Veterans Legislation Passed in Congress in November

At the tail end of November, President Biden signed four new veterans bills into law. These bipartisan bills gear towards reforming the agency to better address the needs of our nation’s veterans. While they have been signed, the Department of Veterans Affairs will still need to determine the implementation of these bills.

The four bills signed were:

• The Protect Mothers Who Served Act: this bill commissions a comprehensive study of maternal health challenges facing veterans and invest $15 million into maternal care coordination programs at the VA.
• The Hire Veteran Health Heroes Act: This bill was enacted in response to a 2019 Inspector General of the VA report finding that staff shortages are one of the causes of the many problems faced in veterans’ healthcare. Under this bill, the Department of Veterans Affairs is directed to create a program to recruit military medical personnel who have less than a year left in their service to work in federal healthcare occupations.
• Colonel John M. McHugh Tuition Fairness for Survivors Act: In signing this law surviving spouses and children of veterans who access the Survivors’ and Dependents’ Education Assistance program are eligible for in-state tuition wherever they choose to go to school, whether they live in that state or not.
• Legislative Study on Reviewing for Disparity in VA Benefit Awards – This is a legislative study bill that aims to help review and identify disparity in the awarding of Veteran Benefits

These bills are all big steps that will help the VA care for our veterans and their families. While these bills were at the federal level, for veterans interested in exploring what can be done at the state level, please visit to learn about the United Veterans Legislative Council https://veterans.nv.gov/united-veterans-legislative-council/.