Sponsor
Rosa L. Delauro
Representative · D-CT
Representative · D-CT
The bill honors veterans and standardizes a VA facility name—raising awareness and clarifying federal records—while providing no new funding or services and imposing only modest administrative costs and short-term transition confusion.
Veterans nationwide are publicly honored and the bill raises awareness of veteran service and combat-related mental health struggles, which can help destigmatize care-seeking and highlight VA medical care and brain-research efforts.
VA patients and veterans served by the West Haven facility will keep a consistent institutional identity and federal documentation will be standardized to the new Captain Paul W. Bucha VA Medical Center name, reducing ambiguity in records, maps, and legal references.
Naming the facility for Captain Paul W. Bucha provides a tangible honor that can boost local morale and recognition among facility staff, patients, and the veteran community.
The bill's honorific recognition and findings do not provide new funding or change veterans' programs or services, so veterans receive symbolic recognition without material resources or policy changes.
Congressional recognition may be perceived as a substitute for concrete action on veterans' mental health needs, potentially reducing public or policymaker pressure to deliver substantive services.
Renaming the facility will require minor administrative updates (signage, stationery, databases) that impose small costs on the VA and, ultimately, taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Renames the VA medical center in West Haven, Connecticut as the Captain Paul W. Bucha VA Medical Center and treats all references to the facility as references to the new name.
Names the Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in West Haven, Connecticut (or any successor location) as the Captain Paul W. Bucha VA Medical Center and treats all legal and administrative references to that facility as references to the new name. It also includes findings honoring Captain Paul W. Bucha’s military service, awards, education, advocacy for veterans, and recent death and donation of his brain to research.
Official title: To designate the medical center of the Department of Veterans Affairs in West Haven, Connecticut, as the "Captain Paul W. 'Bud' Bucha VA Medical Center".
Introduced July 23, 2025 by Rosa L. Delauro · Last progress July 16, 2026