ICYMI: Peters Joins WXYZ Detroit’s Spotlight on the News to Highlight Key Accomplishments and Share Priorities for the 119th Congress
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Gary Peters joined WXYZ Detroit’s Spotlight on the News to discuss some of his key accomplishments during his time in the Senate and share his priorities for the remainder of the 119th Congress.
Below are highlights from Peters’ conversation with WXYZ’s Chuck Stokes:
Peters on his efforts to support our veterans, including by passing the Fairness for Veterans Act: “These are individuals that served their country with honor and distinction, and then, because of the PTSD they got as a result of that service, were denied coverage because it wasn't diagnosed. We owe a debt to our veterans, and that law is making a concrete difference. It's nice when you can pass legislation that touches people in a meaningful way, and who better than our veterans who have given so much.”
Peters on the importance of bipartisanship: “I'm very concerned about the hyperpartisanship we have in our country and in Congress right now. We've got to get back to working together to understand there are differences that we have, but there's a lot that we have in common, and we have a lot of tough problems to solve. We've got to come together to do it. I've been able to demonstrate it all these years, and I look forward to continuing to do that in the nearly two years I have left.”
Peters also discussed some of his priorities for the remainder of the 119th Congress, including efforts to:
Protect Our Great Lakes and being named Co-Chair of the Great Lakes Task Force: “Continuing to do work for protecting the Great Lakes, which is always a passion of mine... I'll use that position to strengthen and make sure that the Great Lakes continue to be healthy and vibrant for future generations.”
Strengthening Our Economy and National Security Amid Rapid Technological Advances: “Our economy, our national security will be changing rapidly with emerging technologies, from artificial intelligence to synthetic biology, you can go down the list. We need to really be thinking deeply about these fundamental changes that are going to alter just about everything that we do and in our society in dramatic ways. I plan to focus a great deal on that over the next two years.”
To watch Peters’ full conversation on Spotlight on the News, click here.
In 2025, Peters was named Co-Chair of the Great Lakes Task Force in the 119th Congress. Founded in 1987, the Task Force is a bipartisan working group that advocates for the protection of the Great Lakes. As Co-Chair, Peters will convene meetings between Great Lakes senators and staff to coordinate legislative initiatives, funding priorities, and oversight efforts to address the most important issues facing the Great Lakes.
In 2016, his Fairness for Veterans Act was signed into law to help veterans who may have been erroneously given less than honorable discharge from the military due to behavior resulting from mental health traumas, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). In 2017, Peters was recognized as Legislator of the Year by the Vietnam Veterans of America for his work authoring and enacting the Fairness for Veterans Act.
Peters was recently rated the most effective U.S. Senator for the third time in a row by the nonpartisan Center for Effective Lawmaking, which released its biannual effectiveness ratings for the 118th Congress (2023-2024). Peters was also rated the most effective Senator by the Center in the 116th (2019-2020) and 117th (2021-2022) Congresses. In the 118th Congress, Peters earned the highest effectiveness score for a U.S. Senator ever recorded in the fifty years since the Center for Effective Lawmaking began tracking this data. He also becomes the first Senator in more than four decades to be named most effective three times in a row. Peters achieved this recognition by authoring 15 standalone bills that were passed and signed into law. He also authored 10 additional bills that were passed into law as part of larger legislative packages.
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