Improving Emerging Tech Opportunities for Veterans Act

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Bill ID: 119/hr/7103

Last Updated: August 19, 2026

Improving Emerging Tech Opportunities for Veterans Act

HR. 7103, 119th Congress — read as touching AI & Cloud Infrastructure.

The sponsor

Rep. Hamadeh, Abraham J. [R-AZ-8]

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

The money

$192,436 raised

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

The alignment

70% match to Project 2025

This bill's text tracks the "Department of Veterans Affairs" section, p. 682-684 of the Mandate for Leadership.

Bill's Journey to Becoming a Law

Track this bill's progress through the legislative process

Latest Action

Ordered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute by Voice Vote.

May 13, 2026

Introduced

📍 Current Status

Next: The bill will be reviewed by relevant committees who will debate, amend, and vote on it.

🏛️

Committee Review

🗳️

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

Summary Style:

**Analysis of HR 7103: Improving Emerging Tech Opportunities for Veterans Act**

As a visionary entrepreneur and thought leader, I'll dissect this bill through the lens of wealth creation and strategic advantage.

**Main Purpose & Objectives:** The primary objective of HR 7103 is to provide veterans with greater opportunities to pursue education programs in emerging technologies. This legislation aims to bridge the gap between veterans' skills and the demands of the modern workforce, particularly in high-growth industries like AI and semiconductor manufacturing.

**Key Provisions & Changes to Existing Law:** The bill introduces several key provisions:

1. **Critical Stakeholder Partnerships:** The Secretary of Veterans Affairs must partner with private sector entities to identify emerging technologies and relevant education programs. 2. **Expedited Approval Process:** A streamlined process for approving courses of education in emerging technologies will be established within 90 days of enactment. 3. **Inclusion of Emerging Technologies in High Technology Program:** The bill amends existing law to include emerging technologies, such as AI and semiconductor manufacturing, in the High Technology Program.

**Affected Parties & Stakeholders:** The primary stakeholders are:

1. Veterans seeking education and employment opportunities in emerging technologies. 2. Private sector entities, including employers, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations, which will partner with the Department of Veterans Affairs. 3. The Department of Labor, which will consult on determining critical emerging technologies.

**Potential Impact & Implications:** From a strategic perspective, this bill presents both opportunities and challenges:

1. **Talent Acquisition:** By providing veterans with education and training in emerging technologies, companies like mine can tap into a skilled workforce, driving innovation and growth. 2. **Regulatory Framework:** The expedited approval process for courses of education may lead to a more flexible regulatory environment, allowing private sector entities to adapt quickly to changing technological landscapes. 3. **Competition and Consolidation:** As emerging technologies become more prominent, companies that fail to adapt risk being left behind. This bill may accelerate the pace of consolidation in industries like AI and semiconductor manufacturing.

In conclusion, HR 7103 presents a calculated risk-reward scenario for entrepreneurs and business leaders. By supporting veterans' education and training in emerging technologies, we can create a skilled workforce that drives innovation and growth. However, it's essential to remain vigilant about potential regulatory hurdles and the need for adaptability in an ever-changing technological landscape.

**Recommendation:** I will instruct my think tank, the "Liberty Innovation Institute," to monitor this bill's progress and provide strategic guidance on how to leverage its provisions to further our business interests.

💰 Campaign Finance Network

Rep. Hamadeh, Abraham J. [R-AZ-8]

