End Veterans Overdose Act of 2026

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Bill ID: 119/s/3758
Last Updated: March 18, 2026

Sponsored by

Sen. Shaheen, Jeanne [D-NH]

ID: S001181

Follow the money

The bill

End Veterans Overdose Act of 2026

S. 3758, 119th Congress — read as touching Pharmaceuticals.

The sponsor

Sen. Shaheen, Jeanne [D-NH]

Every bill has someone who introduced it. That name is where the paper trail starts.

The money

$72,850 raised

21 itemised contributions to this sponsor, pulled from FEC filings.

The alignment

65% match to Project 2025

This bill's text tracks the "Introduction" section, p. 679-681 of the Mandate for Leadership.

Bill's Journey to Becoming a Law

Track this bill's progress through the legislative process

Latest Action

Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably.

March 17, 2026

Introduced

Committee Review

Floor Action

📍 Current Status

Next: The full Senate will vote on whether to pass the bill.

Passed Senate

🏛️

House Review

🎉

Passed Congress

🖊️

Presidential Action

⚖️

Became Law

📚 How does a bill become a law?

1. Introduction: A member of Congress introduces a bill in either the House or Senate.

2. Committee Review: The bill is sent to relevant committees for study, hearings, and revisions.

3. Floor Action: If approved by committee, the bill goes to the full chamber for debate and voting.

4. Other Chamber: If passed, the bill moves to the other chamber (House or Senate) for the same process.

5. Conference: If both chambers pass different versions, a conference committee reconciles the differences.

6. Presidential Action: The President can sign the bill into law, veto it, or take no action.

7. Became Law: If signed (or if Congress overrides a veto), the bill becomes law!

Bill Summary

Another bill that's about as effective as a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. The "End Veterans Overdose Act of 2026" is a perfect example of legislative theater, designed to make politicians look like they care without actually doing anything meaningful.

**Main Purpose & Objectives:** The main purpose of this bill is to provide opioid overdose rescue medications to veterans and their caregivers at no charge. Wow, what a bold move! It's not like the VA has been struggling with opioid addiction for decades or anything. The objectives are clear: make some noise about veteran care, get some good PR, and maybe, just maybe, help a few people.

**Key Provisions & Changes to Existing Law:** The bill requires the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide covered medications (i.e., naloxone) at no charge to veterans and their caregivers. It also includes provisions for drug information and limitations on the use of personally identifiable information. Oh, and there's a report required every two years because, you know, accountability is key... or something.

**Affected Parties & Stakeholders:** Veterans, caregivers, and the VA are the obvious stakeholders here. But let's not forget about the real winners: pharmaceutical companies that manufacture naloxone. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that this bill happens to benefit them.

**Potential Impact & Implications:** This bill might help a few veterans in the short term, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to the actual problems facing the VA and veteran care. It's a Band-Aid on a bullet wound, as I said earlier. The real issue is the systemic failure of the VA to address opioid addiction, mental health, and other critical issues. This bill doesn't even scratch the surface.

In conclusion, this bill is a classic example of "legislative placebo effect." It's designed to make politicians look good without actually doing anything meaningful. I'm sure it'll get plenty of bipartisan support because, hey, who doesn't love veterans? But let's not be fooled – this bill is all about optics and nothing about actual change.

Diagnosis: Legislative Theater-itis, a disease characterized by the tendency to create bills that sound good but accomplish little. Symptoms include excessive use of buzzwords, vague objectives, and a complete lack of meaningful action. Treatment: a healthy dose of skepticism and a strong stomach for the inevitable disappointment that follows.

