Congressman Mike Thompson represents Lake County in the U.S. House of Representatives. Courtesy photo.

Today we will honor and celebrate the tremendous sacrifices our veterans made for our great country. I hope you will join me by taking some time today to think about the veterans in your community and thank them for their service.

As citizens, it is one of our most important responsibilities to ensure our veterans are welcomed home with the full benefits and services they earned.

As a combat Vietnam veteran and co-chair of the Congressional Veterans Caucus, I believe we must maintain our strong commitment to providing our service members access to quality health care and economic opportunities.

Since January 2007, Congress added over $23 billion for veterans’ health care and services. Just this year, Congress passed the largest veterans health care funding increase in the 77 year history of the Veterans Administration (VA).

This essential funding has helped improve health care treatment and access for hundreds of thousands of our nation’s veterans. It means more medical services, better care and shorter waiting times for doctors' appointments. It provides an additional 15,000 VA health care workers, including 1,705 new doctors and 6,468 new nurses.

Congress has also provided additional funding to increase the number of Community Based Outpatient Clinics for the more than 3.2 million veterans living in rural areas who do not have ready access to VA hospitals.

We can also do more to remember the stories and sacrifices of individual veterans in our lives.

This year, I am urging our local veterans and students to participate in the Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center.

In this program, young people interview and record the stories of war veterans. Their stories will become part of our national archives and kept in the Library of Congress.

To date, the program comprises more than 68,000 individual collections, which include audio- and video-recorded interviews, original photographs, letters and other historical documents from veterans of every war and conflict since World War I.

Any interested students, teachers and veterans, and anyone who would like to serve may contact any of my district offices.

Again, I want to personally thank those men and women who have served or continue to serve in our armed services. Also, in acknowledgment of November as Military Families month, I also want to give my thanks to the families of those who serve. Our country deeply appreciates all that you do.

Congressman Mike Thompson represents California's First Congressional District – which includes Lake County – in the U.S. House of Representatives.