I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 3581
To amend title 38, United States Code, to modify the family caregiver
program of the Department of Veterans Affairs to include services related
to mental health and neurological disorders, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY22, 2023
Mrs. K
IGGANSof Virginia introduced the following bill; which was referred to
the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
A BILL
To amend title 38, United States Code, to modify the family
caregiver program of the Department of Veterans Affairs
to include services related to mental health and neuro-
logical disorders, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Caregiver Outreach 4
and Program Enhancement Act’’ or the ‘‘COPE Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. AUTHORITY FOR SECRETARY OF VETERANS AF-1
FAIRS TO AWARD GRANTS TO ENTITIES TO 2
IMPROVE PROVISION OF MENTAL HEALTH 3
SUPPORT TO FAMILY CAREGIVERS OF VET-4
ERANS. 5
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subchapter II of chapter 17 of 6
title 38, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 7
end the following new section: 8
‘‘§ 1720K. Grants to provide mental health support to 9
family caregivers of veterans 10
‘‘(a) A
UTHORITY.—The Secretary may award grants 11
to carry out, coordinate, improve, or otherwise enhance 12
mental health counseling, treatment, or support to the 13
family caregivers of veterans participating in the family 14
caregiver program. 15
‘‘(b) A
PPLICATION.—(1) To be eligible for a grant 16
under this section, an entity shall submit to the Secretary 17
an application therefor at such time, in such manner, and 18
containing such information as the Secretary may require. 19
‘‘(2) Each application submitted under paragraph (1) 20
shall include the following: 21
‘‘(A) A detailed plan for the use of the grant. 22
‘‘(B) A description of the programs or efforts 23
through which the entity will meet the outcome 24
measures developed by the Secretary under sub-25
section (g). 26
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‘‘(C) A description of how the entity will dis-1
tribute grant amounts equitably among areas with 2
varying levels of urbanization. 3
‘‘(D) A plan for how the grant will be used to 4
meet the unique needs of veterans residing in rural 5
areas, American Indian or Alaska Native veterans, 6
elderly veterans, women veterans, and veterans from 7
other underserved communities. 8
‘‘(c) D
ISTRIBUTION.—The Secretary shall seek to en-9
sure that grants awarded under this section are equitably 10
distributed among entities located in States with varying 11
levels of urbanization. 12
‘‘(d) P
RIORITY.—The Secretary shall prioritize 13
awarding grants under this section that will serve the fol-14
lowing areas: 15
‘‘(1) Areas with high rates of veterans enrolled 16
in the family caregiver program. 17
‘‘(2) Areas with high rates of— 18
‘‘(A) suicide among veterans; or 19
‘‘(B) referrals to the Veterans Crisis Line. 20
‘‘(e) R
EQUIREDACTIVITIES.—Any grant awarded 21
under this section shall be used— 22
‘‘(1) to expand existing programs, activities, 23
and services; 24
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‘‘(2) to establish new or additional programs, 1
activities, and services; or 2
‘‘(3) for travel and transportation to facilitate 3
carrying out paragraph (1) or (2). 4
‘‘(f) O
UTCOMEMEASURES.—(1) The Secretary shall 5
develop and provide to each entity that receives a grant 6
under this section written guidance on the following: 7
‘‘(A) Outcome measures. 8
‘‘(B) Policies of the Department. 9
‘‘(2) In developing outcome measures under para-10
graph (1), the Secretary shall consider the following goals: 11
‘‘(A) Increasing the utilization of mental health 12
services among family caregivers of veterans partici-13
pating in the family caregiver program. 14
‘‘(B) Reducing barriers to mental health serv-15
ices among family caregivers of veterans partici-16
pating in such program. 17
‘‘(g) T
RACKINGREQUIREMENTS.—(1) The Secretary 18
shall establish appropriate tracking requirements with re-19
spect to the entities receiving a grant under this section. 20
‘‘(2) Not less frequently than annually, the Secretary 21
shall submit to Congress a report on such tracking re-22
quirements. 23
‘‘(h) P
ERFORMANCE REVIEW.—The Secretary 24
shall— 25
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‘‘(1) review the performance of each entity that 1
receives a grant under this section; and 2
‘‘(2) make information regarding such perform-3
ance publicly available. 4
‘‘(i) R
EMEDIATIONPLAN.—(1) In the case of an enti-5
ty that receives a grant under this section and does not 6
meet the outcome measures developed by the Secretary 7
under subsection (g), the Secretary shall require the entity 8
to submit to the Secretary a remediation plan under which 9
the entity shall describe how and when it plans to meet 10
