October 22, 2026

A Big, Belated Thank You to Senator Tim Sheehy

Jason Stoffer

It all started when I filled out a generic webpage portal titled, “request for meeting.” No special relationships, no “inside track.” Just a concerned citizen (me) reaching out to their United States Senator.  

Montana Senator Tim Sheehy’s office responded right away and a virtual meeting was initiated with the Senator’s State Director and National Security Advisor. They met with myself and two local SCI friends: Lucas Stacey, a Forest Service Firefighter and Austin Reese, a Navy Veteran. A theme of the call was that each of us sustained an SCI while serving our country.

Stacey, Reese and I voiced our concerns about Congress’ decision to cut the most productive Federal SCI research program in the world, the Department of Defense’s Spinal Cord Injury Research Program (SCIRP), while U.S. citizens living with SCI suffered the debilitating effects of its secondary conditions. Senator Sheehy, who is a former Navy SEAL, knows better than most about the effects and incidence of spinal cord injury on the members of our Armed Services and our Nation’s first responders.

His office took action and submitted an appropriations request as well as a policy request to have SCIRP added to the list of Medical Research Programs covered under the Peer-Reviewed Medical Research Programs (PRMRP). This latter action would provide SCIRP a necessary safety net if it were ever cut again in the future.  

From left: Karen Brunn, Vice President of Research, United Way (retired)/T3 Complete with Senator Sheehy and myself at the Capital in Washington, D.C. in the autumn of 2025.

Senator Sheehy went a step further and sponsored U2FP’s Congressional Briefing on the State of Spinal Cord Injury Research, which we conducted along with our coalition partners back in February of this year. This briefing was a first of its kind, and it was a first for Senator Sheehy as a freshman Senator. We navigated it together with very few hiccups. 

My only regret during this whole process was a communication error that resulted in the Senator’s statement of support arriving too late to deliver at our Briefing. That was an error I want to resolve now by letting you read his words: 

Please go here to send a message of thanks and let Sen. Sheehy know what his help means for you. He played a critical role in the restoration of SCIRP and I want to make sure he understands how much our community appreciates his support.

Thank you!