VA suicide prevention grants finally reach every state
S. 1361 — Every State Counts for Veterans Mental Health Act · Filed by Kevin Cramer (R-ND) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Apr 9, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill requires the Veterans Affairs Department to prioritize suicide prevention grants to organizations in states that have never received one before. It adds a scoring preference for eligible entities in states without prior grant recipients, ensuring that grant consideration spreads across all states rather than concentrating in a few.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is a geographic fairness rule for existing VA suicide prevention grants. It does not create new funding, new programs, or new authority—it redirects prioritization within an existing grant program to ensure underserved states receive consideration.
What the text implies
- States that have received grants in the past may see reduced priority until all states have at least one recipient, potentially slowing grant cycles in historically well-served regions.
- The 'until at least one grant is awarded' language creates a one-time geographic floor; after that threshold is met in all states, the preference expires and future grants revert to merit-based scoring alone.
- Implementation depends on how VA defines 'eligible entity' and 'State' (e.g., whether territories, tribal lands, or federal enclaves count), which the bill does not specify.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Veterans in states that have historically been overlooked in grant distribution gain improved access to suicide prevention services. The bill does not reduce total funding or create barriers; it reallocates consideration to ensure equitable geographic coverage of a critical mental health program.
Named in the bill
Department of Veterans Affairs, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act of 2019, Public Law 116–171, 38 U.S.C. 1720F
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Apr 9, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Apr 9, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (961 characters) on Jun 10, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
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