November 30, 2021

Dear Friend,

I hope you and your family had an enjoyable Thanksgiving. I started work this week with a renewed sense of gratitude after spending Thanksgiving with our troops stationed overseas in Asia. Our service members make countless sacrifices for our country -- missing out on spending holidays with their families back home is just one of them. So I was honored to join a bipartisan delegation of my colleagues led by the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman to give thanks to our troops in person and learn how we can better serve them.

We visited our service members who are deployed in Japan and Korea, countries that have faced increasing insecurity, and visited with some of our most important democratic partners in the region. I had the honor of serving Thanksgiving dinner to our troops in South Korea.

We also met with the President of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen and reaffirmed our commitment to Taiwan and its self-determination. Despite unprecedented intimidation and threats from China, Taiwan is thriving as a force for good, and has helped lead the world in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In the global struggle of autocracies' increasingly aggressive behavior towards their democratic neighbors, the United States must stand firm and gather the world in defense of a rules-based international order where human rights, the right to self-determination and freedom of expression and commerce are protected. I was proud to deliver that message to President Tsai.

I returned home humbled and grateful. I look forward to applying what I’ve learned on my trip to better serve North Texans in my work on the Veterans’ and Foreign Affairs committees. 

As a reminder, my office routinely helps veterans recover the benefits they are owed from the VA, if you need assistance, please call us in Richardson at (972) 972-7949.

Sincerely,

Colin Allred
Member of Congress

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