Friends,

Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed a happy and peaceful holiday season that's prepared you to take on whatever 2025 brings your way. As we enter into a new year, I want to recap all that we accomplished together during 2024. Every day this year, my team and I have worked tirelessly to serve the people of Southeast Virginia...! Click on the video below to watch some of the highlights from this past year in Congress:

As always, please don't hesitate to contact my DC Office at (202) 225-4215 or my Virginia Beach District Office at (757) 364-7650 with questions, concerns, or if you require assistance with a federal agency. My team and I are ready and willing to help!

2024 Legislative Highlights

This past year was definitely a busy year...!! I’m proud of the work we’ve accomplished together. In 2024, I introduced 10 new bills and had 2 of them passed by the House! Here's a few pieces of legislation I fought for in Congress this past year:

H.R. 6972, the Securing Chain of Command Continuity Act

Following reports that essential members of the U.S. government, including the President, were left in the dark over the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s absence earlier this year due to health challenges, I introduced the Securing Chain of Command Continuity Act. At a time when our nation is facing countless global threats, this bipartisan legislation ensures a continuous chain of command among members of the National Security Council (NSC) to preserve America’s national defense superiority.

I am proud to report that this legislation passed the House of Representatives unanimously.

H.R. 5490, the Military Veterans in Parks (MVP) Act

Nearly five million veterans – or 27% of all former servicemembers – live with a service-connected disability. While outdoor activity has been linked to a host of benefits, including improved attention, lower stress, better mood, and reduced risk of psychiatric disorders, our National Parks often lack adequate accessible trails, activities, and lodging for those with disabilities. My bill, the MVP Act, takes concrete steps to ensure that these federal lands are accessible to disabled Americans.

This bill was passed by the House and was also included in H.R. 6492, the EXPLORE Act. The EXPLORE Act was passed by the House and the Senate and hopefully will be signed soon!

H.R. 9699, the Pay Our Troops Act

In 2023, as Congress approached a government shutdown, I introduced the Pay Our Troops Act to ensure our servicemembers and the Coast Guard would receive paychecks in the event of a government shutdown. I reintroduced this bill in 2024 to continue this effort in the new fiscal year.

Currently, if the government shuts down without a funding bill for the Department of Defense signed into law, those serving in our Armed Forces will not receive their paychecks. Only those deemed “essential” would receive back pay once a shutdown ends and new federal funding is approved. Virginia’s Second Congressional District is home to the largest active-duty military population in the U.S., hosting our Navy’s East Coast Master Jet Base as well as Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story.

I am grateful that we successfully avoided a shutdown and this bill was not needed.

H.R. 8108, the Care for Military Kids Act

Medicaid is operated by states, meaning that portability of benefits related to home and community-based healthcare services is not guaranteed from one state to another. This puts individuals and their families at risk of a loss of services when they leave their state, which particularly impacts dependents of military servicemembers who frequently transfer locations as part of the family’s commitment to serving their country. A new report from the Children’s Hospital Association underscores Medicaid’s significance in enabling healthcare access for nearly three million children in military-connected families.

My Care for Military Kids Act would amend the Social Security Act to ensure that any dependent of an active duty servicemember currently receiving long-term care services through a state administered Medicaid plan will remain eligible for those services should their family be stationed in another state. 

I am grateful this bill passed the House unanimously in September.

H.R. 5490, the Bolstering Ecosystems Against Coastal Harm Act

In 2023, I introduced the BEACH Act to update the protected areas covered by the Coastal Barrier Resources Act (CBRA). The CBRA was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1982 and uses a free-market approach to coastal conservation: banning most federal tax dollars for development on storm prone, ecologically sensitive coastal areas. By approving new, expanded CBRA maps, my bill will help us save taxpayer dollars while supporting Virginia’s coastal communities, economy, and wildlife! (In fact, CBRA is projected to save taxpayers $11-$108 billion over the next 50 years!)

This bill not only passed the House and Senate, but was also signed into law by President Biden – making it my first bill signed into law!!

During the entire 118th Congress, I cosponsored 299 pieces of legislation to improve the lives of southeast Virginians and achieve my mission of restoring American strength. Here are just a few highlights!

H.R. 82, Social Security Fairness Act

This bill, which was passed by the House and Senate, and is with President Biden to be signed into law. This important legislation will ensure that retired public sector workers like teachers, police officers, and firefighters remain eligible for their full Social Security benefits!

H.R. 9193, the Secure and Affordable Broadband Extension Act 

For nearly three years, the Affordable Connectivity Program or ACP helped families access the high-speed internet services they need to work remotely, complete online coursework, attend telehealth appointments, and more. However, the program ran out of funding in May 2024 – ending assistance for over 23 million American households, including over 46,000 in Hampton Roads. The Secure and Affordable Broadband Extension Act would restore the program and provide eligible households with a monthly discount of up to $30 per month off the cost of their internet service.

