ICYMI - EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Darrell Issa will use NDAA to expand Gold Star family access to military bases

Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) wants to ensure that all Gold Star family members are afforded access to U.S. military installations, and he plans to use the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to make it happen.

An Issa-authored amendment to the NDAA, obtained exclusively by the Washington Reporter, will allow for individuals who are a widow or widower, unmarried partner, parent, grandparent, child, stepchild, child through adoption, brother, half-brother, sister, half-sister, or step-sibling of a covered member of the Armed Forces, or other family member as the Secretary considers appropriate.

Issa’s provision stems in part from his years of working with Gold Star family members whose loved ones were killed during President Joe Biden’s failed withdrawal from Afghanistan. Under current law, the mother-in-law of one of those service members, Sgt. Nicole Gee, would not be afforded full access to bases.

That woman, Christy Shamblin, has grown close with both Issa and his staff in the years since the August 26th, 2021 suicide attack that killed her daughter-in-law and 12 other American service members in Kabul, Afghanistan.

“We are creating a path for the families of the future because we realize that any provision that does not include Christy Shamblin is no expansion at all,” Issa explained to the Reporter. Issa’s advocacy for Gold Star family members goes well beyond his latest measure, which would help Shamblin and others like her.

In the wake of the suicide attack that killed the 13 Americans and over 100 Afghans, Issa emerged as the leading congressional champion of the families, many of whom joined together to form the Abbey Gate Coalition.

Issa was the first lawmaker to host them at a public forum, which he did in his district in 2023, and he even went so far as to demand the Capitol Police drop charges against one of the parents — Steve Nikoui — who was arrested for disrupting Biden’s final State of the Union address.

“America’s Gold Star families are the very foundation of a community that has given to America the gift of liberty — and it is a debt that can never be repaid,” Issa told the Reporter. “It is well within our power, however, to hold these families close and allow them new and better ways to remain connected to the military. I know we are finally doing the right thing.”

Read Congressman Issa's NDAA Amendment here

Article by Matthew Foldi, 9/12/25, Washington Reporter, EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Darrell Issa will use NDAA to expand Gold Star family access to military bases