Julia Brownley, U.S. Representative, California (26th District)

Julia Brownley was first elected to Congress in 2012 to serve as the Representative for California’s 26th District, which encompasses most of Ventura County and a portion of Los Angeles County, including the cities of Ventura, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Ojai, Santa Paula, Fillmore, Camarillo, Moorpark, Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, along with some areas of Simi Valley.
As her first committee assignment, Congresswoman Brownley requested to serve on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, where she works closely with Ventura County’s veterans community and Naval Base Ventura County, making sure we provide the services and care our servicemembers, veterans, and their families have earned and deserve. Brownley was elected as Chairwoman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Health. Brownley is also the founder and Chairwoman of the Committee’s Women Veterans Task Force.
As Chairwoman of the Health Subcommittee, Brownley focuses on improving veterans’ access to mental and physical health care, improving services for female veterans, and helping servicemembers transition from the military to the VA health care system. One of Brownley’s signature achievements was passing her Female Veterans Suicide Prevention Act in 2016, which would require VA to collect data on women veterans in order to identify best practices, programs, and services to end female veteran suicide. Brownley also secured passage of the Deborah Sampson Act, the most comprehensive legislation for women veterans in a decade. The bill, which was signed into law in January 2021, will help address the inequities and barriers that women veterans face when accessing VA care and benefits.