Congress·In Committee·S. 609

BRAVE Act of 2025

Congress Proposes VA Mental Health Upgrades, Including Vet Center Outreach and New Supports for Women Veterans

Feb 18, 2025·View on Congress.gov·Read full text

Part of: Legislative Push to Bolster VA Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Programs

StalledNext up: A senate committeeNo action in 17 months

A senate committee must act next: committee consideration.

Legislative Progress

Senate

No action since February 2025

House

President

Law

Key Points

Congress would require the Veterans Affairs Department to review pay and staffing needs for Vet Center counselors, aiming to reduce shortages.
The bill pushes tighter teamwork between VA medical centers and Vet Centers, including regular consultation and better contact info for coordinating care.
It would study and improve outreach—using local demographic data and tracking what outreach works—so more eligible veterans learn about and use Vet Centers.
The bill focuses on women veterans by studying what suicide prevention messages work for them and updating a VA risk-check program to better reflect women’s risks.
It would expand key supports: bigger suicide-prevention grants, a pilot for residential mental health care for veterans with spinal cord injuries, and yearly mental health check-ins for some disabled veterans.

VeteransHealthcare

Impact Analysis

Personal Impact

How this policy affects specific groups of people

Positive Impacts(2)

Military Veteran

Helps

Veterans Benefits

Helps

Milestones

2 milestones2 actions

Feb 18, 2025Senate

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

Sent to a congressional committee for expert review. The committee decides whether this bill moves forward.

Feb 18, 2025

Introduced in Senate

The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.

Related News

2 articles

Military.com·Dec 15, 2025

Congress Pushes VA to Expand Use of AI to Flag Suicide Risk

Covers congressional pressure tied to suicide-prevention analytics and discusses REACH VET’s gender-weighting issue—one of the BRAVE Act’s focus areas (women veterans and risk factors).

Center

Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW)·Apr 1, 2025

Bridging the Gap: Enhancing Outreach to Support Veterans Mental Health

Testimony supporting the BRAVE Act’s approach: strengthening Vet Centers, expanding outreach, and improving suicide-prevention efforts including better identification of risk factors for women veterans.

Center Right

No votes recorded for this bill yet.

Source Information

Document Type

Congressional Bill

Official Title

BRAVE Act of 2025

Bill NumberS 609

Congress119th Congress

ChamberSenate

Latest ActionRead twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

Data Sources

Congress.gov

Official legislative information

Read Full Bill Text

Sponsor

Cosponsors

(3)

D: 2I: 1

Analysis generated by AI. Always verify with official sources.