| 1 | 1 | | II |
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| 2 | 2 | | 119THCONGRESS |
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| 3 | 3 | | 1 |
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| 4 | 4 | | STSESSION S. 784 |
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| 5 | 5 | | To expand and modify the grant program of the Department of Veterans |
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| 6 | 6 | | Affairs to provide innovative transportation options to veterans in highly |
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| 7 | 7 | | rural areas, and for other purposes. |
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| 8 | 8 | | IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES |
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| 9 | 9 | | FEBRUARY27, 2025 |
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| 10 | 10 | | Mr. O |
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| 11 | 11 | | SSOFF(for himself and Ms. COLLINS) introduced the following bill; |
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| 12 | 12 | | which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs |
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| 13 | 13 | | A BILL |
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| 14 | 14 | | To expand and modify the grant program of the Department |
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| 15 | 15 | | of Veterans Affairs to provide innovative transportation |
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| 16 | 16 | | options to veterans in highly rural areas, and for other |
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| 17 | 17 | | purposes. |
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| 18 | 18 | | Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 |
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| 19 | 19 | | tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 |
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| 20 | 20 | | SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 |
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| 21 | 21 | | This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Rural Veterans Trans-4 |
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| 22 | 22 | | portation to Care Act’’. 5 |
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| 23 | 23 | | VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:47 Mar 14, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S784.IS S784 |
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| 24 | 24 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2 |
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| 25 | 25 | | •S 784 IS |
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| 26 | 26 | | SEC. 2. EXPANSION AND MODIFICATION OF TRANSPOR-1 |
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| 27 | 27 | | TATION GRANT PROGRAM OF DEPARTMENT 2 |
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| 28 | 28 | | OF VETERANS AFFAIRS. 3 |
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| 29 | 29 | | Section 307 of the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus 4 |
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| 30 | 30 | | Health Services Act of 2010 (Public Law 111–163; 38 5 |
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| 31 | 31 | | U.S.C. 1710 note) is amended— 6 |
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| 32 | 32 | | (1) in the section heading, by inserting 7 |
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| 33 | 33 | | ‘‘ |
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| 34 | 34 | | RURAL OR’’ before ‘‘HIGHLY’’; 8 |
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| 35 | 35 | | (2) in subsection (a)— 9 |
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| 36 | 36 | | (A) by inserting ‘‘rural or’’ before ‘‘highly’’ 10 |
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| 37 | 37 | | each place it appears; 11 |
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| 38 | 38 | | (B) in paragraph (2)— 12 |
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| 39 | 39 | | (i) by redesignating subparagraph (B) 13 |
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| 40 | 40 | | as subparagraph (C); 14 |
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| 41 | 41 | | (ii) by inserting after subparagraph 15 |
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| 42 | 42 | | (A) the following new subparagraph (B): 16 |
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| 43 | 43 | | ‘‘(B) County veterans service organiza-17 |
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| 44 | 44 | | tions.’’; and 18 |
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| 45 | 45 | | (iii) by adding at the end the fol-19 |
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| 46 | 46 | | lowing new subparagraph: 20 |
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| 47 | 47 | | ‘‘(D) Tribal organizations.’’; 21 |
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| 48 | 48 | | (C) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘A State 22 |
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| 49 | 49 | | veterans service agency or veterans service or-23 |
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| 50 | 50 | | ganization awarded’’ and inserting ‘‘A recipient 24 |
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| 51 | 51 | | of’’; and 25 |
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| 52 | 52 | | VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:47 Mar 14, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S784.IS S784 |
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| 53 | 53 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3 |
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| 54 | 54 | | •S 784 IS |
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| 55 | 55 | | (D) by striking paragraph (4) and insert-1 |
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| 56 | 56 | | ing the following new paragraph (4): 2 |
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| 57 | 57 | | ‘‘(4) M |
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| 58 | 58 | | AXIMUM AMOUNT.— 3 |
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| 59 | 59 | | ‘‘(A) I |
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| 60 | 60 | | N GENERAL.—Except as provided in 4 |
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| 61 | 61 | | subparagraph (B), the amount of a grant under 5 |
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| 62 | 62 | | this section may not exceed $60,000. 6 |
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| 63 | 63 | | ‘‘(B) A |
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| 64 | 64 | | DDITIONAL AMOUNT TO PURCHASE 7 |
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| 65 | 65 | | A VEHICLE.—The amount of a grant under this 8 |
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| 66 | 66 | | section to a recipient may be increased to an 9 |
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| 67 | 67 | | amount not to exceed $80,000 if the recipient 10 |
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| 68 | 68 | | is required to purchase a vehicle to comply with 11 |
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| 69 | 69 | | the requirements of the Americans with Disabil-12 |
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| 70 | 70 | | ities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12101 et seq.) in 13 |
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| 71 | 71 | | carrying out this section.’’; 14 |
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| 72 | 72 | | (3) in subsection (c), by striking paragraph (1) 15 |
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| 73 | 73 | | and inserting the following: 16 |
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| 74 | 74 | | ‘‘(1) R |
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| 75 | 75 | | URAL; HIGHLY RURAL .—The terms 17 |
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| 76 | 76 | | ‘rural’ and ‘highly rural’ have the meanings given 18 |
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| 77 | 77 | | those terms under the Rural-Urban Commuting 19 |
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| 78 | 78 | | Areas (RUCA) coding system of the Department of 20 |
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| 79 | 79 | | Agriculture.’’; and 21 |
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| 80 | 80 | | (4) in subsection (d), by striking ‘‘$3,000,000 22 |
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| 81 | 81 | | for each of fiscal years 2010 through 2022’’ and in-23 |
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| 82 | 82 | | serting ‘‘such sums as may be necessary’’. 24 |
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| 83 | 83 | | Æ |
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| 84 | 84 | | VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:47 Mar 14, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S784.IS S784 |
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| 85 | 85 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB |
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