H.R. 8070, the FY25 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)

The FY25 NDAA authorizes $895.2 billion for national defense discretionary programs, an increase of $9 billion or 1% over the FY24 enacted level. A significant portion of the FY25 NDAA is comprised of initiatives to improve quality of life for servicemembers and their families. These provisions are the result of the House Armed Services Committee Quality of Life Panel, which I proudly served on. The panel met beginning last year and concluded its research in April 2024, making 31 recommendations for quality-of-life improvements.

Highlights of this legislation are included but not limited to:

Improving Servicemember Quality of Life

• Authorizes a 14.5% pay raise for junior enlisted servicemembers and supports a 4.5% pay raise for all other servicemembers.
• Authorizes an additional $954 million over the President’s request for housing and facility maintenance accounts.
• Requires DoD to develop and implement a strategy to enter into public-private partnerships to lease new barracks and other unaccompanied housing.
• Authorizes $1.2 billion to renovate and build new barracks.
• Authorizes an additional $30 million for a berthing barge to provide a safe housing alternative for sailors during dry dock availabilities.
• Authorizes the services to provide free wireless internet access to servicemembers in all unaccompanied housing facilities.
• Enables DoD to recruit and employ additional mental health providers by excluding them from statutory caps on military end strength.
• Provides servicemembers with direct access to specialty medical providers by waiving the TRICARE referral requirement.
• Increases the number of nurses working for DoD by waiving prior federal service hiring requirements. 
• Authorizes over $176 million for the design and construction of new childcare centers.
• Makes it easier for military spouses to transfer professional licenses between states.
• Codifies the Military Spouses Career Accelerator which provides employment support to military spouses. 

Military Recruiting

• Authorizes the reimbursement of private medical expenses for recruits entering the service.
• Increases funding for JROTC programs.
• Reforms the Army’s recruiting force by creating a professional recruiting military occupational specialty. 

Deterring China

• Authorizes $15.6 billion for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative to enhance U.S. deterrence and defense posture in the Indo-Pacific region. 
• Increases funding for innovative new technologies needed to deter the CCP, including hypersonics, AI, autonomous systems, cyber, mobile micronuclear reactors, and high energy lasers.
• Supports the Marine Corps 31 amphibious warship requirement and enables efficiencies in the Congressionally authorized block buy.
• Provides Army Counterintelligence Command Agents with authorities required to counter Chinese espionage.

Military and Industrial Base Readiness

• Blocks the Biden administration’s plan to reduce the number of U.S. Special Forces.
• Requires an assessment of the domestic maritime capability to support national security sealift and shipbuilding requirements. 

H.R. 2, the Border Reinforcement Act of 2023

This bill is the strongest border security package ever passed by the House! H.R. 2 resumes construction of the border wall using already appropriated funds, hires and trains 22,000 new Border Patrol field agents, modernizes Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and upgrades existing technologies, and takes other concrete steps to provide our nation with the border security we desperately need. While the House passed this bill in May 2023, unfortunately the Senate did not take action on it, which left CBP on track to process more than 300,000 illegal immigrants in December alone; this is unacceptable! I urge my colleagues in the Senate to immediately pass this bill so we can finally address this horrible humanitarian and national security crisis.

H.R.4721, the Main Street Tax Certainty Act

Without Congressional action, countless small businesses will face a massive tax hike and will likely be forced to reduce wages or eliminate jobs when the 20% Small Business Deduction expires at the end of 2025. In total it is estimated that over 2.6 million Americans' jobs are supported through this deduction. I cosponsored this legislation to prevent that from happening and provide small business owners the tax certainty they need to make business decisions about their future.

Five Fast Facts About New Year's Celebrations!

1. The first New Year's Celebration dates back to Julius Caesar...nearly 4,000 years ago!
2. 45% of Americans make New Year's resolutions, but nearly 25% give them up by the second week of January.
3. Americans consume nearly 360 million glasses of sparkling wine on New Years... That's more than the population of the entire country!
4. Nearly 1 million people celebrate the New Year in Times Square.
5. Champagne production skyrocketed from 300,000 to 20 million bottles per year between 1800 and 1850, as the world started ordering more for ship christenings and New Year's celebrations.

As we head into the new year, be sure to stay up to date with what I'm working on in Washington and back home in Southeast Virginia. You can find me at any and all of the below social media accounts:

I'd also like to thank everyone who took the time to read my Weekly Debriefs, follow me on social media, visit my website, call my office, or just say hi while I'm out and about in Hampton Roads. It is - and always will be - the honor of a lifetime to represent Virginia’s Second District in the U.S. House!

2024 truly flew by in a flash! I’m incredibly proud of the work we’ve accomplished together, but there is certainly more work to do. I came to Congress to fight for the people of Virginia's 2nd District, and that will never change...!

Happy New Year,

Jen A. Kiggans

Congresswoman, Virginia's Second District