SAFE STEPS for Veterans Act of 2025

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Bill ID: 119/s/668
Last Updated: July 13, 2026

Sponsored by

Sen. King, Angus S., Jr. [I-ME]

ID: K000383

Follow the money

The bill

SAFE STEPS for Veterans Act of 2025

S. 668, 119th Congress — read as touching Hospitals & Health Systems.

The sponsor

Sen. King, Angus S., Jr. [I-ME]

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

The money

$87,600 raised

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

The alignment

85% match to Project 2025

This bill's text tracks the "Department of Transportation" section, p. 673-675 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. Hearings held. Hearings printed: S.Hrg. 119-247.

December 9, 2025

Introduced

Committee Review

📍 Current Status

Next: The bill moves to the floor for full chamber debate and voting.

🗳️

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 bill, another exercise in bureaucratic flatulence. Let's dissect this mess.

**Main Purpose & Objectives:** The SAFE STEPS for Veterans Act of 2025 aims to establish an Office of Falls Prevention within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The primary objective is to reduce falls and related injuries among veterans by promoting education, research, and improved healthcare services. Or so they claim.

**Key Provisions & Changes to Existing Law:** The bill creates a new office within the VA, which will be responsible for:

1. Monitoring and improving healthcare services related to falls prevention. 2. Developing standards of care for falls prevention. 3. Identifying deficiencies in existing programs and providing technical assistance. 4. Coordinating with other offices within the VA to promote falls prevention.

The bill also authorizes grants and contracts for local education campaigns and research on evidence-based falls prevention programs.

**Affected Parties & Stakeholders:**

1. Veterans, particularly those at risk of falls or with service-connected disabilities. 2. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and its various offices. 3. Healthcare providers and medical facilities within the VA system. 4. Organizations that will receive grants or contracts for education campaigns and research.

**Potential Impact & Implications:** Let's not get too excited here. This bill is a classic example of bureaucratic busywork, designed to create the illusion of action while accomplishing little.

The real purpose of this bill is likely to:

1. Create more administrative positions within the VA, further bloating an already inefficient bureaucracy. 2. Provide a new avenue for pork-barrel spending and earmarks. 3. Allow politicians to claim they're "supporting our veterans" without actually addressing the systemic issues plaguing the VA.

The impact on veterans will be minimal, as this bill focuses more on creating a new office and administrative processes rather than providing tangible benefits or improving existing services.

In conclusion, this bill is a symptom of a larger disease: the chronic inability of politicians to address real problems with meaningful solutions. Instead, they opt for feel-good legislation that sounds good in press releases but accomplishes little.

Related Topics

Military & Veterans Affairs
Generated using Llama 3.1 70B (Dr. Haus personality)

💰 Campaign Finance Network

Sen. King, Angus S., Jr. [I-ME]

Congress 119 • 2024 Election Cycle

Total Contributions
$87,600
17 donors
PACs
$0
Organizations
$9,900
Committees
$0
Individuals
$77,700

No PAC contributions found

1
THE CHICKASAW NATION
3 transactions
$6,600
2
2120 SEA ISLAND LLC
1 transaction
$3,300

No committee contributions found

1
SMITH, BRAD
2 transactions
$13,200
2
DOWNEY, NANCY A.
2 transactions
$10,000
3
BEKENSTEIN, ANITA
2 transactions
$6,600
4
ANDERSON, KATHLEEN K.
2 transactions
$6,600
5
ANDERSON, PAUL MILTON
2 transactions
$6,600
6
OTTEN, LESLIE B.
1 transaction
$5,000
7
BEKENSTEIN, JOSH
1 transaction
$3,300
8
HULL, BLAIR
1 transaction
$3,300
9
ABRAMS, JEFFREY
1 transaction
$3,300
10
BEEBE, MICHAEL
1 transaction
$3,300
11
BEEUWKES, NANCY
1 transaction
$3,300
12
BIRD, KRISTEN
1 transaction
$3,300
13
BRIDE, MARJORIE M.
1 transaction
$3,300
14
BUTLER, GILBERT
1 transaction
$3,300
15
KLARMAN, SETH
1 transaction
$3,300

Cosponsors & Their Campaign Finance

This bill has 2 cosponsors. Below are their top campaign contributors.

