Prioritizing Veterans’ Survivors Act

Download PDF
Bill ID: 119/hr/1228
Last Updated: July 12, 2026

Sponsored by

Rep. Ciscomani, Juan [R-AZ-6]

ID: C001133

Follow the money

The bill

Prioritizing Veterans’ Survivors Act

HR. 1228, 119th Congress.

The sponsor

Rep. Ciscomani, Juan [R-AZ-6]

Every bill has someone who introduced it. That name is where the paper trail starts.

The money

$152,234 raised

30 itemised contributions to this sponsor, pulled from FEC filings.

The alignment

85% match to Project 2025

This bill's text tracks the "Department of Transportation" section, p. 673-675 of the Mandate for Leadership.

Bill's Journey to Becoming a Law

Track this bill's progress through the legislative process

Latest Action

Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

April 9, 2025

Introduced

Committee Review

Floor Action

Passed House

Senate Review

📍 Current Status

Next: Both chambers must agree on the same version of the bill.

🎉

Passed Congress

🖊️

Presidential Action

⚖️

Became Law

📚 How does a bill become a law?

1. Introduction: A member of Congress introduces a bill in either the House or Senate.

2. Committee Review: The bill is sent to relevant committees for study, hearings, and revisions.

3. Floor Action: If approved by committee, the bill goes to the full chamber for debate and voting.

4. Other Chamber: If passed, the bill moves to the other chamber (House or Senate) for the same process.

5. Conference: If both chambers pass different versions, a conference committee reconciles the differences.

6. Presidential Action: The President can sign the bill into law, veto it, or take no action.

7. Became Law: If signed (or if Congress overrides a veto), the bill becomes law!

Bill Summary

Another masterpiece of legislative theater, brought to you by the esteemed members of Congress. The "Prioritizing Veterans' Survivors Act" - because nothing says "prioritizing veterans" like a bill that's about as substantial as a Band-Aid on a bullet wound.

**Main Purpose & Objectives:** The main purpose of this bill is to create the illusion that Congress cares about veterans and their survivors. The objective is to score some cheap political points by "clarifying" the organization of the Office of Survivors Assistance within the Department of Veterans Affairs. Wow, I bet the veterans' widows are just thrilled.

**Key Provisions & Changes to Existing Law:** The bill amends Section 321(a) of title 38, United States Code, by striking "in the Department" and inserting "in the Office of the Secretary". Oh boy, that's a game-changer. I'm sure this minor tweak will revolutionize the way survivors' assistance is provided. It's not like they're just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

**Affected Parties & Stakeholders:** The affected parties are veterans' survivors, who will likely remain blissfully unaware of this "clarification". The stakeholders are the politicians who sponsored this bill, who get to pretend they care about veterans without actually doing anything meaningful. And, of course, the lobbyists who helped craft this masterpiece of legislative fluff.

**Potential Impact & Implications:** The potential impact is zero. Zilch. Nada. This bill won't change a thing for veterans or their survivors. But hey, it's great PR for the politicians involved. They get to tout their "support" for veterans while doing nothing to address the real issues facing them.

Diagnosis: This bill is suffering from a bad case of "Legislative Lip Service Syndrome" (LLSS). Symptoms include empty rhetoric, meaningless tweaks to existing law, and a complete lack of substance. Treatment involves calling out the politicians for their hypocrisy and demanding actual action on behalf of veterans. Prognosis: poor.

In short, this bill is a joke. A pathetic attempt to pretend that Congress cares about veterans while doing nothing to address the real problems they face. It's a Band-Aid on a bullet wound, a drop in the ocean, a... you get the idea.

Related Topics

Military & Veterans Affairs
Generated using Llama 3.1 70B (Dr. Haus personality)

💰 Campaign Finance Network

Rep. Ciscomani, Juan [R-AZ-6]

Congress 119 • 2024 Election Cycle

Total Contributions
$152,234
27 donors
PACs
$1,000
Organizations
$19,234
Committees
$0
Individuals
$132,000
1
SALT RIVER PIMA MARICOPA INDIAN COMMUNITY
1 transaction
$1,000
1
POARCH BAND OF CREEK INDIANS
2 transactions
$5,134
2
CHEROKEE NATION
1 transaction
$3,300
3
EASTERN BAND OF CHEROKEE INDIANS
1 transaction
$3,300
4
THE CHICKASAW NATION
2 transactions
$3,000
5
DELTA AIRLINES
1 transaction
$2,500
6
MS BAND OF CHOCTAW INDIANS
1 transaction
$1,000
7
COLORADO RIVER INDIAN TRIBES
1 transaction
$1,000

