WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) – chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs – and Rep. Mike Bost (R-Ill.) – chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs – introduced legislation to increase access to care for veterans through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) providers in the community.

The Veterans’ Assuring Critical Care Expansions to Support Servicemembers (ACCESS) Act of 2025 would establish existing community care access standards as the baseline standard of care for veterans seeking care in the community, increase access to life-saving treatment programs for veterans with mental health conditions or addiction and expand the list of criteria VA is required to take into account when determining whether it is in a veteran’s best medical interest to refer a veteran to the community to include veteran preference and continuity of care.

“No veteran – especially one facing cancer, addiction, chronic pain or a mental health condition – should have to wait weeks or months for the care they need or have to fight to receive the community care referrals they are entitled to by law,” said Sen. Moran. “Yet, that is the reality for far too many veterans in the VA health care system today. Veterans deserve prompt, high-quality care and greater flexibility in choosing when, where, and how to use the health care benefits they have earned through their service. This legislation will help make certain that VA delivers on those promises. I thank Rep. Bost for joining me in introducing this legislation, and I look forward to working with him to see it signed into law. Veterans and their families are counting on it.”

“The VA community care program is a promise to veterans to provide local, on-time care –which is why we must ensure that VA facilities across the country are focused squarely on providing care for veterans, regardless of whether its in-house or in their community,” said Rep. Bost. “But during the Biden-Harris administration, House Republicans uncovered disturbing stories of VA bureaucrats intentionally restricting veterans’ healthcare choice in an effort to keep veterans stuck in line in the VA system. That’s dead wrong. Chairman Moran and my bill, the Veterans’ ACCESS Act, would rightfully protect and preserve the intent of the MISSION Act and the VA community care program so that no bureaucrat can stand in the way of veterans accessing the healthcare they have earned – whether that is inside or outside the VA. When VA inserts itself as the sole decision maker and plays politics with veterans’ health, people get hurt, cancer patients can’t get their treatment, and families spend more time arguing with bureaucrats than focusing on their mental health – it’s high time we change that.”

Introduction of the Veterans’ ACCESS Act followed Chairman Moran presiding over a Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs hearing where veterans, family members and advocates testified about unacceptably long wait times, restrictions on community care referrals and other bureaucratic barriers that prevent veterans – including those with mental health conditions or addiction that put them at high-risk of suicide – from accessing life-saving care from VA.

The full text of the legislation can be found here. A section-by-section of the bill can be found here.

The Veterans’ ACCESS Act is supported by veterans service organizations, advocates and stakeholders including Wounded Warrior Project, Disabled American Veterans, The American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Military Officers Association of America, America’s Warrior Partnership, Vietnam Veterans of America, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, HunterSeven Foundation, Concerned Veterans for America, Americans for Prosperity and the National Defense Committee.