00:00Thank you so much for including me this morning in your press conference. I'm Congresswoman Jen Kegans and I proudly represent Virginia's second district which is home to a large percent of veteran population. In the country we have about 6% of our population who has served in our great military and in my district we have more than twice that, about 13%. So I'm here today to talk about the veteran perspective and the wins for the veteran community and the one big beautiful bill. I am a veteran. I served as a Navy helicopter pilot for 10 years of my life. I am
00:29married to an F-18 pilot who served for 20 years and I'm also very proudly a Navy mom to a future naval aviator. So the people in my district, we are regular everyday Americans. We just put service to country first and not only if you are a veteran but if you work with the veteran community and the defense community in my district, the wins in the one big beautiful bill are important to us. We are hardworking. We are business owners. We are small business owners. We are parents. We are moms and dads. We are people who care about community safety. So the wins in this one big beautiful bill
00:59bill from the economy side, the extension of the tax breaks, the no tax on tips and overtime, the wins that we know our veterans will feel more in their bank accounts. We're used to living on fixed income like we did in the military. We know that each and every penny counts and how hard we have to work to earn our money. We want to keep more of our paychecks. We want our veterans and all Americans to feel like they have more in their pocketbooks. So those are the biggest wins for the veteran community. The border security piece is important because we care about community safety and we know that every state is a border
01:29state, even Virginia. So we care about the people that are around our neighborhoods, that are around our kids' schools, that are watching our families. That community safety piece is important. And knowing that we have a secure border, knowing that we're not letting people from the terrorist watch list, that as veterans, we have concerns about who is in our country, who is here to do us harm. But I think most importantly, the biggest wins for a lot of us in the veteran community was that $150 billion defense plus up.
01:55So many of us joined and signed up to serve again in our great military for our great country because of the chaotic withdrawal in Afghanistan. We saw weakness on the world stage. We saw what it looks like when our country doesn't prioritize peace through strength. The world is a very dangerous place. And now as a military mom, really, I care about that issue. And so many people in my district, so many of our children are serving, so many of my neighbors and friends.
02:20So for me, that peace through strength piece is the most important piece. And we're seeing Republicans put our money where our mouth is and prioritize quality of life, quality of service initiatives for our military. We're seeing next generation strike fighter funding. We're seeing money for 16 more ships being built. There's $9 billion for quality of life, $29 billion for shipbuilding, $16 billion for shipyards and depot, which we know are in need of repair, $9 billion for air superiority.
02:46We need to prioritize this peace through strength part. And that's what this one big, beautiful bill does. During the Biden administration, we had defense spending at an all-time low.
02:56We know that in times of our greatest peace, defense spending is about 5% to 6%. President Trump has not only agreed to do that for our country and for our military, but also he's encouraging our allies to do that.
03:07And we're seeing them get on board with that too. So I can't just emphasize enough the importance of prioritizing defense spending and what this big, beautiful bill does.
03:16for that. You know, as Republicans and as veterans who care about how much money we have, we also want to make sure that we are not wasting money.
03:24And the programs, the reforms that we've put in place for Medicaid is important.
03:28We know that we want to keep that program for people who need it the most.
03:31We have plenty of veterans who are disabled, who are Medicaid recipients.
03:34I want to make sure that program is there for them.
03:37So the reforms we put in place are so important.
03:40But it's certainly a privilege to be able to represent, again, a district that has one of the largest veteran populations.
03:45These are great wins for the American public, great wins for the veteran community, and I'm very proud to be a part of this effort.