Related Topics

Military & Veterans AffairsPublic Health & Pandemic Response
Generated using Llama 3.1 70B (Dr. Haus personality)

💰 Campaign Finance Network

Sen. Shaheen, Jeanne [D-NH]

Congress 119 • 2024 Election Cycle

Total Contributions
$72,850
13 donors
PACs
$0
Organizations
$250
Committees
$0
Individuals
$72,600

No PAC contributions found

1
TILT LANDSCAPE MAINTENANCE LLC
1 transaction
$250

No committee contributions found

1
HAWASH, NOUR
4 transactions
$19,800
2
HAWASH, SAFA
2 transactions
$6,600
3
KANDIL, MARIAM
2 transactions
$6,600
4
SHAH, JAWAD
2 transactions
$6,600
5
SIMMONS, IAN
2 transactions
$6,600
6
SOLTAN, BOSHRA
2 transactions
$6,600
7
JONDY, JENAN
1 transaction
$3,300
8
KANDIL, OSAMA
1 transaction
$3,300
9
WU, ALBERT
1 transaction
$3,300
10
MORIN, THOMAS
1 transaction
$3,300
11
CROWLEY, MATTHEW
1 transaction
$3,300
12
HUNT, SWANEE
1 transaction
$3,300

Cosponsors & Their Campaign Finance

This bill has 1 cosponsors. Below are their top campaign contributors.

Sen. Crapo, Mike [R-ID]

ID: C000880

Top Contributors

10

1
MORONGO BAND OF MISSION INDIANS
OrganizationBANNING, CA
$3,300
Jun 30, 2023
2
SAN MANUEL BAND OF MISSION INDIANS
OrganizationLOS ANGELES, CA
$2,000
Dec 19, 2024
3
SHAKOPEE MDEWAKANTON SIOUX COMMUNITY
OrganizationPRIOR LAKE, MN
$1,000
Apr 30, 2024
4
ONEIDA NATION
OrganizationONEIDA, WI
$1,000
Sep 10, 2024
5
RENO-SPARKS INDIAN COLONY
OrganizationRENO, NV
$500
Sep 10, 2024
6
ARNOLD, JOHN D. MR.
NONERETIRED
IndividualHOUSTON, TX
$6,600
May 6, 2024
7
LEPRINO, TERRY L
NONERETIRED
IndividualDENVER, CO
$3,300
Nov 1, 2024
8
BUKOWSKY, BRANT
MORTGAGE RESEARCH CENTERENTREPRENEUR
IndividualCOLUMBIA, MO
$3,300
Oct 9, 2023
9
BUKOWSKY, BROCK
VETERANS UNITEDFINANCE
IndividualCOLUMBIA, MO
$3,300
Nov 28, 2023
10
SILBEY, ALEXANDER
ATS COMMUNICATIONS, INC.CONSULTANT
IndividualWASHINGTON, DC
$3,300
Dec 21, 2023

Donor Network - Sen. Shaheen, Jeanne [D-NH]

PACs
Organizations
Individuals
Politicians

Hub layout: Politicians in center, donors arranged by type in rings around them.

Loading...

Showing 32 nodes and 24 connections (45 secondary connections hidden)

Total contributions: $79,150

Top Donors - Sen. Shaheen, Jeanne [D-NH]

Showing top 13 donors by contribution amount

1 Org12 Individuals

Industry Impact

Which industries are materially affected by specific provisions in this bill. 2 helped.

  • +Pharmaceuticalsconfidence 0.90

    Section 2(a) directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to make covered medications (opioid overdose rescue medications such as naloxone) available at VA pharmacies at no charge and without a prescription, which expands market access for pharmaceutical manufacturers of these medications.

  • Section 2(c)(2)(C)(ii) references the Secretary furnishing hospital care, medical services, and extended care services to covered veterans under section 1703 of title 38, United States Code, indicating integration with VA health care systems that would benefit from increased medication distribution.

Project 2025 Policy Matches

This bill shows semantic similarity to the following sections of the Project 2025 policy document.