Congress 119 • 2024 Election Cycle

Total Contributions

$192,436

18 donors

PACs

Organizations

$17,300

Committees

Individuals

$175,136

No PAC contributions found

CLB PARTNERS

1 transaction

$12,000

ADVANTAGE INSURANCE PLLC

1 transaction

$3,300

JARDIN RATZKEN PLLC

2 transactions

$2,000

No committee contributions found

HAYDEN, STEPHEN

2 transactions

$26,400

KAYALI, ZEID

2 transactions

$16,000

MOJAHED, ROMEIN A

2 transactions

$15,000

OLSON, JOSH

2 transactions

$15,000

FISHMAN, DAVID

2 transactions

$13,636

HAMADEH, WASEEM J

1 transaction

$13,200

MANLEY, DWIGHT

1 transaction

$13,200

PRICE, KAPU

1 transaction

$13,200

NOWOCIEN, PIOTR

1 transaction

$9,900

BAILEY, B JAN

1 transaction

$6,600

BAILEY, JOHN S

1 transaction

$6,600

HASBINI, LEENA

1 transaction

$6,600

HILLMAN, TATANALL LEA

1 transaction

$6,600

HOWARD, DAX

1 transaction

$6,600

HOWARD, NICO

1 transaction

$6,600

Cosponsors & Their Campaign Finance

This bill has 4 cosponsors. Below are their top campaign contributors.

Rep. Van Orden, Derrick [R-WI-3]

ID: V000135

Top Contributors

EASTERN BAND OF CHEROKEE INDIANS

OrganizationCHEROKEE, NC

$3,300

Dec 9, 2024

HO CHUNK NATION

OrganizationBLACK RIVER FALLS, WI

$3,300

Nov 2, 2024

FOREST COUNTY POTAWATOMI COMMUNITY

OrganizationCRANDON, WI

$3,300

Sep 17, 2024

AIPAC PAC CONDUIT ACCOUNT

OrganizationWASHINGTON, DC

$500

Oct 23, 2024

ALLIANCE OF BANKERS FOR WISCONSIN

OrganizationMADISON, WI

$250

Apr 23, 2024

ANDERSON, JOHN R. MR.

ANDERSON ENTERPRISES LLC • OWNER

IndividualROCKFORD, IL

$10,000

Dec 19, 2023

BROIN, JEFF

POET LLC • CEO

IndividualSIOUX FALLS, SD

$6,600

Aug 24, 2023

UIHLEIN, RICHARD E. MR.

ULINE INC. • CEO

IndividualLAKE BLUFF, IL

$6,600

Feb 28, 2023

LEVY, EDWARD C.

EDW. C. LEVY CO. • CHAIRMAN

IndividualBIRMINGHAM, MI

$6,600

Mar 28, 2024

LEVY, EDWARD C.

IndividualBIRMINGHAM, MI

$6,600

May 6, 2024

Rep. Pfluger, August [R-TX-11]

ID: P000048

Top Contributors

SYCUAN BAND OF THE KUMEYAAY NATION

OrganizationEL CAJON, CA

$3,300

Apr 18, 2024

SYCUAN BAND OF THE KUMEYAAY NATION

OrganizationEL CAJON, CA

$3,300

Jun 30, 2023

ALABAMA-COUSHATTA TRIBE

OrganizationLIVINGSTON, TX

$1,000

Sep 27, 2024

DIMEMMO, COLETTE

RETIRED • RETIRED

IndividualFORT MYERS, FL

$6,600

Oct 24, 2024

PUDWILL, JAMES

IndividualNIPOMO, CA

$6,600

Sep 16, 2024

GELBMAN, JOEL

IndividualNAPLES, FL

$6,600

Sep 16, 2024

GELBMAN, JOEL

RETIRED • RETIRED

IndividualNAPLES, FL

$6,600

Aug 26, 2024

PUDWILL, JAMES

RETIRED • RETIRED

IndividualNIPOMO, CA

$6,600

Aug 3, 2024

WILSON, CELIA R

OIL AND GAS • SELF-EMPLOYED

IndividualMIDLAND, TX

$5,800

Mar 31, 2024

WILSON, CELIA R

SELF • OIL AND GAS

IndividualMIDLAND, TX

$5,800

Apr 9, 2024

Rep. Kiggans, Jennifer A. [R-VA-2]

