The Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act will move to the Senate.
The House passed a bill on Nov. 18 that included a series of proposals focused on improving health care services for veterans and expanding access to mental health resources for caregivers.
The omnibus bill, known as the Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act, was passed with strong bipartisan support in a 389–9 vote. Nine Republican lawmakers voted against the bill.
“I am hopeful that the Senate acts quickly so we can get our nations’ heroes the support they have earned,” Congresswoman Jen Kiggans wrote in a Nov. 19 post on social media platform X.
The bill aims to expand access to home and community-based services for aging veterans, fund ambulance rides for veterans to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) providers or the nearest hospital, and provide educational assistance for veterans pursuing high-technology programs. It also offers grants to support mental health counseling for caregivers, among other initiatives.
House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.) said the bill would open job opportunities for veterans and enhance the VA community care program to protect their health care options.
“For nearly two years we have been listening to the veteran community to find the gaps within VA’s services to build a VA that meets the needs of today’s community and puts veterans—not government bureaucracy—at the center of the system,” Bost said in a statement.
In his remarks to the House on Nov. 18, Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, said the bill is “an investment in care for millions of veterans and current servicemembers who need this help now, or in the future.”
Takano said it will allow veterans to “safely age in place” and “avoid or delay admission to nursing homes and other costly institutional settings of care” by expanding access to home and community-based services.
“Despite the great need for this bill, it has been an uphill battle to get it passed. … We want VA to remain a strong provider of care, instead of diminishing it to nothing more than a insurance company—where profits are prioritized over outcomes for veterans,” he said.
Elizabeth Dole Foundation CEO Steve Schwab said, “We must get this signed into law to bring meaningful change to those who have given so much for our nation.”
Robert Thomas, national president of Paralyzed Veterans of America, praised the House for passing the legislation, which he believed would help to address “the inequities in care” for disabled veterans.
“We now turn our attention to the Senate and urge them to swiftly pass this important bill,” he stated. “Without these protections, caregivers will continue to face exhaustion, burnout, financial difficulties, and more.”