Sen. Rounds, Mike [R-SD]

ID: R000605

Top Contributors

23

1
SHAKOPEE MDEWAKANTON SIOUX COMMUNITY
OrganizationPRIOR LAKE, MN
$1,000
Nov 22, 2023
2
SHAKOPEE MDEWAKANTON SIOUX COMMUNITY
OrganizationPRIOR LAKE, MN
$1,000
Apr 30, 2024
3
CHOCTAW NATION OF OKLAHOMA
OrganizationDURANT, OK
$500
Nov 1, 2024
4
ROWAN, CAROLYN
CAROLYN ROWAN COLLECTION • OWNER
IndividualGREENWICH, CT
$6,600
Mar 30, 2023
5
ROWAN, MARC J
APOLLO MGMT. • CEO
IndividualGREENWICH, CT
$6,600
Mar 30, 2023
6
HEGYI, ALBERT
1ST FINANCIAL BANK • BANKER
IndividualSOUTHPORT, CT
$6,600
Aug 22, 2023
7
ROWAN, CAROLYN
CAROLYN ROWAN COLLECTION • OWNER
IndividualGREENWICH, CT
$6,600
Mar 30, 2023
8
ROWAN, MARC J
APOLLO MGMT. • CEO
IndividualGREENWICH, CT
$6,600
Mar 30, 2023
9
HEGYI, ALBERT
1ST FINANCIAL BANK • BANKER
IndividualSOUTHPORT, CT
$6,600
Aug 22, 2023
10
PFAUTCH, ROY
CIVIC SERVICE, INC. • CONSULTANT
IndividualSAINT LOUIS, MO
$6,600
Feb 20, 2024

Sen. Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT]

ID: B001277

Top Contributors

20

1
OLSON, LYNDON
NOT EMPLOYED • NOT EMPLOYED
IndividualWACO, TX
$3,300
Dec 20, 2024
2
ALIX, JAY
ALIX PARTNERS • FOUNDER
IndividualBIRMINGHAM, MI
$3,300
Oct 2, 2023
3
KIM, CHRISTINE M.
BBB LLC • ATTORNEY
IndividualNEW YORK, NY
$3,300
Oct 31, 2023
4
ALIX, JAY
ALIX PARTNERS • FOUNDER
IndividualBIRMINGHAM, MI
$3,300
Apr 15, 2024
5
ROURE, RITA
PAGNY - LINCOLN HOSPITAL • PHYSICIAN
IndividualGREENWICH, CT
$3,300
Apr 10, 2024
6
ROURE, RITA
PAGNY - LINCOLN HOSPITAL • PHYSICIAN
IndividualGREENWICH, CT
$3,300
Apr 10, 2024
7
CHAVEZ, TOM
KRUX INC. • CEO
IndividualSAN FRANCISCO, CA
$3,300
Jul 13, 2024
8
CHAVEZ, TOM
KRUX INC. • CEO
IndividualSAN FRANCISCO, CA
$3,300
Jul 13, 2024
9
JONES, JERRY C.
LIVERAMP INC. • EXECUTIVE
IndividualLITTLE ROCK, AR
$3,300
Sep 19, 2024
10
NESSEL, ARIEL
NESSEL DEVELOPMENT • OWNER
IndividualROSS, CA
$3,300
Jul 12, 2024

Donor Network - Sen. King, Angus S., Jr. [I-ME]

PACs
Organizations
Individuals
Politicians

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

Loading...

Showing 40 nodes and 52 connections

Total contributions: $52

Top Donors - Sen. King, Angus S., Jr. [I-ME]

Showing top 17 donors by contribution amount

2 Orgs15 Individuals

Industry Impact

Which industries are materially affected by specific provisions in this bill. 4 helped.

