Improving Mental Health Care and Coordination for Homeless Veterans Act

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Bill ID: 119/hr/7049
Last Updated: August 20, 2026

Sponsored by

Rep. Valadao, David G. [R-CA-22]

ID: V000129

Follow the money

The bill

Improving Mental Health Care and Coordination for Homeless Veterans Act

HR. 7049, 119th Congress — read as touching Hospitals & Health Systems.

The sponsor

Rep. Valadao, David G. [R-CA-22]

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

The money

$79,400 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 Veterans Affairs" section, p. 688-691 of the Mandate for Leadership.

Bill's Journey to Becoming a Law

Track this bill's progress through the legislative process

Latest Action

Forwarded by Subcommittee to Full Committee by Voice Vote.

February 23, 2026

Introduced

Committee Review

📍 Current Status

Next: The bill moves to the floor for full chamber debate and voting.

🗳️

Floor Action

✅

Passed House

🏛️

Senate Review

🎉

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 congressional masterpiece, carefully crafted to make everyone feel good while accomplishing nothing of substance. The "Improving Mental Health Care and Coordination for Homeless Veterans Act" – because who doesn't love a title that sounds like it was written by a committee of well-meaning but clueless bureaucrats?

**Main Purpose & Objectives:** The bill's primary objective is to require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to conduct assessments of veterans needing homeless program services within three days of identification. Wow, what a bold move – adding more paperwork and bureaucratic hurdles to an already bloated system. The real purpose, of course, is to provide a feel-good PR opportunity for politicians while doing nothing to address the root causes of veteran homelessness.

**Key Provisions & Changes to Existing Law:** The bill amends title 38, United States Code, by adding a new section that requires assessments of veterans' physical and mental health needs, development of plans to address those needs, and identification of suitable housing. Because, clearly, the VA wasn't already doing this – or at least not with enough bureaucratic fanfare. The bill also includes provisions for monitoring implementation and ensuring compliance with existing laws and regulations. Yawn.

**Affected Parties & Stakeholders:** The usual suspects are affected: veterans (or rather, their paperwork), the Department of Veterans Affairs, and various government agencies responsible for implementing this latest exercise in futility. Lobbyists and special interest groups will also benefit from the increased funding and bureaucratic opportunities created by this bill.

**Potential Impact & Implications:** This bill is a classic case of "treatment without diagnosis." It addresses symptoms rather than underlying causes, ensuring that veteran homelessness remains a persistent problem. The added bureaucracy and paperwork requirements will only serve to slow down an already inefficient system, while providing politicians with a convenient talking point for their next election campaign.

In short, this bill is a Band-Aid on a bullet wound – a shallow attempt to address a complex issue without actually solving anything. It's a perfect example of the legislative equivalent of a placebo: it might make you feel better in the short term, but ultimately does nothing to cure the underlying disease. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have more important things to attend to – like watching paint dry.

Related Topics

Military & Veterans AffairsHousing & Urban Development
Generated using Llama 3.1 70B (Dr. Haus personality)

💰 Campaign Finance Network

Rep. Valadao, David G. [R-CA-22]

Congress 119 • 2024 Election Cycle

Total Contributions
$79,400
18 donors
PACs
$0
Organizations
$59,600
Committees
$0
Individuals
$19,800

No PAC contributions found

1
SANTA YNEZ BAND OF MISSION INDIANS
2 transactions
$6,600
2
MORONGO BAND OF MISSION INDIANS
2 transactions
$6,600
3
PECHANGA BAND OF LUISENO INDIANS
2 transactions
$6,600
4
BARONA BAND OF MISSION INDIANS
5 transactions
$6,500
5
AK-CHIN INDIAN COMMUNITY
2 transactions
$5,300
6
SANTA ROSA RANCHERIA
2 transactions
$5,000
7
SHINGLE SPRINGS BAND MIWOK INDIANS
2 transactions
$4,000
8
CHEROKEE NATION
1 transaction
$3,300
9
EASTERN BAND OF CHEROKEE INDIANS
1 transaction
$3,300
10
THE CHICKASAW NATION
1 transaction
$3,300
11
MOORETOWN RANCHERIA
1 transaction
$3,300
12
SAN MANUEL BAND/MISSION INDIAN
3 transactions
$3,300
13
SYCUAN BAND OF KUMEYAAY NATION
1 transaction
$1,000
14
UNION VILLAGE
1 transaction
$1,000
15
RON CLARK FARMS
1 transaction
$500

No committee contributions found

1
EMMET, RICHARD
1 transaction
$6,600
2
GILLIAM, RICHARD
1 transaction
$6,600
3
SILVERMAN, JEFFREY
1 transaction
$6,600

Donor Network - Rep. Valadao, David G. [R-CA-22]

PACs
Organizations
Individuals
Politicians

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

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Showing 56 nodes and 80 connections

Total contributions: $80

Top Donors - Rep. Valadao, David G. [R-CA-22]

Showing top 18 donors by contribution amount

15 Orgs3 Individuals

Industry Impact

Which industries are materially affected by specific provisions in this bill. 3 helped.

