Veterans

The Second Congressional District is home to more than 56,000 veterans, including many veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am committed to ensuring that women and men who have served our country have access to the resources and services they need. I have held 63 public roundtables for veterans to hear directly from local veterans about how I can better serve them. And I strongly support programs to help smooth the transition to civilian life through education, job training, housing and health care.

Veterans looking for assistance with their benefits may be able to get help from my office. My staff in Everett and Bellingham work one-on-one with veterans to assist them with their benefits claims.

Click here for useful phone numbers for veterans seeking information about local resources and the VA Choice program.

Accomplishments

Health

Jobs

  • Cosponsor of the Manufacturing Jobs for Veterans Act and the Putting Our Veterans Back to Work Act, to help veterans get job training and find employment.
  • Fought hard to lower the unemployment rate among veterans by cosponsoring the VOW to Hire Heroes Act, which provides all veterans and departing servicemembers with robust job-skills training, and the Veteran Employment Transition Act, which provides business owners a tax credit to hire veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Housing

  • Pushed for funding to assist veterans experiencing homelessness through the Housing and Urban Development Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program. Organizations that serve veterans in Northwest Washington have received federal funding to help 429 veterans get permanent housing.
  • Sent letter to VA with other West Coast members emphasizing the importance of homelessness programs after VA proposed eliminating dedicated funding for HUD-VASH.

Education

  • Supported efforts to strengthen the GI Bill by cosponsoring the Post 9/11 GI Bill, to expand GI Bill benefits for more recent veterans, and the Payment Restoration Act to make it easier for veterans to accommodate going back to school by allowing them to take reasonable breaks between terms.
  • Led efforts to allow veterans to pay for college application fees with the GI Bill.

Benefits

  • Cosponsored the Disabled Veterans Tax Termination Act to allow all disabled veterans to receive both retirement benefits and disability pay simultaneously.
  • Cosponsored the Military Surviving Spouses Equity Act to overturn the “widows tax” which deducts Dependency and Indemnity Compensation from Survivor Benefit Plan payments.