Work with us
Work with us
Rieckhoff and the Righteous team have a long history of leading game-changing, bi-partisan policy, political, legislative and judicial wins.
For more than two decades, Righteous’ leadership has been at the center of the most consequential veteran and national-security policy fights in America — writing, championing, and passing the laws that changed millions of lives. This is the full record behind the strategy.
Legislative, judicial and policy wins, 2007 to 2022.
A critical step forward in addressing the veteran and service member suicide epidemic. It helped establish the Veterans Crisis Line, which has served more than half a million veterans, instituted better suicide prevention training for VA staff, and launched a campaign to reduce the stigma of seeking mental health care.
We played a lead role in fighting for and passing the Post-9/11 GI Bill, arguably the most important veterans’ benefit for our generation. This landmark legislation has sent more than one million veterans to college.
We worked with Congress to pass the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Improvements Act. It expanded the Post-9/11 GI Bill to veterans studying at vocational schools, granted full benefits to National Guardsmen and Reservists responding to national disasters, and simplified the Yellow Ribbon Program. It benefited almost 400,000 veterans in its first year.
We were instrumental in passing this legislation, which addresses the challenges veterans face when transitioning from combat to career. It requires every separating service member to take the Transition Assistance Program, established tax credits of up to $9,600 for every veteran hired, and began the work of translating military skills and training into their civilian equivalents.
We successfully fought to include thirteen amendments in the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act that improve victims’ rights, strengthen prevention efforts and protect whistleblowers.
When the backlog of VA disability claims peaked at 600,000 waiting veterans in March 2013, we launched a broad campaign to End the VA Backlog. With allied organizations, we prompted the VA to implement long-stalled reforms to its claims processing, and the number of veterans waiting more than 125 days for compensation fell by over 60 percent.
We devised this legislation to combat the alarming rate of veteran suicide. Blocked by a single Senator in 2014, it became one of the first bills passed by both Houses in the 114th Congress. It expands access to mental health care for troops and veterans, strengthens oversight of military mental health programs, and improves suicide prevention training for VA and DoD care providers.
We joined forces with the FealGood Foundation and 9/11 first responders and survivors to secure a fully funded, effectively permanent 75-year extension of the World Trade Center Health Program and a five-year, $4.6 billion extension of the Victim Compensation Fund.
We were a key player in this ruling, advocating for veteran entrepreneurs and small business owners and submitting an amicus brief. The ruling requires the VA to consider setting aside all procurements for veteran-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, and bars it from exempting Federal Supply Schedule procurements.
When thousands of California Army National Guardsmen were forced to repay, with interest, reenlistment bonuses paid as much as ten years earlier, we waged the #PayThemBack campaign with other veterans service organizations and Congress. Congress passed legislation forcing the Pentagon to repay them, and the review of 17,485 cases resolved nearly all of them in the soldiers’ favor.
Veterans omnibus bills in both chambers included the first cuts to the Post-9/11 GI Bill: $3.4 billion over five years in the Senate, and a 50 percent cut to the housing allowance for children using a parent’s transferred benefits in the House. Through relentless advocacy on Capitol Hill and nationwide, we stopped these cuts from becoming law.
We advocated for the Female Veteran Suicide Prevention Act (S. 2487/H.R. 2915), which requires the VA to include metrics on women veterans in its annual evaluation of mental health and suicide prevention programs and to identify the programs that are most effective for them.
Rieckhoff created, produced and led this first-ever nationally televised forum with presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, held aboard the Intrepid in New York City just before the first presidential debate. It was the only time the two shared a stage before the debates. Rieckhoff co-hosted the post-forum coverage with Rachel Maddow of MSNBC.
Alongside the American Legion, VFW and other VSOs, we backed this bipartisan law. It removes the 15-year time limit on using the benefit, extends the Yellow Ribbon Program to Fry Scholarship recipients, gives Purple Heart recipients GI Bill eligibility regardless of time served, and gives National Guard and Reserve members the same benefits as those they served beside on active duty.
We led a coordinated nationwide grassroots, social media and press campaign that stopped a proposed $2,500 registration tax on new enlistees to receive their Post-9/11 GI Bill benefit.
The Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act (S. 1094) gives the VA Secretary the tools to expedite removal of bad-acting VA employees. We had pushed for VA accountability legislation since the 2014 Phoenix VA scandal.
With Choice funding days from expiring, we and partner VSOs won quick passage of S. 114, which provided $2.1 billion to continue the program while Congress built a permanent integrated network of care.
With the Global War on Terrorism Memorial Foundation, we supported the act (S. 926/H.R. 873) that begins the process of creating a national memorial in Washington, D.C. honoring the fallen, service members and their families.
Building on our backlog campaign, we pushed for the Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act (S. 1024/H.R. 2288), which streamlines the appeals process and creates three separate pathways for veterans to appeal their claims.
We worked for years with VSO partners to consolidate the VA’s many community care programs while protecting the VA from efforts to push more patients into the private sector with less accountability.
FY2019 funding (P.L. 115-244) expanded women veterans’ access to prosthetics, gender-specific health care, mental health services and homelessness services, and required the VA to ensure its facilities meet women veterans’ needs. Two further laws established and expanded peer-to-peer counseling for women veterans.
Our #CannabisForVets campaign backed the bipartisan VA Medicinal Cannabis Research Act, authorizing VA research on medicinal cannabis for veterans. It passed the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee in 2018 and unanimously again on March 12, 2020.
Introduced with Reps. Tulsi Gabbard and Brian Mast and Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Dan Sullivan, it requires the Department of Defense to track and report service members’ exposure to burn pits and other airborne toxins to the VA. It passed as part of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act.
The Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act provides new VA health care and disability benefits for veterans who suffered toxic exposures, including from burn pits.
After more than 70,000 Afghans were admitted to the U.S. as humanitarian parolees, with no path to permanent residence, we championed the bipartisan Afghan Adjustment Act (S. 4787), which would let eligible Afghans apply for permanent status after additional background checks.
The organizations and campaigns Righteous leads now, 2022 to 2026.
Founded July 4, 2022. A veteran-led 501(c)(3) protecting reproductive health care rights for American troops, veterans and their families.
Launched May 2024.
* Supported through The Military Coalition.
Strategy, advocacy, and execution with military precision.
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