Take Care of America’s Veterans Act
Download PDFSponsored by
Sen. Moran, Jerry [R-KS]
ID: M000934
Bill's Journey to Becoming a Law
Track this bill's progress through the legislative process
Latest Action
Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 433.
June 10, 2026
Introduced
📍 Current Status
Next: The bill will be reviewed by relevant committees who will debate, amend, and vote on it.
Committee Review
Floor Action
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 masterpiece of legislative theater, courtesy of the 119th Congress. The "Take Care of America's Veterans Act" - because, you know, they haven't been taking care of them already. (Sarcasm alert.)
**Main Purpose & Objectives:** This bill is a classic example of "feel-good" legislation, designed to make politicians look good while doing the bare minimum for veterans. The main purpose is to amend various laws related to veteran benefits and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), with the objective of improving benefits and administration. Yeah, right. It's all about appearances, folks.
**Key Provisions & Changes to Existing Law:** This behemoth of a bill has 316 sections (yes, you read that right), which can be summarized as follows:
* Expanding benefits for veterans, including increased dependency and indemnity compensation, improved claims processing, and enhanced education and economic opportunities. * Reforms to the VA's disability ratings system, because who doesn't love a good bureaucratic overhaul? * Improvements to healthcare services, including expanded access to critical care hospitals and affiliated clinics. * And, of course, plenty of reporting requirements and assessments to ensure that everyone looks busy while doing nothing substantial.
**Affected Parties & Stakeholders:** Veterans, the VA, and various government agencies will be affected by this bill. But let's be real, the real stakeholders are the politicians who get to tout this as a "victory" for veterans, and the lobbyists who will find ways to exploit these changes for their own gain.
**Potential Impact & Implications:** This bill will likely have a negligible impact on the lives of most veterans. It's a Band-Aid on a bullet wound, a token gesture to placate the masses while ignoring the systemic problems plaguing the VA. The real implications are:
* More bureaucratic red tape and inefficiencies. * Increased costs for taxpayers, with little tangible benefit. * A perpetuation of the status quo, where politicians get to pretend they care about veterans without actually doing anything meaningful.
In conclusion, this bill is a prime example of legislative malpractice - a symptom of a deeper disease: corruption, cowardice, and a complete disregard for the well-being of those who have served. It's a travesty, wrapped in a farce, inside a bureaucratic nightmare. And we're expected to applaud it? Please.
Related Topics
💰 Campaign Finance Network
Sen. Moran, Jerry [R-KS]
Congress 119 • 2024 Election Cycle
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Cosponsors & Their Campaign Finance
This bill has 5 cosponsors. Below are their top campaign contributors.
Sen. Boozman, John [R-AR]
ID: B001236
Top Contributors
10
Sen. Cramer, Kevin [R-ND]
ID: C001096
Top Contributors
10
Sen. Blackburn, Marsha [R-TN]
ID: B001243
Top Contributors
10
Sen. Sheehy, Tim [R-MT]
ID: S001232
Top Contributors
10
Sen. Tillis, Thomas [R-NC]
ID: T000476
Top Contributors
10
Donor Network - Sen. Moran, Jerry [R-KS]
Hub layout: Politicians in center, donors arranged by type in rings around them.
Showing 33 nodes and 35 connections
Total contributions: $143,760
Top Donors - Sen. Moran, Jerry [R-KS]
Showing top 17 donors by contribution amount
Industry Impact
Which industries are materially affected by specific provisions in this bill. 16 helped.
- +Health Insurance confidence 0.90
Section 319 establishes a pilot program to coordinate care between VA and Medicare, which could expand access to health services for veterans and potentially increase utilization of private health insurance plans that coordinate with Medicare, providing a market expansion opportunity.
- +Construction & Engineering confidence 0.90
Section 331 authorizes $1,180,000,000 for a major medical facility project in Manchester, New Hampshire, and Section 653 promotes use of commercial construction codes and standards, creating significant opportunities for construction and engineering firms.
- +Long-Term Care & Nursing Homes confidence 0.90
Section 664 requires a report on long-term care physical infrastructure needs of the VA, which could lead to increased funding and support for long-term care providers.
- +Hospitals & Health Systems confidence 0.85
Section 314 expands access by veterans to critical access hospitals and affiliated clinics under the Veterans Community Care Program, directly increasing patient volume and revenue for hospitals and health systems.
- +Cybersecurity confidence 0.85
Section 401 authorizes $200,000,000 for cybersecurity and operational resiliency, including zero trust architecture implementation and threat detection, directly benefiting cybersecurity firms.
- +Telecommunications confidence 0.80
Section 604 discusses telehealth options under the Veterans Community Care Program, promoting the use of telehealth services which relies on telecommunications infrastructure and broadband providers.
+ 10 more industries not shown.
Project 2025 Policy Matches
This bill shows semantic similarity to the following sections of the Project 2025 policy document. AI-enhanced analysis provides detailed alignment ratings.
Introduction
AI Analysis:
"The Take Care of America's Veterans Act and the Project 2025 policy share moderate alignment through their focus on improving veteran care, benefits, and healthcare services, although the bill does not directly address all specific sections outlined in the Project 2025 policy. The overlap is notable in areas such as enhancing healthcare options and economic opportunities for veterans."
— 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
AI Analysis:
"The Take Care of America's Veterans Act and the Project 2025 policy share moderate alignment through their focus on improving veteran healthcare, education, and economic opportunities, although the bill does not directly address all specific Project 2025 objectives such as overhauling the Family Caregiver Program or conducting an independent VA audit. The act's provisions for enhancing healthcare services and administrative efficiency somewhat align with Project 2025's goals for VA reform."
— 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
AI Analysis:
"The Take Care of America's Veterans Act and the Project 2025 policy share moderate alignment through their focus on improving veteran care and VA administration, but they differ in specific objectives and approaches. The bill does not directly address key Project 2025 themes like rescinding certain clinical policy directives or emphasizing Community Care."
— 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).
Showing 3 of 5 policy matches
About These Correlations
Policy matches are calculated using a hybrid approach: initial candidates are found using semantic similarity between bill summaries and Project 2025 policy text, then an AI model (Llama 3.1 70B) provides detailed alignment ratings and analysis. Ratings range from 1 (minimal alignment) to 5 (very strong alignment). This analysis does not imply direct causation or intent.