No committee contributions found

1
REIZOVIC, ROY
2 transactions
$13,200
2
EMMET, RICHARD
1 transaction
$6,600
3
EVANS, CHRISTOPHER
1 transaction
$6,600
4
KENDRICK, KEN
1 transaction
$6,600
5
KENDRICK, RANDY
1 transaction
$6,600
6
MCCALLISTER, ROSS
1 transaction
$6,600
7
SILVERMAN, JEFFREY
1 transaction
$6,600
8
STERN, ELIZABETH MAY
1 transaction
$6,600
9
WEEKLEY, RICHARD
1 transaction
$6,600
10
ASSENMACHER, ROBERT
1 transaction
$6,600
11
ASSENMACHER, WILLIAM
1 transaction
$6,600
12
BIDWILL, MICHAEL
1 transaction
$6,600
13
BRAVERMAN, VERONICA
1 transaction
$6,600
14
CHAMBERLAIN, JAIME
1 transaction
$6,600
15
CHAMBERLAIN, MARTHA
1 transaction
$6,600
16
CHAPMAN, TED
1 transaction
$6,600
17
CHRIST, HAROLD
1 transaction
$6,600
18
COONS, BETH
1 transaction
$6,600
19
COTTER, CHRISTOPHER
1 transaction
$6,600

Cosponsors & Their Campaign Finance

This bill has 1 cosponsors. Below are their top campaign contributors.

Rep. Bost, Mike [R-IL-12]

ID: B001295

Top Contributors

10

1
AK-CHIN INDIAN COMMUNITY
OrganizationMARICOPA, AZ
$3,300
Feb 21, 2024
2
AK-CHIN INDIAN COMMUNITY
OrganizationMARICOPA, AZ
$3,300
Aug 14, 2024
3
MIAMI TRIBE OF OKLAHOMA
OrganizationMIAMI, OK
$2,000
Aug 14, 2024
4
CAMPBELL FARMS
OrganizationCARMI, IL
$1,500
Sep 19, 2023
5
MUSCOGEE CREEK NATION
OrganizationOKMULGEE, OK
$1,000
Jun 25, 2024
6
MUSCOGEE CREEK NATION
OrganizationOKMULGEE, OK
$500
Jun 25, 2024
7
WAITE, TOMB & EBERLY LLP
OrganizationTROY, OH
$500
Apr 1, 2024
8
EMMET, RICHARD
NONE • RETIRED
IndividualLARCHMONT, NY
$6,600
Nov 21, 2023
9
GILLIAM, RICHARD
CUMBERLAND DEVELOPMENT • MANAGER
IndividualCHARLOTTESVILLE, VA
$6,600
Nov 21, 2023
10
SCHWAB, CHARLES
CHARLES SCHWAB CORPORATION • CHAIRMAN
IndividualPALM BEACH, FL
$6,600
Dec 19, 2023

Donor Network - Rep. Ciscomani, Juan [R-AZ-6]

PACs
Organizations
Individuals
Politicians

Hub layout: Politicians in center, donors arranged by type in rings around them.

Loading...

Showing 71 nodes and 33 connections (79 secondary connections hidden)

Total contributions: $160,834

Top Donors - Rep. Ciscomani, Juan [R-AZ-6]

Showing top 25 donors by contribution amount

1 PAC7 Orgs19 Individuals

Project 2025 Policy Matches

This bill shows semantic similarity to the following sections of the Project 2025 policy document.AI-enhanced analysis provides detailed alignment ratings.

Department of Transportation

Strong
Vector: 69%
Pages: 673-675AI Enhanced

AI Analysis:

"The bill’s reorganization of the Office of Survivors Assistance under the Secretary aims to improve coordination, accountability, and timely support for veterans’ survivors, directly supporting the Project 2025 VA goals of a veteran‑centric, accountable, and responsive department."

