Sponsors (2)
The bill preserves and expands funding and oversight for VA suicide-prevention grants—improving continuity, coordination, and accountability for veterans—while trading off smaller maximum grants (which may hamper large providers), reduced specificity about external advisors, and modest fiscal exposure.
Veterans will continue to receive suicide-prevention grant-supported services because the bill extends authorization and increases funding to $85M for FY2026–FY2028, ensuring the program continues beyond prior expiration.
Veterans and VA-affiliated providers will likely see improved coordination and access to suicide-prevention services due to required annual briefings between grantees and VA medical center staff.
Taxpayers and veterans gain better oversight because the bill adds metrics and reporting requirements so Congress receives clearer accountability on grant use and program performance.
Larger veterans service providers and nonprofits may be constrained because the bill reduces the maximum single grant from $750,000 to $250,000, which could force project fragmentation or cause some comprehensive interventions to be scaled back or abandoned.
Taxpayers could face higher federal spending because authorization is increased to $85M without offsets, raising budgetary and fiscal concerns.
Veterans and the public may lose transparency about outside advisors influencing the program because the bill replaces a specific Presidential Task Force reference with a broad, discretionary phrase naming 'such entities as the Secretary considers appropriate.'
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Makes targeted changes to the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program at the Department of Veterans Affairs: it lowers the maximum single-grant size, extends and reauthorizes the program through September 30, 2028 with higher total funding for the new period, requires more reporting metrics and annual briefings for nearby VA medical center staff, and gives the Secretary broader discretion over which external entities are referenced for coordination and consultation.
Introduced February 27, 2025 by Mark R. Warner · Last progress February 27, 2025