Congress demands annual data on why veterans die
S. 3042 — Justice for America’s Veterans and Survivors Act of 2025 · Filed by John Hickenlooper (D-CO) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Oct 23, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to submit an annual report to Congress detailing the causes of death among veterans, including whether they had service-connected disabilities rated as total, the primary and secondary causes of death, and the manner of death. The reporting requirement lasts five years from enactment.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is a requirement that the VA report annually to Congress on causes of death among veterans, disaggregated by service-connection status, cause, and manner. It is a data-transparency and accountability measure with no financial carve-outs, subsidies, or narrow beneficiaries.
What the text implies
- The five-year sunset means Congress will need to affirmatively reauthorize the reporting requirement or it lapses; absent renewal, the VA loses the mandate and transparency ends.
- The bill does not specify data granularity, timeliness, or format standards—implementation details will be set by VA regulation, potentially affecting the utility of the data.
- Disaggregation by service-connected disability status may reveal disparities in mortality outcomes tied to disability rating, potentially exposing gaps in VA care or benefits.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill creates a transparency mechanism that allows Congress and the public to understand patterns in veteran mortality, potentially identifying systemic health or suicide crises requiring intervention. No restrictions on citizen rights or remedies are imposed; the sole mechanism is a data-reporting requirement on a federal agency.
Named in the bill
Department of Veterans Affairs, Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Title 38 United States Code
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Oct 23, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Oct 23, 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.
Money around this bill
3 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. Those filings disclosed $345,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 2 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 61% of bills with at least one filing.
John Hickenlooper, the sponsor, reported $975,352 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Florida Sugar Cane League — $310,000 on 1 filing
- Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida — $30,000 on 1 filing
- Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers — $5,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jan 15, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,802 characters) on Aug 14, 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.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jan 15, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
- S. 3042 on Congress.gov
- Actions and status history
- Cosponsors (1)
- Bill text the analysis read
- Florida Sugar Cane League — LDA filing, 2025 Q4
- Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida — LDA filing, 2025 Q4
- Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers — LDA filing, 2025 Q4
- John Hickenlooper — FEC candidate receipts, 2026 cycle
“Congress demands annual data on why veterans die” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s3042 Report an error
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