Veterans

Texas is home to more veterans than any other state, and James Talarico believes it’s time for this country to love them back. He’ll fully fund the VA, stop efforts to privatize it, cut mental health wait times, and help veterans and military families find housing, jobs, and care.

Texas is home to more veterans than any other state in the nation. My brother-in-law, an Army doctor who served at Fort Hood, is one of them.

I’m incredibly proud of that fact. I’m also motivated by it: Our veterans and service members deserve better.

Each year, millions of brave men and women protect our country, defend democracy abroad, and fight for our freedoms — yet when they come home, their country isn’t fighting for them.

Too many of our veterans return home to a country unprepared to support their transition back to civilian life. Too many of our veterans face a web of bureaucracy instead of an easy network of services. And too many of our veterans go homeless and hungry as a result.

The system has failed the Americans who put their lives on the line for us — resulting in skyrocketing rates of suicide and food insecurity, and challenges with homelessness, healthcare access, and employment. We are also failing the military family members who sacrifice every day for our freedom.

Our federal government needs to support veterans and military families, ensuring they have access to the support they earned.

This is not a comprehensive list! If you have policy ideas you want to see from your next U.S. Senator, please reach out HERE. We want to hear from you!

• Meet the mental health care needs of our veteran population by improving education about care options, expanding telemedicine options, and reducing wait times for veterans by building a more robust mental health workforce.
• Make sure our veterans receive the health care they have earned by fully funding the VA and standing against efforts to privatize it, reclassifying VA medical care as mandatory spending, automatically enrolling all eligible veterans in VA health care, ensuring pay parity for VA healthcare providers to fill staffing gaps, fully implementing the PACT Act, and reversing the Trump Administration’s mass terminations of federal veteran employees and restoring unfilled roles that were eliminated.
• Ensure veterans have access to housing, job training, career opportunities, and real pathways to stability when they come home by reforming military-to-civilian transitional services to ensure veterans can access the benefits they need for adjusting to civilian life, increasing funding and oversight for federal programs that help homeless or at-risk veterans, expanding and streamlining the VA Home Loan program that makes homeownership accessible, and establishing GI Bill parity for National Guard and Reserve members.
• Guarantee those who serve our country and their families have the food and healthcare they need by reversing cuts to SNAP and Medicaid, restoring ACA tax credits, allowing military children to remain on TRICARE until age 26, and supporting access to alternative pain medicines and non-drug therapies to combat opioid dependency.
• End the forever wars that put our military and military families in harm’s way by stopping the new forever war in Iran and encouraging more cooperation with our foreign allies, including NATO and the EU.
• Support our Gold Star Families by passing the Love Lives On Act to ensure surviving spouses of fallen service members don’t lose benefits if they remarry.

• Honored the service of our law enforcement officers and veterans with the first bill I ever passed as a state legislator, which renamed the major highway in my district after an Air Force veteran and fallen officer — Chris Kelley — who gave his life in service to our community. Named a portion of Austin’s Airport Boulevard after Richard Overton, the nation’s oldest World War II veteran.
• Expanded benefits and protections for the Texas Military Forces by voting to establish assistance payments for the survivors of state military members who died on active duty, add PTSD as a covered injury under workers’ compensation, and accelerate medical claims for members who sustained serious injuries while serving.
• Cut property taxes for veteran families by supporting a constitutional amendment giving a property tax exemption to the surviving spouse of a veteran whose death was connected to their military service.
• Advanced alternative therapies for veterans with PTSD by directing the state to research alternative, non-drug therapies for treating post-traumatic stress disorder.