EVENT TITLE: Brick Veterans Town Hall

 DATE: 06/27/2022

·        New VA Health Clinic in Toms River

• $61 million contract awarded August 2021 to FD Stonewater & Harvey Cleary Builders

 

·        Led effort to nearly double funding for veteran suicide prevention outreach

• $500 million in FY22

 

·        Support for the PACT Act

• Would provide the same automatic eligibility for veterans with hypertension and MGUS, without the need for additional documentation to prove their illness is connected to their exposure to Agent Orange

 

·        Voted last week to pass the STRONG Veterans Act through the House, bipartisan bicameral legislation to:

• Increase funding for VA mental health providers
• Strengthen Veterans Crisis Line with new 3 digit hotline going live in July
• Require explicit mental health and suicide prevention outreach to traditionally underserved veteran populations
• Expand peer mental health services
• Expand services to more student veterans and families who have lost veterans to suicide
• Fund additional research

 

·        Authored legislation to honor the legendary all-Black Buffalo Soldier regiments with a Congressional Gold Medal

 

• Passed legislation in the House honoring Gold Star Families
  • Awaiting action in the Senate

 

• Led effort to give more veteran-owned small businesses opportunities to compete for work on federal transportation projects

 

• Closed more than 300 cases for veterans in NJ03 in 2021 alone