{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://buchanan.house.gov/2025/12/buchanan-honors-19-local-veterans-with-congressional-veteran-commendation", "Buchanan Honors 19 Local Veterans with Congressional Veteran Commendation", "2025-12-05", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "FL", "Vern Buchanan", "B001260", "buchanan.house.gov", "buchanan", "https://buchanan.house.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "3rd Annual Awards Ceremony Honors Veterans for Wartime Service and Peacetime Community Involvement\n\n16th District Home to Over 64,000 Veterans\n\nView photos from the ceremony here.\n\nSUN CITY CENTER, Fla. \u2014 Today, Congressman Vern Buchanan announced the honorees of the 3rd Annual Congressional Veteran Commendation ceremony. Buchanan established the awards to honor the wartime sacrifices and peacetime community involvement of veterans residing in Florida\u2019s 16th Congressional District\n\n\u201cI established these awards to recognize our local heroes who have valiantly served both our country in uniform and our community,\u201d said Buchanan. \u201cWhile we will never be able to fully repay the honorees for their selfless sacrifices, I hope the Congressional Veteran Commendation helps express how grateful our community truly is for their service.\u201d\n\nAn independent panel of veterans reviewed nominations and chose the following 19 veterans for their wartime and post-military service:\n\nNelson Betancourt of Valrico who served in the U.S. Army outside of war time\n\nBenny Blackshire of Sun City Center who served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War\n\nJeffery Camp of Parrish who served in the U.S. Army & Army National Guard during the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars\n\nJack Carter of Lakewood Ranch who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam and Gulf Wars\n\nCharles Conover Jr. of Sun City Center who served in the U.S. Army outside of war time\n\nRonald Cousineau of Sun City Center who served in the U.S. Air Force outside of war time\n\nEmily Farkas of Brandon who served in the U.S. Air Force during the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars\n\nFerris Garrett Jr. of Sun City Center who served in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War\n\nWilliam Greer of Wimauma who served in the U.S. Air Force outside of war time\n\nBrian Hammer of Sun City Center who served in the U.S. Army during the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars\n\nNathaniel Hawthorne of Sun City Center who served in the U.S. Navy during the Iraq War\n\nRoberta Jordan of Riverview who served in the U.A. Army outside of war time\n\nRobert Lucas II of Sun City Center who served in the U.S. Army outside of war time\n\nDanny Melton of Riverview who served in the U.S. Marine Corps outside of war time\n\nMaryAnn Rowe of Sun City Center who served in the Michigan Army National Guard during the Iraq War\n\nRichard Steinestel of Valrico who served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War\n\nRoland Tiso Jr. of Valrico who served in the U.S. Army during the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars\n\nPaul Wheat Jr. of Sun City Center who served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War\n\nEdward Wudarsky Jr. of Sun City Center who served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War\n\nBuchanan has a strong record of fighting for veterans and military families. In December 2021, a Buchanan measure to reduce military training accidents following the death of Bradenton soldier Nicolas Panipinto was enacted into law. In February 2025, Buchanan introduced the Veterans Mental Health Crisis Referral Enhancement Act (H.R. 1290), which directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a three-year pilot program to refer veterans experiencing mental health crises to approved non-Veterans Affairs mental health care providers, ensuring timely access to competent care. Buchanan also reintroduced the Veterans Overmedication and Suicide Prevention Act (H.R. 136) this Congress, which requires the VA to study the link between addictive opioids and the alarmingly high rate of suicides among veterans.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://buchanan.house.gov/2025/12/buchanan-honors-19-local-veterans-with-congressional-veteran-commendation"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.1320021003484726, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}