• U.S. Reps. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) and Lloyd Smucker (R-Pennsylvania) recently reintroduced bipartisan legislation aimed at improving housing access and affordability for U.S. veterans. The Home for the Brave Act would exempt veterans’ disability benefits from counting toward total income when determining their eligibility for housing assistance programs through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). “No veteran should be punished for receiving the very benefits they earned through their service to our country,” Carbajal, a Marine Corps veteran, said in a Nov. 10 statement. “I’m proud to lead this bipartisan effort to end this unfair practice in our country’s housing assistance system and ensure veterans have access to the safe, affordable homes they deserve.” Financial benefits for service-connected disabilities are currently counted as income when determining eligibility for housing assistance programs through HUD. As a result, many veterans are determined ineligible for these housing programs because their disability benefits are placing them at a higher income level, according to Carbajal’s office. Some agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), do not consider veterans benefits for service-connected disabilities income. “Our veterans have made tremendous sacrifices to protect our freedom and safety, and they should not lose access to housing assistance because they receive disability benefits for injuries sustained in service,” Smucker stated. “Our community has worked hard to end veteran homelessness, and I’m honored to support this important mission alongside my constituents.”
• On Nov. 6, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) issued a statement on Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi’s announcement to retire at the end of her current term. “For nearly four decades, Nancy Pelosi has fought for fundamental rights and freedoms not just for her beloved city of San Francisco, but for all Americans. And as a torchbearer of Democratic and California values, Speaker Pelosi stood as our nation’s chief defender against Donald Trump’s attacks on our democracy,” Padilla said. “From her roots in San Francisco through her trailblazing tenure in Congress, Speaker Pelosi was a champion for LGBTQ-plus rights, fighting to guarantee the right to marry who you love and helping lead San Francisco through the AIDS crisis that devastated the city.” Padilla added that he feels honored to have served alongside her. “She always called on us to ‘organize, not agonize.’ Now it’s up to us to carry on her legacy.”
• U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California) led a bipartisan group of lawmakers to push forward adding 74 names to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. “The 74 service members who sacrificed their lives during the Vietnam War while aboard the USS Frank E. Evans deserve the same honor and recognition as all others on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial,” Schiff said in a Nov. 6 statement. In 1969, the USS Frank E. Evans sank off the coast of Vietnam after being accidentally struck by an Australian aircraft carrier. Because the Department of Defense maintains the sinking took place outside of the declared war zone, the sailors who perished—including 22 Californians—have been deemed ineligible for inclusion on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington, D.C., despite the fact that these men were deployed to the region for the war. The USS Frank E. Evans Act would direct the Department of Defense to have the sailors’ names added to the memorial. U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota) are among the bill’s co-sponsors.
This article appears in Nov 13 – Nov 20, 2025.