ID: K000399

Top Contributors

AIPAC- EARMARKS

PACWASHINGTON, DC

$2,000

Oct 22, 2024

PEAKE FOR SENATE

COMLYNCHBURG, VA

$500

Jan 9, 2024

PEAKE FOR SENATE

COMLYNCHBURG, VA

$250

Jan 9, 2024

KEHOE, MICHAEL

KINSALE MGMT INC • CEO

IndividualRICHMOND, VA

$13,200

Jun 8, 2023

MITCHUM, ELZA

C & M INDUSTRIES • PRESIDENT

IndividualCHESAPEAKE, VA

$6,600

Oct 18, 2023

SILVERMAN, JEFFREY

RETIRED • RETIRED

IndividualMIAMI BEACH, FL

$6,600

Oct 17, 2023

PERRY, J DOUGLAS

RETIRED • RETIRED

IndividualNORFOLK, VA

$6,600

Nov 6, 2023

WEEKLEY, RICHARD

SELF EMPLOYED • REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER

IndividualHOUSTON, TX

$6,600

Nov 8, 2023

GILLIAM, MARVIN

RETIRED • RETIRED

IndividualBRISTOL, VA

$6,600

Mar 30, 2024

BOHANNON, DAVID

LONDON BRIDGE TRADING INC. • PRESIDENT

IndividualVIRGINIA BEACH, VA

$6,600

May 23, 2024

Rep. Walkinshaw, James R. [D-VA-11]

ID: W000831

Top Contributors

No contribution data available

Donor Network - Rep. Hamadeh, Abraham J. [R-AZ-8]

Show Also Donated To

PACs

Organizations

Individuals

Politicians

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

Showing 31 nodes and 45 connections

Total contributions: $45

Top Donors - Rep. Hamadeh, Abraham J. [R-AZ-8]

Showing top 18 donors by contribution amount

3 Orgs15 Individuals

Industry Impact

Which industries are materially affected by specific provisions in this bill. 2 helped.

+AI & Cloud Infrastructureconfidence 0.90
Section 2(d) and Section 3(a)(3) explicitly mention artificial intelligence as an emerging technology to be identified and promoted for veterans' education programs, providing a benefit to AI and cloud infrastructure industries.
+Semiconductors & Hardwareconfidence 0.90
Section 2(d) and Section 3(a)(3) explicitly mention semiconductor manufacturing as an emerging technology to be identified and promoted for veterans' education programs, providing a benefit to the semiconductors and hardware industry.

Who funds the sponsor on these industries

For each industry this bill affects, here's what the sponsor (Rep. Hamadeh, Abraham J. [R-AZ-8])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

Semiconductors & Hardware$250
from 1 contribution
- DEARIE, STEFANIE$250

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

Moderate

Vector: 69%

Pages: 682-684AI Enhanced

AI Analysis:

"Both the bill and the Project 2025 VA section emphasize leveraging private-sector technology and partnerships to improve VA services for veterans, though the bill focuses on education/training in emerging tech while the policy focuses on streamlining claims processing and benefits delivery."

Key themes:private sector partnershipstechnology adoptionveteran outcomesVA modernizationemerging technology

Department of Veterans Affairs

Weak

Vector: 71%

Pages: 682-684AI Enhanced

AI Analysis:

"The bill focuses on expanding veterans' education and training in emerging technologies, while the Project 2025 VA section emphasizes streamlining disability claims processing through automation, private sector partnerships, and IT improvements. Both involve VA modernization and private sector collaboration, but their substantive objectives differ significantly."

Key themes:VA modernizationprivate sector partnershipstechnology adoptionveteran services

