I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2605
To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to award grants to nonprofit
organizations to assist such organizations in carrying out programs to
provide service dogs to eligible veterans, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL2, 2025
Mr. L
UTTRELL(for himself, Mr. MCGARVEY, Mr. CISCOMANI, Mr.
B
UCHANAN, Ms. NORTON, Mr. VANORDEN, Mr. MURPHY, Mr. DAVISof
North Carolina, Ms. T
ENNEY, Mr. HUNT, Mr. VALADAO, Mr. CROW, Mrs.
R
ADEWAGEN, Mr. RUTHERFORD, Mrs. KIGGANSof Virginia, Mr.
D
ELUZIO, Ms. MACE, Mrs. MILLER-MEEKS, Mr. COHEN, Mr. LAWLER,
Mr. R
ULLI, Mr. STAUBER, Mr. GOLDMANof Texas, Mr. PFLUGER, Ms.
K
ING-HINDS, and Mr. LALOTA) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to award grants
to nonprofit organizations to assist such organizations
in carrying out programs to provide service dogs to eligi-
ble veterans, 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 ‘‘Service Dogs Assisting 4
Veterans Act’’ or the ‘‘SAVES Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS PILOT PRO-1
GRAM TO AWARD GRANTS FOR THE PROVI-2
SION OF SERVICE DOGS TO VETERANS. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.— 4
(1) P
ILOT PROGRAM REQUIRED .—Not later 5
than 24 months after the date of the enactment of 6
this Act, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall es-7
tablish a pilot program under which the Secretary 8
shall award grants, on a competitive basis, to non-9
profit entities to provide service dogs to eligible vet-10
erans. 11
(2) D
URATION.—The Secretary shall carry out 12
the pilot program during the five-year period begin-13
ning on the date on which the first grant is awarded 14
under this section. 15
(b) A
PPLICATIONS.— 16
(1) I
N GENERAL.—To be eligible to receive a 17
grant under this section, a nonprofit entity shall 18
submit an application to the Secretary at such time, 19
in such manner, and containing such commitments 20
and information as the Secretary may require. 21
(2) E
LEMENTS.—An application submitted 22
under paragraph (1) shall include the following: 23
(A) A proposal for the provision of service 24
dogs to eligible veterans, including how the non-25
profit entity will communicate with the Sec-26
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retary to ensure an increasing number of serv-1
ice dogs are provided to veterans. 2
(B) A description of the following: 3
(i) The training that will be provided 4
by the nonprofit entity to eligible veterans. 5
(ii) The training of dogs that will 6
serve as service dogs. 7
(iii) Any additional support or services 8
the nonprofit entity will provide for such 9
dogs and eligible veterans. 10
(iv) The plan for publicizing the avail-11
ability of such dogs through a marketing 12
campaign that targets eligible veterans. 13
(v) The commitment of the nonprofit 14
entity to have humane standards for ani-15
mals. 16
(C) Documentation that demonstrates that 17
the nonprofit entity has experience in training 18
dogs as service animals. 19
(c) A
WARD OFGRANTS.— 20
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall award a 21
grant to each nonprofit entity for which the Sec-22
retary has approved an application submitted under 23
subsection (b)(1). 24
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(2) AGREEMENT REQUIRED .—Before the provi-1
sion of any grant amounts to a nonprofit entity se-2
lected to receive a grant under this section, the Sec-3
retary shall enter into an agreement, containing 4
such terms, conditions, and limitations as the Sec-5
retary determines appropriate, with such entity. 6
(3) M
AXIMUM GRANT AMOUNT .—A grant under 7
this section may not exceed $2,000,000. 8
(4) P
AYMENTS.—The Secretary shall establish 9
intervals of payment for the administration of each 10
grant awarded under this section. 11
(d) U
SE OFFUNDS.— 12
(1) I
N GENERAL.—A recipient of a grant under 13
this section shall use the grant amounts to plan, de-14
velop, implement, or manage (or any combination 15
thereof) one or more programs that provide service 16
dogs to eligible veterans. 17
(2) A
DMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES .—The Sec-18
retary may establish a maximum amount for each 19
grant awarded under this section that may be used 20
by the recipient of the grant to cover administrative 21
expenses. 22
(3) O
THER CONDITIONS AND LIMITATIONS .— 23
The Secretary may establish other conditions or lim-24
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itations on the use of grant amounts under this sec-1
tion. 2
(e) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR GRANTRECIPIENTS.— 3
(1) N
OTIFICATIONS AND INFORMATION .—A re-4
cipient of a grant under this section shall— 5
(A) notify each veteran who receives a 6
service dog through such grant that the service 7
dog is being paid for, in whole or in part, by 8
the Department of Veterans Affairs; and 9
(B) inform each such veteran of the bene-10
fits and services available from the Secretary 11
for the veteran and the service dog. 12
(2) P
ROHIBITION ON CERTAIN FEES .—A recipi-13
ent of a grant under this section may not charge a 14
fee to a veteran receiving a service dog through such 15
grant. 16
(f) V
ETERINARYINSURANCE.— 17
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall provide 18
to each veteran who receives a service dog through 19
a grant under this section a commercially available 20
veterinary insurance policy for the service dog. 21
(2) C
ONTINUATION.—If the Secretary provides 22
a veterinary insurance policy to a veteran under 23
paragraph (1), the Secretary shall continue to pro-24
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vide the policy to the veteran without regard to the 1
continuation or termination of the pilot program. 2
(g) T
RAINING ANDTECHNICALASSISTANCE.—The 3
Secretary may provide training and technical assistance 4
to recipients of grants under this section. 5
(h) O
VERSIGHT ANDMONITORING.— 6
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary— 7
(A) shall establish such oversight and mon-8
itoring requirements as the Secretary deter-9
mines appropriate to ensure that grant amounts 10
awarded under this section are used appro-11
priately; and 12
(B) may take such actions as the Secretary 13
determines necessary to address any issues 14
identified through the enforcement of such re-15
quirements. 16
(2) R
EPORTS AND ANSWERS .—The Secretary 17
may require each recipient of a grant under this sec-18
tion to provide, in such form as may be prescribed 19
by the Secretary, such reports or answers in writing 20
to specific questions, surveys, or questionnaires as 21
the Secretary determines necessary to carry out the 22
pilot program. 23
(i) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 24
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(1) The term ‘‘eligible veteran’’ means a vet-1
eran who has a covered condition=. 2
(2) The term ‘‘covered condition’’ means any of 3
the following: 4
(A) Blindness or visual impairment. 5
(B) Loss of use of a limb, paralysis, or 6
other significant mobility issue, including men-7
tal health mobility. 8
(C) Loss of hearing. 9
(D) Post-traumatic stress disorder. 10
(E) Traumatic brain injury. 11
(F) Any other disability, condition, or di-12
agnosis for which the Secretary determines, 13
based on medical judgment, that it is optimal 14
for the veteran to manage the disability, condi-15
tion, or diagnosis, and live independently 16
through the assistance of a service dog. 17
(3) The term ‘‘service animal’’ has the meaning 18
given such term in section 36.104 of title 28, Code 19
of Federal Regulations (or successor regulation). 20
(4) The term ‘‘service dog’’ means any dog that 21
is individually trained to do work or perform tasks 22
that are— 23
(A) for the benefit of a veteran with a cov-24
ered condition; and 25
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(B) directly related to the covered condi-1
tion of the veteran. 2
(j) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 3
authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 4
$10,000,000 for each of the five consecutive fiscal years 5
following the fiscal year in which the pilot program is es-6
tablished under subsection (a). 7
Æ
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