Dear John,
I was honored to invite Richard Valdez as my guest to Tuesday's State of the Union, the annual message delivered by the President to a Joint Session of Congress at the United States Capitol.
At last year’s address, the President called on Congress to send him a comprehensive bill addressing the effects of toxic exposure for all current and future veterans. Richard’s advocacy was instrumental in my efforts to craft responsive policy while I was Chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Together, we delivered, and my Honoring our PACT Act was signed into law, extending long-overdue care to over 3.5 million veterans living with the effects of exposure. Our work for our nation’s veterans isn’t done—with the implementation of my COMPACT Act, we are reducing incidents of veteran suicide by increasing access to life-saving no-cost mental health care. We are also prioritizing veteran homelessness prevention efforts to make sure all veterans have safe and stable housing.
