II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 800
To modify the Precision Medicine for Veterans Initiative of the Department
of Veterans Affairs.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY27, 2025
Mr. M
ORAN(for himself and Mr. KING) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
A BILL
To modify the Precision Medicine for Veterans Initiative
of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
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 ‘‘Precision Brain Health 4
Research Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. MODIFICATION OF PRECISION MEDICINE FOR VET-6
ERANS INITIATIVE. 7
Section 305 of the Commander John Scott Hannon 8
Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act of 2019 9
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(38 U.S.C. 1712A note; Public Law 116–171) is amend-1
ed— 2
(1) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘and such 3
other mental health conditions’’ and inserting ‘‘re-4
petitive low-level blast exposure, dementia, and such 5
other brain and mental health conditions’’; 6
(2) in subsection (d)(4), by adding at the end 7
the following new subparagraph: 8
‘‘(E) D
ATA-SHARING PARTNERSHIP .— 9
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary 10
shall work with the Secretary of Defense to 11
establish a data-sharing partnership be-12
tween the Department of Veterans Affairs 13
and the Department of Defense. 14
‘‘(ii) S
TORAGE.—The partnership es-15
tablished under clause (i) shall be stored in 16
the open platform made available under 17
this paragraph. 18
‘‘(iii) D
ATA.—The data supplied by 19
the Secretary of Defense shall include all 20
relevant data, Department-wide, collected 21
through— 22
‘‘(I) the United States Armed 23
Forces; 24
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‘‘(II) the United States Special 1
Operations Command; and 2
‘‘(III) the Long-Term Impact of 3
Military-Relevant Brain Injury Con-4
sortium Chronic Effects of 5
Neurotrauma Consortium maintained 6
by the Defense Health Agency.’’; and 7
(3) by adding at the end the following new sub-8
sections: 9
‘‘(f) R
EPETITIVELOW-LEVELBLASTEXPOSURERE-10
SEARCH.—In carrying out the initiative under subsection 11
(a), the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall conduct the 12
following research: 13
‘‘(1) A big-data assessment of the clinical and 14
non-clinical interventions that are illustrating posi-15
tive outcomes for patients within the health system 16
of the Veterans Health Administration with likely 17
low-level repetitive blast injuries, including a cat-18
egorization of military occupational specialties, and 19
units, known to experience higher levels of low-level 20
repetitive blast injuries. 21
‘‘(2) Not fewer than two large-scale implemen-22
tation studies of research-proven interventions with-23
in such health system for patients with likely low- 24
level repetitive blast injuries, including a categoriza-25
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tion of military occupational specialties, and units, 1
known to experience higher levels of low-level repet-2
itive blast injuries. 3
‘‘(3) A translational research study on the use 4
of growth hormone replacement therapy on the im-5
provement of cognitive function, quality of life, brain 6
structure, and other negative symptoms on patients 7
within such health system with likely low-level repet-8
itive blast injuries. 9
‘‘(4) Not fewer than four large-scale quality im-10
provement studies on improving the diagnosis and 11
care of veteran patients with likely low-level repet-12
itive blast injuries. 13
‘‘(g) A
SSISTANCE ANDREPORT BYNATIONALACAD-14
EMIES OFSCIENCES, ENGINEERING, ANDMEDICINE.— 15
Not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment 16
of the Precision Brain Health Research Act of 2025, the 17
Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall seek to enter into a 18
contract with the National Academies of Sciences, Engi-19
neering, and Medicine under which the National Acad-20
emies shall— 21
‘‘(1) work in tandem with the initiative under 22
subsection (a) on validation of brain and mental 23
health biomarkers among veterans; and 24
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‘‘(2) not less frequently than once every two 1
years, submit to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 2
of the Senate and the Committee on Veterans’ Af-3
fairs of the House of Representatives a report on the 4
work completed under paragraph (1). 5
‘‘(h) A
SSESSMENT.— 6
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of Veterans 7
Affairs shall conduct an assessment of all 8
translational research studies in progress and 9
planned under the initiative under subsection (a), in-10
cluding research under subsection (f). 11
‘‘(2) R
EPORT.—Not later than 60 days after 12
completion of the assessment conducted under para-13
graph (1), the Secretary shall submit to the Com-14
mittee on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate and the 15
Committee on Veterans’ Affairs of the House of 16
Representatives a report on the assessment. 17
‘‘(i) R
EPORTS.— 18
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not less frequently than 19
once every two years, the Secretary of Veterans Af-20
fairs shall submit to the Committee on Veterans’ Af-21
fairs of the Senate and the Committee on Veterans’ 22
Affairs of the House of Representatives a report on 23
the initiative under subsection (a). 24
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‘‘(2) RECOMMENDATIONS .—Each report re-1
quired by paragraph (1) shall include recommenda-2
tions for immediate administrative and legislative ac-3
tion to improve the initiative under subsection (a). 4
‘‘(j) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 5
is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of Vet-6
erans Affairs $5,000,000 to carry out the initiative under 7
subsection (a) for each of fiscal years 2025 through 8
2034.’’. 9
Æ
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