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The men and women who have risked their lives for our nation deserve nothing less than the best. Louise has fought tirelessly to ensure our troops get the resources they need while serving and the care they deserve once they return home.

Approximately 70,000 veterans call the Rochester area home, about one in fifteen residents. Louise is working to provide them and their families with the best possible benefits, health care, and access to education and job training.

Slaughter Forces Replacement of 16,000 Pieces of Body Armor

When Louise found out that 80 percent of the Marines killed in the Iraq War could have survived with adequate body armor, she decided to do something about it. That’s when Louise began her years-long effort to improve body armor safety standards and forced the replacement of 16,000 pieces of faulty body armor on the front lines. Louise’s work led to improved testing protocols for body armor and helped ensure our troops have the protection they need on the battlefield.

Fighting Veterans’ Homelessness

It is unacceptable for men and women who serve our nation in the Armed Forces to be living on the street. Louise is focused on getting our veterans the care they need to prevent them from falling into homelessness. Louise played a key role in getting Rochester funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Supportive Services for Veterans Families Program. And in 2011 and 2013, Louise got a total of $2 Million for Rochester’s Veterans Outreach Center, which helps local veterans with housing stability, prevents homelessness, and provides mental health care and other services.

Improving Veterans’ Healthcare

Our veterans deserve the best healthcare possible, including mental healthcare. Louise worked in Congress to get funding to stop the backlog of pending veterans’ benefits claims at the VA. Louise secured $16 million to build a new VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic and in 2014. Louise also joined Rochester’s Veterans Outreach Center in calling for more resources for acute psychiatric care for veterans in the Rochester area.

Job Training for Veterans

Louise announced in 2014 a $5.1 million grant for RochesterWorks, an organization that provides job resources to veterans and the unemployed. The program is expected to support training of 1,500 workers over three years.

Protecting Soldiers from Sexual Assault

Louise has led efforts to stop sexual assault in our military and support sexual assault survivors throughout her time in Congress. She held one of the first hearings on the issue to shine a light on the problem and encourage the Department of Defense to act. In 2011, provisions of her bill were included in law to allow survivors to transfer from the base of their attacker right away, so they can seek justice in a safe environment. Louise has also successfully lobbied for full funding of the Department of Defense’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office and continues to push the Department of Defense to focus on ending sexual assault in the military.

Veterans And Arts

We are now able to reduce the effect of PTSD through music, painting, drawing, writing, yoga, and other arts therapies that often times help avoid medications and assist servicemen and women get back to normal life.

As co-chair of the Arts Caucus and a defender of veterans, Louise has been a strong supporter of increased funding for arts therapies through the NEA/Walter Reed Healing Arts Partnership. This program supports writing, visual arts, and music arts therapy for patients at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE).