Sponsors (4)
The bill increases annual outreach and offers of mental health consultations for veterans and creates GAO oversight to identify barriers—improving awareness and informing reforms—but may strain VA capacity, raise administrative costs, and highlight problems that won't be immediately resolved.
Veterans with service-connected mental health disabilities will receive annual outreach and an offer of a VA mental health consultation to assess needs and learn about care options, increasing awareness and likely improving access to care.
Veterans and policymakers will gain better oversight because the Government Accountability Office must report within two years on utilization of consultations and barriers to access, informing policy changes to remove obstacles.
Veterans with service-connected mental health disabilities may face increased unmet expectations if the VA lacks sufficient mental health capacity to provide timely care identified during annual consultations.
Taxpayers and VA health systems may incur additional administrative costs and staff time to carry out annual outreach and consultations, increasing government spending or diverting resources.
Veterans may become more aware of systemic barriers when GAO reporting highlights them, but without immediate remedies this could leave veterans informed about problems yet still without quick fixes.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to offer an annual mental health consultation and to conduct annual outreach about VA mental health services for veterans who receive compensation for a service-connected mental health disability. The law also directs the Government Accountability Office to report to the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees within two years on how many veterans received the consultations and outreach and on reported barriers to care. It includes clerical edits that redesignate an existing U.S. Code section (from 1167 to 1169) and associated punctuation adjustments.
Introduced June 10, 2025 by Nikki Budzinski · Last progress June 10, 2025