Introduction

Moderate65.3%
Pages: 679-681

— 646 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise 3. Section 121 (developing and administering an education program that teaches veterans about their health care options available from the Department of Veterans Affairs). 4. Section 152 (returning the Office for Innovation of Care and Payment to the Office of Enterprise Integration with a joint governance process set up with the VHA). 5. Section 161 (overhauling Family Caregiver Program expansion, which has gone poorly, so that it focuses on consistency of eligibility and awareness that the most severely wounded or injured may require the program indefinitely). l Require the VHA to report publicly on all aspects of its operation, including quality, safety, patient experience, timeliness, and cost-effectiveness, using standards similar to those in the Medicare Accountable Care Organization program so that the government may monitor and achieve continuous improvement in the VA system more effectively. l Encourage VA Medical Centers to seek out relevant academic and private- sector input in their communities to improve the overall patient experience. Budget l Conduct an independent audit of the VA similar to the 2018 Department of Defense (DOD) audit to identify IT, management, financial, contracting, and other deficiencies. l Assess the misalignment of VHA facilities and rising infrastructure costs. The VHA operates 172 inpatient medical facilities nationally that are an average of 60 years old. Some of these facilities are underutilized and inadequately staffed. Facilities in certain urban and rural areas are seeing significant declines in the veteran population and strong competition for fresh medical staff. In 2018, Congress authorized an Asset Infrastructure Review (AIR) of national VHA medical markets to provide insight into where the VA health care budget should be responsibly allocated to serve veterans most effectively. However, the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee lacked the political will to act on the White House’s nominations of commission members, and this ultimately led to termination of the AIR process. The next Administration should seek out agile, creative, and politically acceptable operational solutions to this aging infrastructure status quo,

Introduction

Moderate65.3%
Pages: 679-681

— 646 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise 3. Section 121 (developing and administering an education program that teaches veterans about their health care options available from the Department of Veterans Affairs). 4. Section 152 (returning the Office for Innovation of Care and Payment to the Office of Enterprise Integration with a joint governance process set up with the VHA). 5. Section 161 (overhauling Family Caregiver Program expansion, which has gone poorly, so that it focuses on consistency of eligibility and awareness that the most severely wounded or injured may require the program indefinitely). l Require the VHA to report publicly on all aspects of its operation, including quality, safety, patient experience, timeliness, and cost-effectiveness, using standards similar to those in the Medicare Accountable Care Organization program so that the government may monitor and achieve continuous improvement in the VA system more effectively. l Encourage VA Medical Centers to seek out relevant academic and private- sector input in their communities to improve the overall patient experience. Budget l Conduct an independent audit of the VA similar to the 2018 Department of Defense (DOD) audit to identify IT, management, financial, contracting, and other deficiencies. l Assess the misalignment of VHA facilities and rising infrastructure costs. The VHA operates 172 inpatient medical facilities nationally that are an average of 60 years old. Some of these facilities are underutilized and inadequately staffed. Facilities in certain urban and rural areas are seeing significant declines in the veteran population and strong competition for fresh medical staff. In 2018, Congress authorized an Asset Infrastructure Review (AIR) of national VHA medical markets to provide insight into where the VA health care budget should be responsibly allocated to serve veterans most effectively. However, the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee lacked the political will to act on the White House’s nominations of commission members, and this ultimately led to termination of the AIR process. The next Administration should seek out agile, creative, and politically acceptable operational solutions to this aging infrastructure status quo, — 647 — Department of Veterans Affairs reimagine the health care footprint in some locales, and spur a realignment of capacity through budgetary allocations. Specifically: 1. Embrace the expansion of Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs) as an avenue to maintain a VA footprint in challenging medical markets without investing further in obsolete and unaffordable VA health care campuses. 2. Explore the potential to pilot facility-sharing partnerships between the VA and strained local health care systems to reduce costs by leveraging limited talent and resources. Personnel l Extend the term of the Under Secretary for Health (USH) to five years. Additionally, authority should be given to reappoint this individual for a second five-year term both to allow for continuity and to protect the USH from political transition. l Establish a Senior Executive Service (SES) position of VHA Care System Chief Information Officer (CIO), selected by and reporting to the chief of the VHA Care System with a dotted line to the VA CIO. l Identify a workflow process to bring wait times in compliance with VA MISSION Act–required time frames wherever possible. 1. Assess the daily clinical appointment load for physicians and clinical staff in medical facilities where wait times for care are well outside of the time frames required by the VA MISSION Act. 2. Require VHA facilities to increase the number of patients seen each day to equal the number seen by DOD medical facilities: approximately 19 patients per provider per day. Currently, VA facilities may be seeing as few as six patients per provider per day. 3. Consider a pilot program to extend weekday appointment hours and offer Saturday appointment options to veterans if a facility continues to demonstrate that it has excess capacity and is experiencing delays in the delivery of care for veterans. 4. Identify clinical services that are consistently in high demand but require cost-prohibitive compensation to recruit and retain talent, and examine exceptions for higher competitive pay.