— 649 — Department of Veterans Affairs approaches and technology tools that currently exist in the private sector could be employed to improve existing VBA activities. This problem is most pronounced in the disability claims process, which needs more and better management attention focused on streamlining the procedures involved in processing claims and administering benefits. The VA must improve timeliness of claim adjudication and benefits delivery: Veterans want the VBA to provide timely responses to requests for benefits support, render empathetic customer service and understandable explanations of those benefits, and deliver those benefits without frustrating delays (weeks, not months). l Identify performance targets for benefits, report publicly on actual performance each quarter, and use these metrics to drive consistent improvement. l Develop a new pilot “Express 30” commitment for a veteran’s first fully developed disability compensation claim and organize the VBA to complete the first claim in 30 days. l Hire more private companies to perform disability medical examinations. Delays in completing the examinations could be eliminated with more external capacity. l Increase automation. Hiring additional staff to process claims is costly, is inflexible, and has yielded mixed results. Attempting to change laws and regulations simply to adjudicate claims would be a herculean effort given their complexity. The best way to provide benefits faster and more accurately is by using technology to perform most of the work. Technology currently exists in the private sector, but the VBA lacks the expertise to use it. This would be more of an organizational challenge than a technology hurdle. l Reduce improper payment and fraud. About $500 million is improperly paid out each year. Better tools, training, and management could reduce this substantially, but rule changes at the departmental level would be needed. Budget The VA’s Schedule for Rating Disabilities (VASRD) has assigned disability ratings to a growing number of health conditions over time; some are tenuously related or wholly unrelated to military service. The further growth in presumptive service-connected medical conditions pursued by Congress and Veteran Service Organizations, begun with Agent Orange and most recently for Burn Pits/Airborne — 650 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise Toxins, has led to historic increases in mandatory VBA spending in recent years. The VA has a time-phased plan to reassess the VASRD and its ratings for com- pensation, but this internal process can be slow and laborious, requires Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approvals, and can become politically charged both in Congress and with VSOs. l The next Administration should explore how VASRD reviews could be accelerated with clearance from OMB to target significant cost savings from revising disability rating awards for future claimants while preserving them fully or partially for existing claimants. l The VBA’s Information Technology top-line budget should be reexamined and reassessed in light of the need for expanded automation across the enterprise. l Traditionally, VHA captures the large majority of VA IT funding. The VBA needs to make the case for a larger IT budget with clear requirements to support that request. Personnel l Pursue reforms of the Human Capital Management process and operations within the VBA to build a more blended workforce with more contractors to process claims. This would free federal employees to perform other duties and be involved solely with the final decision to award benefits. l Improve the VBA acquisition workforce. The VBA needs more world-class contractor support. Currently, few of the top companies have contracts with the VBA, and the VBA needs to conduct more outreach to the private sector through senior leader engagement and industry conferences. l To identify more effective and efficient ways to complete claims, establish a knowledge exchange program with top-tier private-sector companies that do similar work. The VBA is fundamentally a financial services organization. A significant amount of its work has a private-sector analogue that could be leveraged to improve service to veterans. l For most of its existence, the VBA has been a risk-averse, insular, paper-based organization, implementing technology only over the past decade. This insularity has led to a predominantly “build it ourselves” approach, partly because VBA staff has limited experience or insight into current private- sector tools and methods and partly because the VBA struggles to compete

Department of Veterans Affairs

Weak

Vector: 68%

Pages: 676-678AI Enhanced

AI Analysis:

"The bill focuses on expanding veterans' education and training in emerging technologies, while the Project 2025 VA section addresses health care, disability benefits, demographic shifts, and conservative policy reforms; there is only a tangential connection through the shared concern for veterans and VA operations."

