Upcoming Town Hall

One of my top priorities as a Member of Congress is to be available and accessible, which is why I’ve hosted four in-person listening sessions this year in Janesville, Beloit, Racine and Kenosha and regular telephone town halls.

We had great attendance at my Kenosha Listening Session earlier this year

This coming Monday, I will be holding my monthly telephone town hall. This format provides the opportunity for individuals who are unable to attend our traditional in-person town hall events to participate from anywhere in the district. I hope you can join.

Supporting Veterans and Their Families

Our men and women who have worn the uniform deserve the benefits they have fought for and earned. Whether it is ensuring timely follow-up from health care providers or protecting grieving families from bureaucratic overreach, I will continue to work to provide meaningful support to veterans and their families.

This week, I introduced two bills to help support our veterans and their families.

Each year, more than 6,000 veterans take their own lives, nearly 17 per day, at a rate double that of the civilian population. Reports have shown that veterans are five times more likely to experience major depression than the civilian population. 

While there are existing supports for veterans in place, discrepancies in federal law provide the opportunity for some veterans to be left behind. This week, I introduced the No Veteran Falls Through the Cracks Act, which addresses an oversight in mental healthcare follow-up for our veterans.

Under current law, if a veteran cancels a mental health appointment online, the VA is not mandated to follow up and reschedule as they would with a phone cancellation. While some cancelations may be routine scheduling conflicts, these can also be signs of a broader mental health crisis. The No Veteran Falls Through the Cracks Act would mandate the VA to connect with veterans to reschedule his or her mental health appointment in the event of an online cancelation, standardizing VA policies for cancelations across the board. 

Last Congress, I was contacted by a family who informed me that following the death of their mother, they received a demand from the VA to pay back the monthly VA benefits check that she had received. This is because current law allows the VA to request benefits be repaid in their entirety if a beneficiary passes away before the end of the month - in this instance, just hours beforehand.

No grieving family should be approached in a time of personal turmoil to repay benefits that were justly received and already used to pay monthly expenses. I introduced the Survivor Benefits Fairness Act to ensure that the VA cannot demand the families of beneficiaries pay back their monthly benefits in the event of a surviving spouse's death. 

As always, feel free to contact my office if you have any questions, want to share an opinion, or are having trouble with a federal agency. 

On Wisconsin,

Bryan Steil
Member of Congress

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