Introduction

Moderate61.8%
Pages: 676-678

— 644 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise In sum, the VA for the foreseeable future will experience significant fiscal, human capital, and infrastructure crosswinds and risks. Budgets are at historic highs, and with a workforce now above 400,000, the VA is contending with a lack of new veteran enrollees to offset the declining population of older veterans. Recruitment of medical and benefits personnel has become more challenging. Veterans are migrating from the northern states to the southern and western states for retirement and employment. Meanwhile, VA information technol- ogy (IT) is struggling to keep pace with the evolution of patient care and record keeping. Consequently, VA leaders in the next Administration must be wise and courageous political strategists, experienced managers to run day-to-day oper- ations more effectively, innovators to address the changing veteran landscape, and agile “fixers” to mitigate and repair systemic problems created or ignored by the present leadership team. VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION (VHA) Needed Reforms l Rescind all departmental clinical policy directives that are contrary to principles of conservative governance starting with abortion services and gender reassignment surgery. Neither aligns with service-connected conditions that would warrant VA’s providing this type of clinical care, and both follow the Left’s pernicious trend of abusing the role of government to further its own agenda. l Focus on the effects of shifting veteran demographics. At least during the next decade, the VA will experience a significant generational shift in its overall patient population. Of the approximately 18 million veterans alive today, roughly 9.1 million are enrolled for VA health care, and 6.4 million of these enrollees use VA health care consistently. These 6.4 million veterans are split almost evenly between those who are over age 65 and those who are under age 65, but the share of VA’s health care dollars is spent predominantly in the over-65 cohort. That share increases significantly as veterans live longer and use the VHA system at a higher rate. VHA enrollments of new users are increasingly at risk of being exceeded by the deaths of current enrollees, primarily because significant numbers of the Vietnam generation are reaching their life expectancy. The generational transition from Vietnam-era veterans to post-9/11 veterans will take several years to complete. The ongoing demographic transition is a catalyst for needed assessments of how the VA can improve the delivery of care to a numerically declining and differently dispersed national population — 645 — Department of Veterans Affairs of veterans—a population that is more active, reaching middle age or retirement age, and migrating for lifestyle and career reasons. At the center of the VHA’s evolution during this generational transition is an ongoing tension, some of it politically contrived, between Direct Care for Veterans provided from inside the VHA system and Community Care for Veterans who are referred to private providers participating in the VHA’s two Community Care Networks (CCNs). In recent years, the budget for Community Care has grown as demand from veterans has risen sharply, sometimes outpacing the budgets for Community Care at individual VAMCs. The Trump Administration made Community Care part of its “Veteran- centric” approach to ensure that veterans would be able to participate more fully in their health care decisions and have options if or when the VHA was unable to meet their needs. The Biden Administration has watered down that effort, has sought various procedural ways to slow the rate of referrals to private doctors, and at some facilities is reportedly manipulating the Community Care access standards required by the VA MISSION Act of 2018. If the makeup of Congress is favorable in 2025, the next Administration should rapidly and explicitly codify VA MISSION Act access standards in legislation to prevent the VA from avoiding or watering down the requirements in the future. First and foremost, a veterans bill of rights is needed so that veterans and VA staff know exactly what benefits veterans are entitled to receive, with a clear process for the adjudication of disputes, and so that staff ensure that all veterans are informed of their eligibility for Community Care. Currently, veterans are not routinely and consistently told that they are eligible for Community Care unless they request information or are given a referral. l To strengthen Community Care, the next Administration should create new Secretarial directives to implement the VA MISSION Act properly. Sections for consideration and areas for reform include the following: 1. Sections 101 and 103 (Community Care eligibility for access standards and the best medical interest of the veteran). 2. Section 104 (Community Care access standards and standards for quality of care).

About These Correlations

Policy matches are calculated using semantic similarity between bill summaries and Project 2025 policy text. A score of 60% or higher indicates meaningful thematic overlap. This does not imply direct causation or intent, but highlights areas where legislation aligns with Project 2025 policy objectives.

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