of Congress 

• Print
• Email
• Tweet