  • Section 2 requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to conduct assessments of veterans needing homeless program services, including an assessment of physical and mental health needs, which may lead to increased partnerships with hospitals and health systems to provide necessary care.

  • Section 2(c) discusses monitoring the implementation of plans to address the immediate and long-term care and support needs of homeless veterans, which may involve partnerships with long-term care facilities.

  • +Health Insuranceconfidence 0.60

    The bill's focus on providing mental health services to homeless veterans may involve collaborations with health insurance providers to ensure coverage for these services.

Who funds the sponsor on these industries

For each industry this bill affects, here's what the sponsor (Rep. Valadao, David G. [R-CA-22])received from donors associated with that industry during the 2022–present cycles. Donations are not proof of intent — they are a record of who funds the people writing the law.

Industries this bill HELPS

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 Veterans Affairs

Strong
Vector: 66%
Pages: 688-691AI Enhanced

AI Analysis:

"The bill aligns strongly with Project 2025's focus on improving VA services for vulnerable veterans by mandating timely mental health assessments, coordinated care plans, and integration with electronic health records—directly supporting enhanced veteran patient experience and service accountability."

Key themes:veteran mental healthhomeless veteran supportVA care coordinationelectronic health record integrationtimely assessment requirements

— 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: 66%
Pages: 679-681AI Enhanced

AI Analysis:

"The bill focuses on improving mental health assessments and coordination for homeless veterans, which aligns with Project 2025's emphasis on mental health workforce assessment and EHR modernization, though it does not directly address CBOC expansion, facility-sharing, or personnel reforms like extending the USH term or increasing patient load."

Key themes:mental health workforceEHR integrationveterans homelessnesscare coordinationVA service 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

Department of Veterans Affairs

Moderate
Vector: 64%
Pages: 679-681AI Enhanced

AI Analysis:

"The bill focuses on improving mental health assessments and coordination for homeless veterans, which aligns with Project 2025's broader goals of enhancing VA healthcare quality, accountability, and patient experience, though it does not directly address specific Project 2025 provisions like infrastructure reform, caregiver program overhaul, or innovation office restructuring."

Key themes:veteran healthcare accessmental health servicescare coordinationVA accountabilityhomeless veteran support

— 646 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise 3. Section 121 (developing and administering an education program that teaches veterans about their health care options available from the Department of Veterans Affairs). 4. Section 152 (returning the Office for Innovation of Care and Payment to the Office of Enterprise Integration with a joint governance process set up with the VHA). 5. Section 161 (overhauling Family Caregiver Program expansion, which has gone poorly, so that it focuses on consistency of eligibility and awareness that the most severely wounded or injured may require the program indefinitely). l Require the VHA to report publicly on all aspects of its operation, including quality, safety, patient experience, timeliness, and cost-effectiveness, using standards similar to those in the Medicare Accountable Care Organization program so that the government may monitor and achieve continuous improvement in the VA system more effectively. l Encourage VA Medical Centers to seek out relevant academic and private- sector input in their communities to improve the overall patient experience. Budget l Conduct an independent audit of the VA similar to the 2018 Department of Defense (DOD) audit to identify IT, management, financial, contracting, and other deficiencies. l Assess the misalignment of VHA facilities and rising infrastructure costs. The VHA operates 172 inpatient medical facilities nationally that are an average of 60 years old. Some of these facilities are underutilized and inadequately staffed. Facilities in certain urban and rural areas are seeing significant declines in the veteran population and strong competition for fresh medical staff. In 2018, Congress authorized an Asset Infrastructure Review (AIR) of national VHA medical markets to provide insight into where the VA health care budget should be responsibly allocated to serve veterans most effectively. However, the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee lacked the political will to act on the White House’s nominations of commission members, and this ultimately led to termination of the AIR process. The next Administration should seek out agile, creative, and politically acceptable operational solutions to this aging infrastructure status quo, — 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.

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.

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