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About this candidate response
DutyStation contacts candidates to ask whether and how they support service members, military families and veterans, and invites them to share their thoughts and priorities. We share their replies here in the candidate’s or campaign’s own words, with minor formatting for readability and correction of obvious spelling mistakes.
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Follow-up answers received October 1, 2026, submitted by Zach Servis, Campaign Manager, on behalf of Bennie Foster.
Government Shutdown
- I oppose using a government shutdown as a political bargaining tool. Congress has a responsibility to fund the government, and I would work across party lines and with the administration to pass responsible appropriations before deadlines are reached. Regardless of which party controls Congress or the White House, my responsibility would be to the people I represent.
- If a shutdown does occur, service members, military families, and veterans should not become collateral damage. I would support measures ensuring uninterrupted military pay, essential family services, healthcare, veterans’ benefits, and other critical services throughout a funding lapse. I would also work to strengthen advance and protected funding for essential military and veterans’ programs so families who have already sacrificed for this country are not forced to wonder whether a political disagreement in Washington will interrupt their paycheck, healthcare, or benefits.
Quality of Life
- Supporting national defense means supporting the people who make that defense possible. I will prioritize competitive active-duty pay that keeps pace with the real cost of living, timely and accessible healthcare, affordable childcare, and stronger employment opportunities for military spouses.
- Frequent moves can create serious financial and professional disruptions for military families. I support improving relocation assistance, reducing unnecessary administrative burdens, strengthening portability of professional licenses, and expanding employment and remote-work opportunities for military spouses.
- We should also examine housing, childcare availability, healthcare access, and other quality-of-life conditions when making decisions about military compensation. Service members should be able to focus on their mission without their families struggling to meet basic needs at home.
Veterans Care
- Veterans should not have to fight another battle just to receive the care and benefits they earned. I support holding the VA accountable for appointment wait times, expanding access to community-based and telehealth services where appropriate, and improving mental-health and suicide-prevention services, particularly in rural communities.
- I also support reducing the disability claims backlog, improving transparency in claims decisions, and making the transition from active duty to civilian life more seamless. That includes connecting service members with employment, certifications, education, housing, mental-health resources, and benefits assistance before they separate.
- My approach is centered on better systems and measurable accountability. Veterans should know where their claim stands, how long services should take, and who is responsible when the system fails to deliver.
Family Housing
- Safe housing should be a basic expectation for every military family. I support increasing the availability of affordable housing near installations while strengthening oversight and accountability for both government-managed and privatized military housing.
- Families experiencing mold, unsafe conditions, delayed repairs, or other serious maintenance problems need a clear process for reporting problems, enforceable response standards, and meaningful independent review when those standards are not met. Contractors receiving taxpayer dollars should be held accountable for the condition of the homes they manage.
- I would also support greater transparency in housing inspections, maintenance performance, complaints, and contractor performance. Military families should not have to choose between accepting unsafe conditions and jeopardizing their housing. When government contracts with private companies to house our service members, those contracts must protect the families first.
Earlier statement received September 29, 2026. The campaign’s original wording is retained below.
Veterans’ care and civilian life
- Many of our campaign team members and supporters are veterans and have family who have served and actively deal with the VA.
- I am well aware of the challenges our veterans face receiving care and transitioning back to life as a civilian.
- In Congress, I would support legislation and funding that reduces VA healthcare and disability-claim backlogs, expands mental health services, and improves access to care for rural veterans.
- I would push for stronger congressional oversight of the VA to ensure taxpayer dollars produce timely, quality care.
- I would also support job training, education, housing, and small-business programs that help servicemembers successfully transition to civilian life.
- We should not be sending hundreds of billions of dollars to foreign nations to fight wars while our own soldiers suffer after serving.
- There is no shortage of funding, we must simply choose to prioritize our own soldiers rather than those in another country.
Military-family and veteran housing
- As a resident of Jackson, MS I am well acquainted with the housing crisis veterans are facing.
- We used to have neighborhoods like Broadmoor that were built specifically to serve soldiers returning from WW2.
- Since then, veteran housing has been treated like a non issue throughout our district.
- In Congress, I would support funding to improve and modernize military family housing while strengthening oversight of private housing contractors.
- I would push for enforceable safety and maintenance standards, regular inspections, transparent reporting, and meaningful consequences when contractors fail military families.
- I would also support policies that keep housing allowances responsive to local costs so our service members can afford safe, quality housing.
- I believe we should have a program that allows veterans to receive city owned blighted or forfeited properties at little to no cost for their primary residences.
- This would not only help eliminate blight and abandoned homes leading to less crime, but also provide veterans an opportunity to get housing where it is often unavailable or unaffordable.
Pay, healthcare and family stability
- In Congress, I would prioritize competitive military pay, reliable healthcare, affordable childcare, and stronger support for military spouses.
- I would support funding to increase childcare capacity and healthcare access, improve professional-license portability and employment opportunities for spouses, and reduce unnecessary disruptions from frequent military moves.
- Taking care of military families is essential to both readiness and retention.
- As a Husband and Father myself, I empathize with our soldiers who often have to move their families and forego stability for their children's education, relationships, and safety.
- We must appreciate that sacrifice by doing our part as politicians to make that sacrifice as painless as possible.
- At the end of the day, we are paying a modest salary to people who are offering their entire lives to serve and protect our country.
- The least we can do is treat them as a priority when we legislate.
Serving Mississippi’s military community
- I am excited to support our veterans in the 2nd Congressional district.
- We have a significant Veteran population, especially with the VA Center in Jackson, MS where I am a resident.
- We have many opportunities to improve our care and quality of life for active military members and veterans.
- I believe we simply have to choose to make them a priority.
- As congressman, I will be accessible and available to work on behalf of the military community to advance their interests and secure the best care possible for them and their families.