Key themes:veteran‑centric serviceaccountability and oversightimproved coordination/supporttimely benefits processingVA organizational reform

— 641 — 20 DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS Brooks D. Tucker MISSION STATEMENT The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is the primary provider of health care, benefits, and memorial affairs for America’s veterans and their families. The VA has the noble responsibility to render exceptional and timely support and services with respect, compassion, and competence. The veteran is at the forefront of every VA process and interaction. The VA must continually strive to be recognized as a “best in class,” “Veteran-centric”1 system with an organizational ethos inspired by and accountable to the needs and problems of veterans, not subservient to the parochial preferences of a bureaucracy. OVERVIEW At the end of the Obama Administration, the VA was held in low esteem both by the veterans it served and by the employees who served these former warriors. Eroding morale caused by the downstream effects of a health care access crisis in 2014 led to the resignation of Secretary Eric Shinseki and extensive oversight investigations by Congress from 2015–2016. By 2020, however, the VA had become one of the most respected U.S. agencies. This significant progress was due in part to the leadership of Secretary Robert Wilkie (2018–2021) and his team of political appointees and career senior executives, many of them veterans, who led the effort to ensure that the VA became “Veteran-centric” in its governance decisions and fostered a more positive work environment. This mindset translated into a department that was better attuned to employees’ and veterans’ needs and experiences in the daily operations of health care, benefits, — 642 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise and memorial affairs. During that period, the VA received the largest number of watershed congressional authorizations to reform its health care and benefits that it had received since the post–Vietnam War years along with historic increases in annual appropriations, which have tripled since the last full year of the George W. Bush Administration. The current VA leadership team of Biden appointees has adopted some of their predecessors’ governance processes. However, they have not sustained the previous Administration’s commitment to a genuine “Veteran-centric” philosophy, most nota- bly with respect to the delivery of health care, and harbor a bias toward expanding the unionized federal employee workforce that has not always been aligned with a focus on “Veteran-centric” care. There also is growing concern in Congress and the veteran community that the VA is poorly managing and in some cases disregarding provisions of the VA MISSION [Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated Out- side Networks] Act of 20182 that codify broad access for veterans to non-VA health care providers. Efforts to expand disability benefits to large populations without adequate planning have caused an erosion of veterans’ trust in the VA enterprise. Additionally, the current VA leadership is focusing very publicly on “social equity and inclusion” within departmental policy discussions toward ends that will affect only a small minority of the veterans who use the VA. For the first time, the VA is allowing access to abortion services, a medical procedure unrelated to military service that the VA lacks the legal authority and clinical proficiency to perform. In addition to continuing the grotesque culture of violence against the child in the womb, these sociopolitical initiatives and ideological indoctrinations distract from the department’s core missions. DEPARTMENTAL HISTORY Following the Civil War, state veterans homes were established to provide med- ical and hospital treatment for all injuries and diseases. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, “Congress established a new system of Veterans benefits, including programs for disability compensation, insurance for service personnel and Veterans, and vocational rehabilitation for the disabled”3 that was overseen by three different federal programs: the Veterans Bureau, the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Pensions, and the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. In 1921, Congress combined those programs into the Veterans Bureau. Following World War II, a national VA hospital system, much of which remains operational today, was established to care for millions of returning veterans. Following the Vietnam War, the VA’s federally owned and operated hospital network expanded again to meet the needs of the volunteer and draftee population. In the past two decades, the VA has purposely transitioned to leasing medical prop- erties rather than building expensive new facilities that can take years to complete and often experience budget overruns. As the nature of health care has evolved

Department of Veterans Affairs

Strong
Vector: 67%
Pages: 688-691AI Enhanced

AI Analysis:

"HR 1228 reorganizes the Office of Survivors Assistance under the VA Secretary to improve coordination, accountability, and timely support for survivors, which aligns with Project 2025's VA goals of enhancing service delivery and oversight."

Key themes:veteran survivor supportVA organizational efficiencyaccountability and oversightservice coordinationtimely benefits processing

— 655 — Department of Veterans Affairs ENDNOTES 1. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Division, VHA Directive 1003, “VHA Veteran Patient Experience,” April 14, 2020, pp. 1 and B-1. 2. S. 2372, VA Mission Act of 2018, Public Law No. 115-182, 115th Congress, June 6, 2018, https://www.congress. gov/115/plaws/publ182/PLAW-115publ182.pdf (accessed January 30, 2023). 3. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, VA History Office, “VA History,” last updated May 27, 2021, https://www. va.gov/HISTORY/VA_History/Overview.asp (accessed January 28, 2023). 4. 38 U.S. Code § 1116, https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/38/1116 (accessed January 28, 2023). 5. S. 3373, Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022 (Honoring Our PACT Act of 2022), Public Law No. 117-168, 117th Congress, August 10, 2022, https://www. congress.gov/117/plaws/publ168/PLAW-117publ168.pdf (accessed January 28, 2023). 6. H.R. 2471, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022, Public Law No. 117-103, 117th Congress, March 15, 2022, Division S, Title I, https://www.congress.gov/117/plaws/publ103/PLAW-117publ103.pdf (accessed March 18, 2023). Known variously as the Department of Veterans Affairs Nurse and Physician Assistant Retention and Income Security Enhancement Act and the VA Nurse and Physician Assistant RAISE Act. 7. See note 5, supra.

