President Joe Biden’s pick to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, Denis McDonough, appeared before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee on January 27th for his confirmation hearing.

The former Obama administration White House Chief of Staff was questioned by Senators who were concerned about the impact the transition would have on the Department of Veteran Affairs to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

Committee Chairman, Senator Jon Tester from Montana, said the VA had tested nearly 1.3 million veterans and employees for COVID-19. “And now there are more than 8300 veteran families who are without their loved ones, including the more than 3100 VA is cared for within its facilities,” he said.

McDonough testified that President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden take the duty of caring for veterans seriously, because they “are members of a proud military family.”

“If confirmed, I will dedicate myself with every fiber of my being to fulfilling what President Biden rightly refers to as our country’s most sacred obligation: to prepare and equip our troops that we send into harm’s way and to care for them and their families when they return,” he said.

McDonough was also asked to support veteran caregivers and address the issue of veteran suicide.

FY 2021 Appropriations. Senate Republicans released an explanatory statement and text of their FY 2021 spending bill, including a total of $800 million for VA research, which would provide no increase over the comparable FY 2020 funding level. The press statement and highlights prepared by the committee staff are also available.

The FOVA Executive Committee sent a Nov. 16 letter to House and Senate Appropriations Committee leaders (also attached) urging passage of at least $840 million for the VA Medical and Prosthetic Research program in FY 2021, as included in the House-passed MilCon-VA spending bill. Please forward this letter to your Hill contacts urging appropriators to increase the VA research budget during this critical time for medical research.

Bicameral appropriations leaders are working to negotiate topline spending levels for all 12 FY 2021 spending bills in hopes of finalizing an omnibus appropriations package by the end of the calendar year. The current continuing resolution is set to expire on December 11.

VA COVID-19 Research Activities. The VA Office of Research and Development publishes regular communications about its COVID-19 research efforts. The ORD webpage “VA Research During the COVID-19 Pandemic” is updated regularly, and the recent Research Currents edition focused on COVID-19 efforts at VA.

Clinical Repurposing Funding Opportunity. The global nonprofit Cures Within Reach recently launched the Clinical Repurposing for Veterans Initiative.  The program’s goal is to identify new medical treatments for already approved medications and devices to impact high-priority health concerns for veterans and active military. Cures Within Reach is launching its Clinical Repurposing for Veterans Initiative with a Request for Proposals (RFP) specifically for repurposing research in any disease area that will benefit veterans. Investigator-initiated proposals can come from any US-based institution, and at least one project will be selected to receive a $50,000 grant from Cures Within Reach and its funding partner, the Kahlert Foundation for a clinical repurposing trial. Additional details are in the attached press release or at cureswithinreach.org.

On Sep 30, 2020, The House Veterans Affairs Committee (HVAC) held a hearing to review the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) intention to go live on October 24 with its new EHR system, from Cerner. VA witnesses emphasized they are fully ready for that date, with employees trained and Cerner support staff in place. VA EHR modernization lead John Windom also told the committee the Department has enough money for its plans throughout the coming fiscal year. The pandemic has delayed the program’s implementation, but the VA expects to still finish within the ten-year timeline.

Introduced by Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL-6) in January 2020, HR 5605 dubbed the United States-Israel PTSD Collaborative Research Act, is currently cosponsored by 87 members of the House, but still in the very early stages of moving to the House VA Committee. The bill aims to take collective research and experience to develop best-practices in research, diagnosing, and treating PTSD.

Specifically, HR 5605 would establish a grant program for collaborative efforts between the United States and Israel to advance research on post-traumatic stress disorders. The Department of Defense, in coordination with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of State, would award grants to eligible academic institutions or nonprofit entities in the United States.

Work would be conducted by eligible entities which includes nonprofits conducting research, and an entity in Israel under a joint research agreement.

NPC leaders are encouraged to reach out to their members of Congress and urge their support for HR 5605.