such outcome measures. 11
‘‘(2) The Secretary may not award a subsequent 12
grant under this section to an entity described in para-13
graph (1) unless the Secretary approves the remediation 14
plan submitted by the entity under such paragraph. 15
‘‘(j) M
AXIMUMAMOUNT.—The amount of a grant 16
awarded under this section may not exceed 10 percent of 17
amounts made available for grants under this section for 18
the fiscal year in which the grant is awarded. 19
‘‘(k) S
UPPLEMENT, NOTSUPPLANT.—Any grant 20
awarded under this section shall be used to supplement 21
and not supplant funding that is otherwise available 22
through the Department to provide mental health support 23
among family caregivers of veterans participating in the 24
family caregiver program. 25
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‘‘(l) OUTREACH TOFAMILYCAREGIVERS.—The Sec-1
retary shall include, in the outreach materials regularly 2
mailed to a family caregiver who participates in the family 3
caregiver program, notice of mental health support pro-4
vided by recipients of grants under this section that are 5
located in the relevant Veterans Integrated Service Net-6
work. 7
‘‘(m) F
UNDING.—(1) Amounts for the activities of 8
the Department under this section shall be budgeted and 9
appropriated through a separate appropriation account. 10
‘‘(2) In the budget justification materials submitted 11
to Congress in support of the budget of the Department 12
for any fiscal year (as submitted with the budget of the 13
President under section 1105(a) of title 31), the Secretary 14
shall include a separate statement of the amount re-15
quested to be appropriated for that fiscal year for the ac-16
count specified in paragraph (1). 17
‘‘(n) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 18
is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary, for each 19
of fiscal years 2023 through 2025, $50,000,000 to carry 20
out this section. 21
‘‘(o) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 22
‘‘(1) The terms ‘caregiver’ and ‘family care-23
giver’ have the meanings given those terms in sec-24
tion 1720G of this title. 25
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‘‘(2) The term ‘family caregiver program’ 1
means the program of comprehensive assistance for 2
family caregivers under section 1720G of this title. 3
‘‘(3) The term ‘Veterans Crisis Line’ means the 4
toll-free hotline for veterans established under sec-5
tion 1720F of this title.’’. 6
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 7
at the beginning of such subchapter is amended by adding 8
at the end the following new item: 9
‘‘1720K. Grants to provide mental health support to family caregivers of vet-
erans.’’.
SEC. 3. GAO REPORT ON MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT FOR
10
CAREGIVERS. 11
(a) R
EPORTREQUIRED.—Not later than one year 12
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comp-13
troller General of the United States shall submit to the 14
Committee on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate and the 15
Committee on Veterans’ Affairs of the House of Rep-16
resentatives a report on the provision of mental health 17
support to caregivers of veterans. 18
(b) C
ONTENTS.—The report submitted under sub-19
section (a) shall include the following: 20
(1) An assessment of the need for mental 21
health support among caregivers participating in the 22
caregiver programs. 23
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(2) An assessment of options for mental health 1
support in facilities of the Department of Veterans 2
Affairs and in the community for caregivers partici-3
pating in the caregiver programs. 4
(3) An assessment of the availability and acces-5
sibility of mental health support in facilities of the 6
Department and in the community for caregivers 7
participating in the caregiver programs. 8
(4) An assessment of the awareness among 9
caregivers of the availability of mental health sup-10
port in facilities of the Department and in the com-11
munity for caregivers participating in the caregiver 12
programs. 13
(5) An assessment of barriers to mental health 14
support in facilities of the Department and in the 15
community for caregivers participating in the care-16
giver programs. 17
(c) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 18
(1) C
AREGIVER.—The term ‘‘caregiver’’ has the 19
meaning given that term in section 1720G of title 20
38, United States Code. 21
(2) C
AREGIVER PROGRAMS .—The term ‘‘care-22
giver programs’’ means— 23
(A) the program of comprehensive assist-24
ance for family caregivers under subsection (a) 25
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of section 1720G of title 38, United States 1
Code; and 2
(B) the program of support services for 3
caregivers under subsection (b) of such section. 4
Æ
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