Department of Veterans Affairs

Moderate
Vector: 65%
Pages: 679-681AI Enhanced

AI Analysis:

"HR 1228 focuses on reorganizing the Office of Survivors Assistance to improve support for veterans' survivors, which aligns with Project 2025's broader goal of improving VBA benefits delivery and reducing complexity, though it does not address the health care footprint, personnel, or EHR reforms emphasized in the policy."

Key themes:veterans benefitssurvivor supportorganizational efficiencyaccountabilityservice delivery

— 647 — Department of Veterans Affairs reimagine the health care footprint in some locales, and spur a realignment of capacity through budgetary allocations. Specifically: 1. Embrace the expansion of Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs) as an avenue to maintain a VA footprint in challenging medical markets without investing further in obsolete and unaffordable VA health care campuses. 2. Explore the potential to pilot facility-sharing partnerships between the VA and strained local health care systems to reduce costs by leveraging limited talent and resources. Personnel l Extend the term of the Under Secretary for Health (USH) to five years. Additionally, authority should be given to reappoint this individual for a second five-year term both to allow for continuity and to protect the USH from political transition. l Establish a Senior Executive Service (SES) position of VHA Care System Chief Information Officer (CIO), selected by and reporting to the chief of the VHA Care System with a dotted line to the VA CIO. l Identify a workflow process to bring wait times in compliance with VA MISSION Act–required time frames wherever possible. 1. Assess the daily clinical appointment load for physicians and clinical staff in medical facilities where wait times for care are well outside of the time frames required by the VA MISSION Act. 2. Require VHA facilities to increase the number of patients seen each day to equal the number seen by DOD medical facilities: approximately 19 patients per provider per day. Currently, VA facilities may be seeing as few as six patients per provider per day. 3. Consider a pilot program to extend weekday appointment hours and offer Saturday appointment options to veterans if a facility continues to demonstrate that it has excess capacity and is experiencing delays in the delivery of care for veterans. 4. Identify clinical services that are consistently in high demand but require cost-prohibitive compensation to recruit and retain talent, and examine exceptions for higher competitive pay. — 648 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise 5. Assess the medical facilities where Community Care is readily available but referrals for Community Care are below the averages in other similar markets, referrals expiring are above the average, and/ or canceled appointments are above the average. Identify reasons and factors and consider possible ways to improve timeliness and responsiveness for veterans. 6. Further explore how to leverage telehealth to reduce personnel costs across the enterprise and serve veterans. Continue to pursue expansion of broadband services to remote and rural areas. 7. Assess recruitment and retention in highly competitive medical markets to identify common limiting factors for attracting high-demand, specialized occupations. 8. Consider aggressively recruiting retired physicians who desire to serve veterans. 9. Consider expanding VA tuition assistance in exchange for reciprocal service in rural or understaffed VAMCs. 10. Examine the surpluses or deficits in mental health professionals throughout the enterprise, recognizing that the department needs a blend of social workers, therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists with a focus on attracting high-quality talent. l Conduct a high-priority assessment of Electronic Health Record (EHR) transition delays and functionality problems. VA innovation in health care for the next 20 years and beyond will rest squarely on the timely implementation of the new VHA EHR in coordination with the DOD’s parallel pacing effort. The VA’s EHR rollout has been blocked by technical delays at local facilities where personnel have raised safety concerns and infrastructure has not been modernized to accept the new system. VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION (VBA) Needed Reforms The most evident and ongoing concern is the complexity of benefits, which can lead to confusion for the veteran and, if not mitigated early in the veteran’s interactions, long-term distrust of and animosity toward the VA. Wholesale ben- efits reform is unnecessary and politically a “third rail,” but effective managerial

Showing 3 of 5 policy matches

About These Correlations

Policy matches are calculated using a hybrid approach: initial candidates are found using semantic similarity between bill summaries and Project 2025 policy text, then an AI model (Llama 3.1 70B) provides detailed alignment ratings and analysis. Ratings range from 1 (minimal alignment) to 5 (very strong alignment). This analysis does not imply direct causation or intent.

Full Policy Text

Related Bills