Elizabeth Dole Act breakout

Who Is Affected and How?

Caregivers

National Guard and Reservists

Students and Aspiring Professionals

Women Veterans

Suicide Prevention

Severely Ill and Aging Veterans

Veterans Needing Assisted Living

Emergency Medical Care

Employment

Caregivers COPE Act: Provides new avenues to mental health treatment by recognizing the mental strain often experienced by caregivers of veterans with certain circumstances. Elizabeth Dole Home Care Act: Provides better coordination between VA’s Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC) and the Geriatric and Extended Care suite of support services. It would also increase VA’s budget to provide more intensive home-based care for veterans that meet certain circumstances. CARE Act: Requires VA to provide more in-depth analysis to veterans and their caregivers when notifying them about PCAFC eligibility determinations and ensure the appropriate medical specialists are included in the decision-making process. The bill also mandates that VA establish a process to recognize organizations and individuals able to assist a veteran, family member, or caregiver in navigating Veterans Health Administration (VHA) programs and services.

National Guard and Reservists Servicemember Employment Protection Act: Modernizes Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) protections and increases accountability at the Department of Labor so that deployed National Guard and Reservists have the proper employment protections when they return home.

Students and Aspiring Professionals VET-TEC Authorization Act: Fully funds and makes permanent the VA VET-TEC educational assistance program to expand high-tech career opportunities for veterans and transitioning service members. Originally launched in 2019, this program has an 84% graduation rate and an average starting salary of over $66,000 in fields like information science and computer programming. Veterans Education Assistance and Improvement Act: Allows student veterans to use their GI Bill benefits to best meet their needs, such as taking fewer full-time classes if they don't need full-time enrollment to graduate while receiving the full monthly housing allowance (MHA). This bill would also require all educational institutions participating in the GI Bill to make official transcript copies available in a digital format for each eligible veteran or dependent.

Veterans needing assisted living Expanding Veterans’ Options for Long-Term Care Act: Requires VA to create a pilot program for up to 60 eligible veterans in each of two Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISNs) to assess the effectiveness of providing assisted living services and to determine their satisfaction with those program services. This change would depart from current law, which does not allow VA to pay for room and board at assisted living facilities, which can present a barrier to care and provide fewer options for veterans with heightened care needs.

Women Veterans Section 154 (Mobile Mammography Services): Allocates $5 million for fiscal year 2025 to the Office of Women’s Health to expand women veterans' access to mobile mammography initiatives and advanced mammography equipment. It also includes outreach activities to publicize the initiatives and equipment.

Suicide Prevention The Not Just a Number Act: Requires VA to publish a “National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report” to include data about suicide rates disaggregated by age, gender, race, and ethnicity and compares these trends to engagement with Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Vet Centers, and Veterans Business Administration (VBA). The initial report would also include strategy and recommendations for improving data collection at various levels of government and improving the timeliness of identification and analysis of suicide deaths by veterans.

Severely Ill and aging veterans Elizabeth Dole Home Care Act: Expands access to home- and community-based services to help ensure that elderly veterans and those with disabilities can receive in-home care rather than at a nursing home. Most importantly, the act would raise the cap on costs of non-institutional care from 65% of what could be spent at a nursing home to 100%. It would also expand the popular Veteran Directed Care program to provide veterans with funds to obtain in-home care services and related items. VA would be required to create a Homemaker and Home Health Aide Program, a Home-Based Primary Care Program, and a Purchased Skilled Home Care Program to provide in-home services to veterans.

Emergency Medical Care Rural Vital Emergency Transportation Services (VETS) Act: Requires VA to pay or reimburse a veteran for the cost of transportation via ambulance from a covered location to a VA facility, a non-VA provider, or the nearest hospital that can meet the veteran’s needs. As these services have become more scarce in rural communities, VA has a critical role to play in ensuring that veterans maintain access to lifesaving care and services.

Employment Get Rewarding Outdoor Work for Our Veterans (GROW) Act: Requires VA to collaborate with the Department of the Interior to administer a pilot program to employ veterans in positions related to the Department of the Interior’s conservation and resource management activities.

Other Priorities

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Other Priorities