Key themes:veteransVAworkforce development

— 643 — Department of Veterans Affairs with a growth in same-day surgical procedures and outpatient care, so has the VA, and in 2018 Congress added access to private-sector urgent care outlets as one of the VA’s health care benefits. Today, the VA operates 172 inpatient VA Medical Centers (VAMCs), which are an average of 60 years old, and 1,113 Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs), which are newer facilities designed to meet the needs of veterans closer to home. The VA also manages a Community Care Network (CCN) through contracts with Optum and TriWest, third-party health care administrators responsible for build- ing and maintaining a robust population of community providers to meet the needs of veterans referred for care outside of the VA system. Currently, approximately 6.4 million veterans out of 18 million nationally (and out of the 9.1 million who are enrolled) use the VA for health care; the remainder use employer-sponsored plans, Tricare, Medicare, and Medicaid. The disability benefits system evolved significantly in the years between the Cold War era and the global war on terrorism, a period when the VA enrolled large numbers of veterans from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam who were seeking disability benefits and health care. Disability compensation is the largest VA benefit, but there also are dozens of others, the next largest of which are the GI Bill and the Home Loan Guaranty. These benefits are administered through 56 Regional Benefits Offices (RBOs) and hundreds of satellite sites around the country. The Agent Orange Act of 19914 significantly expanded the scope of disability ben- efits for those who had deployed to Vietnam, and the cost of those benefits began to increase dramatically as the Vietnam generation of veterans aged and began to expe- rience adverse health conditions, some of which were presumed to have been caused by defoliant chemicals used in Southeast Asia. In 2016 and 2017, a burdensome backlog of appeals of denied disability claims from multiple wartime generations—a backlog numbering in the hundreds of thousands—led to a joint effort by the VA, Vet- eran Service Organizations (VSOs), and Congress to pass legislation that streamlined appeal processes. Implemented in 2017, this historic “good governance” success has helped the VA to reduce the number of these appeals dramatically. The Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act of 20225 addressed adverse health outcomes presumed to be the result of veterans’ exposure to airborne toxins during the global war on terrorism and further expanded disability benefits to the most recent gen- eration of veterans. These ambitious authorities, like the 1991 authorities, have the potential to overwhelm the VA’s ability to process new disability claims and adjudicate appeals. Currently, the VA is seeking to hire large numbers of personnel to process these claims while exploring the use of an automated process to accel- erate claims reviews and decisions. The ever-present lag in the hiring and training of new employees could result in major problems with the timely adjudication of benefits well into the next Administration in 2025. — 644 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise In sum, the VA for the foreseeable future will experience significant fiscal, human capital, and infrastructure crosswinds and risks. Budgets are at historic highs, and with a workforce now above 400,000, the VA is contending with a lack of new veteran enrollees to offset the declining population of older veterans. Recruitment of medical and benefits personnel has become more challenging. Veterans are migrating from the northern states to the southern and western states for retirement and employment. Meanwhile, VA information technol- ogy (IT) is struggling to keep pace with the evolution of patient care and record keeping. Consequently, VA leaders in the next Administration must be wise and courageous political strategists, experienced managers to run day-to-day oper- ations more effectively, innovators to address the changing veteran landscape, and agile “fixers” to mitigate and repair systemic problems created or ignored by the present leadership team. VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION (VHA) Needed Reforms l Rescind all departmental clinical policy directives that are contrary to principles of conservative governance starting with abortion services and gender reassignment surgery. Neither aligns with service-connected conditions that would warrant VA’s providing this type of clinical care, and both follow the Left’s pernicious trend of abusing the role of government to further its own agenda. l Focus on the effects of shifting veteran demographics. At least during the next decade, the VA will experience a significant generational shift in its overall patient population. Of the approximately 18 million veterans alive today, roughly 9.1 million are enrolled for VA health care, and 6.4 million of these enrollees use VA health care consistently. These 6.4 million veterans are split almost evenly between those who are over age 65 and those who are under age 65, but the share of VA’s health care dollars is spent predominantly in the over-65 cohort. That share increases significantly as veterans live longer and use the VHA system at a higher rate. VHA enrollments of new users are increasingly at risk of being exceeded by the deaths of current enrollees, primarily because significant numbers of the Vietnam generation are reaching their life expectancy. The generational transition from Vietnam-era veterans to post-9/11 veterans will take several years to complete. The ongoing demographic transition is a catalyst for needed assessments of how the VA can improve the delivery of care to a numerically declining and differently dispersed national population

Department of Veterans Affairs

Weak

Vector: 68%

Pages: 679-681AI Enhanced

AI Analysis:

"The bill focuses on expanding veterans' access to emerging technology education and training, while the Project 2025 VA policy section primarily addresses healthcare system reforms, personnel management, EHR implementation, and benefits administration—there is minimal thematic overlap between the two."