  • Section 2 establishes an Office of Falls Prevention within the Veterans Health Administration, which will develop standards of care, provide technical assistance to medical facilities, and promote expansion of clinical and research activities related to falls prevention, directly benefiting hospitals and health systems that serve veterans.

  • Section 3(a) amends Section 1710A to require falls risk assessments and fall prevention services by licensed physical or occupational therapists for individuals in nursing homes who have fallen or are at risk, extending care services and creating demand for long-term care providers to implement these services.

  • +Medical Devicesconfidence 0.80

    Section 2(c)(9) and Section 3(c) involve oversight of distribution of resources and information related to falls prevention, including safe patient handling and mobility technology, which could increase demand for medical devices such as mobility aids, transfer equipment, and safety technology in medical and emergency settings.

  • +Biotech & Researchconfidence 0.75

    Section 2(d) directs the Chief Officer to work with the Office of Research and Development and the National Institute on Aging to develop evidence-based falls prevention programs, including research on medication management and polypharmacy, which could benefit biotech firms engaged in pharmaceutical research related to fall risk factors.

Who funds the sponsor on these industries

For each industry this bill affects, here's what the sponsor (Sen. King, Angus S., Jr. [I-ME])received from donors associated with that industry during the 2022–present cycles. Donations are not proof of intent — they are a record of who funds the people writing the law.

Industries this bill HELPS

  • from 4 contributions
    • LIPPMAN, EVAN$1,000
    • TANGULER, TOLGA$1,000
    • RILEY, KRISTIN$250
    • MILLER, KATHERINE$100
  • from 6 contributions
    • TYLER, MICHAEL$1,000
    • HILTON, COLLEEN$350
    • NICHOLS, APRIL$250
    • SAUCIER, EMILY$250
    • STONE, DEBORAH$250

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.

Department of Transportation

Strong
Vector: 65%
Pages: 673-675AI Enhanced

AI Analysis:

"The bill directly supports the VA's mission to deliver exceptional, veteran‑centric health care by creating a dedicated Office of Falls Prevention to improve services, standards, and education—core goals emphasized in the Project 2025 VA section."

Key themes:veteran health careVA mission/veteran‑centric carequality improvementfalls preventionoffice/program establishment within VA

— 641 — 20 DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS Brooks D. Tucker MISSION STATEMENT The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is the primary provider of health care, benefits, and memorial affairs for America’s veterans and their families. The VA has the noble responsibility to render exceptional and timely support and services with respect, compassion, and competence. The veteran is at the forefront of every VA process and interaction. The VA must continually strive to be recognized as a “best in class,” “Veteran-centric”1 system with an organizational ethos inspired by and accountable to the needs and problems of veterans, not subservient to the parochial preferences of a bureaucracy. OVERVIEW At the end of the Obama Administration, the VA was held in low esteem both by the veterans it served and by the employees who served these former warriors. Eroding morale caused by the downstream effects of a health care access crisis in 2014 led to the resignation of Secretary Eric Shinseki and extensive oversight investigations by Congress from 2015–2016. By 2020, however, the VA had become one of the most respected U.S. agencies. This significant progress was due in part to the leadership of Secretary Robert Wilkie (2018–2021) and his team of political appointees and career senior executives, many of them veterans, who led the effort to ensure that the VA became “Veteran-centric” in its governance decisions and fostered a more positive work environment. This mindset translated into a department that was better attuned to employees’ and veterans’ needs and experiences in the daily operations of health care, benefits, — 642 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise and memorial affairs. During that period, the VA received the largest number of watershed congressional authorizations to reform its health care and benefits that it had received since the post–Vietnam War years along with historic increases in annual appropriations, which have tripled since the last full year of the George W. Bush Administration. The current VA leadership team of Biden appointees has adopted some of their predecessors’ governance processes. However, they have not sustained the previous Administration’s commitment to a genuine “Veteran-centric” philosophy, most nota- bly with respect to the delivery of health care, and harbor a bias toward expanding the unionized federal employee workforce that has not always been aligned with a focus on “Veteran-centric” care. There also is growing concern in Congress and the veteran community that the VA is poorly managing and in some cases disregarding provisions of the VA MISSION [Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated Out- side Networks] Act of 20182 that codify broad access for veterans to non-VA health care providers. Efforts to expand disability benefits to large populations without adequate planning have caused an erosion of veterans’ trust in the VA enterprise. Additionally, the current VA leadership is focusing very publicly on “social equity and inclusion” within departmental policy discussions toward ends that will affect only a small minority of the veterans who use the VA. For the first time, the VA is allowing access to abortion services, a medical procedure unrelated to military service that the VA lacks the legal authority and clinical proficiency to perform. In addition to continuing the grotesque culture of violence against the child in the womb, these sociopolitical initiatives and ideological indoctrinations distract from the department’s core missions. DEPARTMENTAL HISTORY Following the Civil War, state veterans homes were established to provide med- ical and hospital treatment for all injuries and diseases. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, “Congress established a new system of Veterans benefits, including programs for disability compensation, insurance for service personnel and Veterans, and vocational rehabilitation for the disabled”3 that was overseen by three different federal programs: the Veterans Bureau, the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Pensions, and the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. In 1921, Congress combined those programs into the Veterans Bureau. Following World War II, a national VA hospital system, much of which remains operational today, was established to care for millions of returning veterans. Following the Vietnam War, the VA’s federally owned and operated hospital network expanded again to meet the needs of the volunteer and draftee population. In the past two decades, the VA has purposely transitioned to leasing medical prop- erties rather than building expensive new facilities that can take years to complete and often experience budget overruns. As the nature of health care has evolved