Despite the legislative challenges presented by COVID-19 in the past months, the U.S. House passed Senate legislation, S. 785 on September 23 to help prevent veteran suicide. 

Originally introduced by Senator Jon Tester, D-MT, S. 785 aims to prevent veteran suicide by expanding access to care, services and support for at-risk individuals within the VA healthcare system and in their local communities. The bill includes a subcomponent dubbed the Fox provision which is a suicide prevention grant program that would include community resources in veteran care.

U.S. Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., who chairs the House committee on Veterans’ Affairs, noted the committee has passed 15 pieces of legislation to address veterans’ mental health conditions.

The Friends of VA Medical Care and Health Research asked Congress on May 21st to support an additional $50 million towards Veterans Affairs COVID-19 research. As many know, the VA Office of Research and Development has been working tirelessly to quickly setup trials and studies aimed at finding solutions to fight COVID-19. This shift of effort has also required as shift of resources which is where FOVA has come in to play. Read more about this effort here in their letter to Congress.  

Please click here to read NAVREF's analysis of HR 748. 

As some of you may have seen, the House Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee this afternoon released text of its draft FY 2020 spending bill and an accompanying press release. The subcommittee is scheduled to mark up its draft spending bill today, Wednesday, May 1 at 3 p.m. in HT-2 in the Capitol (the subcommittee also will be airing the markup live via webcast).

Based on a preliminary review of the text, the draft bill appears to provide a total of $840 million for the VA Medical and Prosthetic Research program in FY 2020, in line with FOVA’s funding request for FY 2020. This total funding level would represent a $61 million or 7.8 percent increase over the comparable FY 2019 funding level.

Additional details will be available in report language once the full House Appropriations Committee considers the spending bill, currently expected on Thursday, May 9.

Also of note, both House and Senate “Dear Colleague” letters for the VA research program are now posted on the FOVA website. Again, the House letter was led by Reps. Hastings (D-Fla.) and González-Colón (R-P.R.), and closed with 84 signatories, an increase from 67 in FY 2019. The Senate letter was led by Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and closed with 23 signatories, an increase from 19 in FY 2019. Please be sure to thank your delegation for their support of VA research!

We need you to act! Advocacy plays a major role in how we ultimately operate and NAVREF needs everyone in our extended to community to reach out to your legislators and their staff to voice your opinion and educate them on the following topics: 

1. The Senate needs to support more robust VA research funding for Fiscal Year 2020. If you haven't already, please reach out to you Senator's office and tell them that you support the "Dear Colleague" letter in circulation that calls for $834 million for VA research appropriations. This number is supported by the Independent Budget and by the Friends of VA Medical Care and Health Research. Contact the NAVREF office for more information. 
2. H.R. 1947 was introduced on March 28, 2019, by Rep Roe (R-TN-1) and co-sponsored by Rep Brindisi (D-NY-22), and has already been referred to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs (of which Rep Roe is the Ranking Member).  We’re encouraging you to please reach out to your House Representative to encourage them to support passage of this bill (especially if they sit on the House VA Committee). This bill will enable NPCs to handle Interagency Agreement funding transferred to them by VA without regard to fiscal year limitations (the funds will have no expiration date).  It allows NPCs to continue serving as the “flexible funding mechanisms” originally authorized by Congress in 1988 and codifies how we have been operating for the past 30+ years. A draft email is available is being circulated among NPC executive directors. Please let us know if you haven't seen it yet!

The Friends of VA Medical Care and Health Research (FOVA) coalition is thankful for Congress’s recent investment in the VA Medical and Prosthetic Research Program, allowing the program to make up lost ground after nearly a decade of underfunding. FOVA’s FY 2020 recommendation of $840 million for VA research would allow for meaningful growth above inflation and continued investment in groundbreaking programs like the Million Veteran Program (MVP), while also supporting VA research on chronic and emerging needs of our nation’s veterans. Sustained and steady VA research funding growth is important to help ensure the best return on investment in improving the health of veterans and all Americans.

Read the full recommendation here.