VA expands health care to veterans in Pacific island territories
H.R. 6652 — U.S. Vets of the FAS Act · Filed by Kimberlyn King-Hinds (R-MP) · 4 cosponsors · Introduced Dec 11, 2025 · Reported out
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill requires the VA to negotiate agreements with the governments of the Freely Associated States (Palau, Marshall Islands, Micronesia) to provide health services to veterans living there, including telehealth and mail-order pharmacy. It also amends the VA's beneficiary travel payment authority to ensure that if the VA makes any travel payments in a fiscal year, it must make ALL required travel payments for that year, and extends this requirement to veterans in the Freely Associated States.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is extending VA health services to an underserved veteran population in the Freely Associated States through telehealth and mail-order pharmacy, with a secondary amendment ensuring equitable beneficiary travel payments.
What the text implies
- The beneficiary travel amendment (Section 5) creates a mandatory-payment rule: if VA makes ANY travel payments in a fiscal year, it must make ALL required payments. This could create budgetary pressure if travel demand exceeds appropriations, forcing VA to either fund all claims or make none.
- Telehealth and mail-order pharmacy services to Freely Associated States veterans may require VA infrastructure investment and staffing to manage cross-border coordination, with costs not explicitly appropriated in the bill text.
The full analysis lists 3 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
Veterans in the Freely Associated States (primary beneficiary); Telehealth service providers (potential indirect beneficiary); Mail-order pharmacy operators (potential indirect beneficiary)