Veterans

On the battlefield, our military pledges to leave no soldier behind. As a nation, we must make that same pledge for every Veteran.

Veterans provide the ultimate sacrifice, protecting our freedoms and keeping us safe. When they return home from service, those Veterans deserve well-rounded care, resources, and support from the communities they call home. It is one of my priorities in Congress to ensure that our nation’s heroes and their loved ones have what they need.

My office is here to help. If you or a Veteran you know is experiencing an issue with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) or a military branch, please learn more here.

Veterans Health Clinic

After nine years with no VA health clinic in the San Gabriel Valley, I'm thrilled to announce the opening of the San Gabriel Valley Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC). The SGV CBOC, located at 7 West Foothill Boulevard in Arcadia, will offer Veterans access to primary care, mental health care, telehealth, and basic laboratory services on an interim basis for the next three to five years until a larger, full-service clinic in the San Gabriel Valley is completed.

More information, including directions and appointment scheduling, for the San Gabriel Valley VA Clinic can be found here.

East Los Angeles Vet Center

Supporting our Veterans means ensuring they have high-quality, close-by resources in their communities, which is why I am so excited that the East Los Angeles Vet Center was recently relocated to Monterey Park. This center offers a wide variety of resources to Veterans and their loved ones, including:

• Counseling services catering to diverse backgrounds of our Veterans and their loved ones
• Domestic Violence Court Mandated Class
• Pathway to Citizenship Workshop
• Referral services for addiction and substance use care, homelessness, suicide prevention, and community resource connections
• Computer resource area
• Telehealth services

Learn more about the Center here.

Honoring our PACT Act

For so long, Veterans were denied care and coverage for the exposure-related conditions they developed overseas while serving our country. That’s why I was so proud to support and vote for the landmark PACT Act that finally allows our Veterans to receive benefits from the VA for 23 toxic exposure-related conditions, including those who have been previously denied benefits and care for burn pit exposure. Since its passage in August 2022, the PACT Act’s impact has been enormous. Over 300,000 Veterans have completed PACT Act claims with an 80% approval rate.

Learn more here if you or someone you know could be helped by a PACT Act claim.  

Helping Veterans Transition Back to Work

Many Veterans struggle to find a job that meets their skills after returning home from war. It can be difficult for veterans to adjust to a new workforce and find training programs that may work for them. Dedicated Veterans entrepreneurship centers like Veterans Business Outreach Centers (VBOC) are crucial to providing a centralized place for the resources they need to start or grow their business ventures.

For so long, the closest VBOC to the San Gabriel Valley was all the way in San Diego. That’s now changed with the recent opening of the Los Angeles Regional Veterans Business Outreach Center (VBOC) at Long Beach City College, which will provide essential resources to veteran and military spouse entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Services offered at the Los Angeles Regional VBOC will include:

• Business planning: Provides veterans with training and counseling on accounting, financial planning, and management.
• Assistance accessing capital: Provides veterans information on the multitude of sources of capital available to them, as well as helps them in accessing financing, loans, and grants.
• Marketing and outreach: Provides marketing and outreach services to promote veteran-owned businesses in their communities and beyond.
• Transitioning: Provides Boots to Business instruction to help active duty servicemembers transition out of the military and into entrepreneurship.

Ending Veteran Homelessness

I am also especially concerned about the high rates of homelessness among our nation's Veterans. Today, there are over 33,000 unhoused Veterans nationwide. I support legislation and programs that seek to reduce homelessness among our veterans by providing access to housing, employment assistance, reintegration services, and more. I have repeatedly urged appropriators to give the highest possible funding for programs such as the HUD-VA Supportive Housing, or HUD-VASH, which offers vouchers for unhoused Veterans to find stable and supportive housing.

I also support H.R. 645, Healthy Foundations For Homeless Veterans Act, which authorizes the VA to use of certain available funds for critical, lifesaving resources like shelter, food, clothing and blankets, hygienic products, transportation and communication devices to Veterans who need it the most.