It has been an extremely difficult week as the world has watched the collapse of the Afghan government. For our service members, veterans, and their families, it has been especially frustrating and heart wrenching to see, after twenty years of American sacrifice, Afghan security forces concede with such little resistance, and to see so many of our Afghan interpreters and allies still trapped.

I’ve attended several briefings this week with both the State Department and DOD, and next week, my colleagues and I in the House will come together in a bipartisan briefing to hear directly from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, and others. Just this afternoon, General Milley stated that 5,734 people have been evacuated in the last 24 hours. This is an improvement, although it is still far from satisfactory. I’ll be back to provide you with the latest following that briefing.

Locally, my staff is diligently working on requests we’ve received from constituents who have contacted my Norwich office about help with Afghan Special Immigrant Visa applications. If you’re an eastern Connecticut resident and need assistance for yourself or another individual who has an SIV application pending, or is awaiting the issuance of a travel document, click here or call us at 860-886-0139.

I’ve joined my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to advance efforts to expand and speed up the SIV application process, and right now the focus needs to be on helping our people and our allies in Afghanistan to get out safely. If you have questions, please contact my office.

Now here with a few updates from the week.