As the granddaughter of two World War II veterans and a member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs (HVAC), I’m committed to ensuring that our nation’s heroes receive the benefits they’ve earned and deserve. With the input of my Veterans Advisory Council, I’m working to improve access to services for veterans in our rural communities and to ensure that we’re doing right by our women veterans — the largest growing demographic in the VA system.
In the 119th Congress, I also serve on the HVAC Subcommittee on Technology Modernization, which has oversight and investigative jurisdiction over the Department of Veterans Affairs’ major IT projects and technology modernization programs.
- Veterans deserve a VA that listens to their experiences and responds to their needs. That’s why I was proud to see my bill, the Veterans Office Experience Act, signed into law. The bill ensures veterans, caregivers, and families continue to have a voice in improving VA services, helping make the system more accessible, transparent, and responsive. By strengthening feedback and accountability, this law will help build trust and deliver a better experience for those who have served our country.
- Too often, veterans struggle to access the benefits they’ve earned due to confusing processes and complicated paperwork. This Congress, I introduced the Clear Communication for Veterans Claims Act to streamline the VA’s communication with our veterans and eliminate unnecessary legal jargon. I was pleased to see this bill pass the House and move closer to helping our veterans access the services they deserve.
- When our service members return home, it’s critical that we help them find good-paying careers. I’ve introduced bipartisan legislation to expand veterans’ access to jobs in science, technology and health care by making it easier to access STEM scholarships. I’m glad that this bill has passed unanimously out of the House Veterans Affairs Committee and I’m hopeful that it will soon help us to fill high-demand jobs while ensuring that our heroes have pathways to new careers.
- Many service members suffer invisible wounds upon returning home and the reporting process shouldn’t deepen that pain. I introduced a bipartisan bill, that passed out of the House, that provides much-needed updates to VA training and ensures survivors receive the certainty, compassion, and care they deserve.
- Women veterans are the fastest growing demographic in our veteran community, but they continue to lack quality access to critical health care services. In October 2024, I formed a Women Veterans Advisory Council with women from Central and Southern Illinois to hear directly about the challenges women vets continue to face. I was glad to take their input back to Washington where I held a Congressional women veterans roundtable to discuss how we can better serve our women vets.