Department of Veterans Affairs

Strong
Vector: 64%
Pages: 688-691AI Enhanced

AI Analysis:

"The bill’s establishment of an Office of Falls Prevention to improve VA health care services, standardize care, and promote research directly supports Project 2025’s objectives of enhancing veteran health care quality and patient experience within the Department of Veterans Affairs."

Key themes:veteran health carepreventive carequality improvementresearch coordinationpatient experience

— 655 — Department of Veterans Affairs ENDNOTES 1. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Division, VHA Directive 1003, “VHA Veteran Patient Experience,” April 14, 2020, pp. 1 and B-1. 2. S. 2372, VA Mission Act of 2018, Public Law No. 115-182, 115th Congress, June 6, 2018, https://www.congress. gov/115/plaws/publ182/PLAW-115publ182.pdf (accessed January 30, 2023). 3. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, VA History Office, “VA History,” last updated May 27, 2021, https://www. va.gov/HISTORY/VA_History/Overview.asp (accessed January 28, 2023). 4. 38 U.S. Code § 1116, https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/38/1116 (accessed January 28, 2023). 5. S. 3373, Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022 (Honoring Our PACT Act of 2022), Public Law No. 117-168, 117th Congress, August 10, 2022, https://www. congress.gov/117/plaws/publ168/PLAW-117publ168.pdf (accessed January 28, 2023). 6. H.R. 2471, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022, Public Law No. 117-103, 117th Congress, March 15, 2022, Division S, Title I, https://www.congress.gov/117/plaws/publ103/PLAW-117publ103.pdf (accessed March 18, 2023). Known variously as the Department of Veterans Affairs Nurse and Physician Assistant Retention and Income Security Enhancement Act and the VA Nurse and Physician Assistant RAISE Act. 7. See note 5, supra.

Department of Veterans Affairs

Moderate
Vector: 65%
Pages: 679-681AI Enhanced

AI Analysis:

"The bill focuses on falls prevention through education, research, and standardized care, which aligns with Project 2025's emphasis on improving VA health care quality, patient experience, and evidence-based practices, though it does not directly address the specific structural or administrative reforms outlined in the policy."

Key themes:health care quality improvementpatient safetyevidence-based practicesveteran educationstandardized care

— 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.

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.

Full Policy Text

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