Key themes:veteransDepartment of Veterans Affairstraining and education

— 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

Weak

Vector: 66%

Pages: 676-678AI Enhanced

AI Analysis:

"The bill focuses on expanding veterans' education and training in emerging technologies, whereas the Project 2025 VA section emphasizes health care reforms, community care access, demographic shifts, and clinical policy changes; there is only a tangential connection through general veteran support."

Key themes:veteransVAworkforce developmenttrainingemployment

— 644 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise In sum, the VA for the foreseeable future will experience significant fiscal, human capital, and infrastructure crosswinds and risks. Budgets are at historic highs, and with a workforce now above 400,000, the VA is contending with a lack of new veteran enrollees to offset the declining population of older veterans. Recruitment of medical and benefits personnel has become more challenging. Veterans are migrating from the northern states to the southern and western states for retirement and employment. Meanwhile, VA information technol- ogy (IT) is struggling to keep pace with the evolution of patient care and record keeping. Consequently, VA leaders in the next Administration must be wise and courageous political strategists, experienced managers to run day-to-day oper- ations more effectively, innovators to address the changing veteran landscape, and agile “fixers” to mitigate and repair systemic problems created or ignored by the present leadership team. VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION (VHA) Needed Reforms l Rescind all departmental clinical policy directives that are contrary to principles of conservative governance starting with abortion services and gender reassignment surgery. Neither aligns with service-connected conditions that would warrant VA’s providing this type of clinical care, and both follow the Left’s pernicious trend of abusing the role of government to further its own agenda. l Focus on the effects of shifting veteran demographics. At least during the next decade, the VA will experience a significant generational shift in its overall patient population. Of the approximately 18 million veterans alive today, roughly 9.1 million are enrolled for VA health care, and 6.4 million of these enrollees use VA health care consistently. These 6.4 million veterans are split almost evenly between those who are over age 65 and those who are under age 65, but the share of VA’s health care dollars is spent predominantly in the over-65 cohort. That share increases significantly as veterans live longer and use the VHA system at a higher rate. VHA enrollments of new users are increasingly at risk of being exceeded by the deaths of current enrollees, primarily because significant numbers of the Vietnam generation are reaching their life expectancy. The generational transition from Vietnam-era veterans to post-9/11 veterans will take several years to complete. The ongoing demographic transition is a catalyst for needed assessments of how the VA can improve the delivery of care to a numerically declining and differently dispersed national population — 645 — Department of Veterans Affairs of veterans—a population that is more active, reaching middle age or retirement age, and migrating for lifestyle and career reasons. At the center of the VHA’s evolution during this generational transition is an ongoing tension, some of it politically contrived, between Direct Care for Veterans provided from inside the VHA system and Community Care for Veterans who are referred to private providers participating in the VHA’s two Community Care Networks (CCNs). In recent years, the budget for Community Care has grown as demand from veterans has risen sharply, sometimes outpacing the budgets for Community Care at individual VAMCs. The Trump Administration made Community Care part of its “Veteran- centric” approach to ensure that veterans would be able to participate more fully in their health care decisions and have options if or when the VHA was unable to meet their needs. The Biden Administration has watered down that effort, has sought various procedural ways to slow the rate of referrals to private doctors, and at some facilities is reportedly manipulating the Community Care access standards required by the VA MISSION Act of 2018. If the makeup of Congress is favorable in 2025, the next Administration should rapidly and explicitly codify VA MISSION Act access standards in legislation to prevent the VA from avoiding or watering down the requirements in the future. First and foremost, a veterans bill of rights is needed so that veterans and VA staff know exactly what benefits veterans are entitled to receive, with a clear process for the adjudication of disputes, and so that staff ensure that all veterans are informed of their eligibility for Community Care. Currently, veterans are not routinely and consistently told that they are eligible for Community Care unless they request information or are given a referral. l To strengthen Community Care, the next Administration should create new Secretarial directives to implement the VA MISSION Act properly. Sections for consideration and areas for reform include the following: 1. Sections 101 and 103 (Community Care eligibility for access standards and the best medical interest of the veteran). 2. Section 104 (Community Care access standards and standards for quality of care).

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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