VA Mental Health Outreach and Engagement Act

Sponsored by Rep. Nikki Budzinski (D-IL) · 4 active : 2 Republicans, 2 Democrats

Latest action: Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 550.

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Where it standsBefore the House

Hasn’t passed either chamber

House: next
Senate: not yet
President: not yet

36 representatives score as swing votes

Summary

, via Congress.gov

Summary on Congress.gov

VA Mental Health Outreach and Engagement Act

This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to offer an annual mental health consultation to veterans who are receiving compensation for a service-connected disability relating to a mental health diagnosis. Additionally, the VA must conduct outreach regarding the availability of such consultations and other mental health services unless a veteran opts out of outreach.

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The bill requires the VA to utilize specified methods in its outreach efforts and to provide annual reports for the four years following the enactment of the bill regarding the outreach methods used to inform veterans about mental health consultations and services.

The Government Accountability Office must report on the effect of this bill, including by reporting on the number of veterans who received mental health consultations and which outreach methods were most successful in reaching such veterans.

The bill also extends certain higher loan fee rates through May 12, 2035, under the VA's home loan program. Such rates currently last through June 9, 2034.

Committees and subjects

Committees

House Committee on Veterans' Affairs · HouseReported by · Markup by · Referred to

Subjects

Congressional oversight
Government studies and investigations
Mental health
Veterans' medical care
Veterans' pensions and compensation

Senate · 100 House · 433

Model

v3defaultv2

Directional: count only breaks toward the other party Why do scores change?

How the House breaks down

36Swing 70–100
276Middle 30–70
119Entrenched 0–30
2Insufficient data not ranked

Members fall into . 2 representatives don’t have enough data yet and are marked “insufficient data”. Non-voting delegates are not counted.

Key players in the House

Ranked by swing score, 0–100 · swing-v3

Bars show each input from 0 to 100: ideology gap, scorecard gap, , and the . is the seat’s partisan lean, and shows how much of the input data a score has.

Similar past votes, House

Earlier behind swing-v3’s input

Similar votes count toward swing-v3 in the House: total similarity weight 69.0 (needs 5.0).

H.R. 8800 · Jul 22, 2026 · Roll call 638On PassageNational Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027
PassedSame policy area×0.5
H.R. 8800 · Jul 22, 2026 · Roll call 636On Agreeing to the Amendment
FailedSame policy area×0.5
H.R. 8800 · Jul 22, 2026 · Roll call 635On Agreeing to the Amendment
Agreed toSame policy area×0.5
H.R. 8800 · Jul 22, 2026 · Roll call 634On Agreeing to the Amendment
FailedSame policy area×0.5
H.R. 8800 · Jul 22, 2026 · Roll call 633On Agreeing to the Amendment
Agreed toSame policy area×0.5
H.R. 8800 · Jul 21, 2026 · Roll call 629On Agreeing to the Amendment
FailedSame policy area×0.5
H.R. 8800 · Jul 21, 2026 · Roll call 628On Agreeing to the Amendment
Agreed toSame policy area×0.5
H.R. 8800 · Jul 21, 2026 · Roll call 627On Agreeing to the Amendment
Agreed toSame policy area×0.5

Show 17 more

H.R. 8800 · Jul 21, 2026 · Roll call 626On Agreeing to the Amendment
FailedSame policy area×0.5
H.R. 8800 · Jul 21, 2026 · Roll call 625On Agreeing to the Amendment
Agreed toSame policy area×0.5
H.R. 8800 · Jul 21, 2026 · Roll call 624On Agreeing to the Amendment
FailedSame policy area×0.5
H.R. 8800 · Jul 21, 2026 · Roll call 623On Agreeing to the Amendment
FailedSame policy area×0.5

Cosponsors

4 active

Show all 4 cosponsors

How the swing score works

Ideology gapHow far a member’s DW-NOMINATE voting score sits from their party’s median in the same chamber.

Scorecard gapHow far their Heritage Action and LCV ratings stray from their party’s average, using the groups’ votes on similar bills where available.

Cross-pressureHow strongly their district or state leans toward the other party, from our own computed partisan lean.

Similar votesHow often they voted against their own party on earlier roll calls about this bill or similar ones.

Committee bonusMembers of the committees handling the bill decide whether it moves, so they get a boost.

Cosponsor checkThe sponsor and active cosponsors have already committed, so they drop toward entrenched.