TRAVEL Act of 2025

This bill, called the TRAVEL Act, lets the Department of Veterans Affairs send its own doctors to travel and treat veterans at VA facilities in U.S. territories for short stints, up to one year. The goal is to make sure veterans in places like American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands can get care when local staffing is short. These traveling doctors must work with non-VA providers when needed so care stays coordinated and high quality, and the VA must offer them a relocation or retention bonus to support these temporary assignments. The act amends veterans’ health law to allow this “traveling physician” approach in the territories and possessions of the United States.

Key points:

• Who is affected: Veterans in U.S. territories; VA physicians who volunteer for temporary travel roles.
• What changes: VA can assign doctors as traveling physicians for up to one year; they must coordinate with non-VA providers; the VA provides a relocation or retention bonus.
• Where: American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and other U.S. territories or possessions.