Veteran Overmedication and Suicide Prevention Act of 2025
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Veteran Overmedication and Suicide Prevention Act requires the VA Secretary, within 90 days, to seek an agreement with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The National Academies would review all covered veterans who died by suicide during the five years before enactment, and the review must also count violent and accidental deaths. The report must describe age, gender, race, ethnicity, prescribed medications, legal and illegal drug use, mental health conditions, VA encounters, and related patterns. The bill is meant to find whether medication practices, substance exposure, or gaps in VA care contributed to preventable veteran deaths.
Who Benefits and How
Veterans at suicide risk benefit if the review identifies medication, substance-use, or care-pattern warning signs that VA can address. Families of veterans who died by suicide benefit from a serious independent review of recent deaths and possible systemic causes. VA mental health clinicians benefit from evidence that can improve screening, prescribing, and follow-up practices. Congressional veterans committees benefit from independent National Academies findings for oversight of VA suicide prevention.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Department of Veterans Affairs must negotiate the National Academies agreement and provide data needed for the review. National Academies reviewers must analyze sensitive death, medication, substance-use, and VA-care records. VA medical centers may face scrutiny if patterns show overmedication or missed suicide-risk interventions. Federal taxpayers bear the cost of commissioning and supporting the independent review.
Key Provisions
- Requires VA to seek a National Academies review within 90 days of enactment.
- Directs review of covered veteran suicides during the preceding five-year period.
- Requires analysis of violent deaths, accidental deaths, demographics, medications, substances, diagnoses, and VA care.
- Provides Congress independent evidence for veteran suicide-prevention oversight.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to seek a National Academies review of recent covered veteran suicide, violent-death, and accidental-death cases, including medication, substance, diagnosis, and VA-care patterns.
Key Policy Areas
Veterans, Mental Health, Public Health
Primary Purpose
Directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to seek a National Academies review of recent covered veteran suicide, violent-death, and accidental-death cases, including medication, substance, diagnosis, and VA-care patterns.
Policy Domains
Resolution provisions
Identified Gains
- Veterans at suicide risk
- Families of deceased veterans
- VA mental health clinicians
- Congressional veterans committees
Identified Costs
- Department of Veterans Affairs
- National Academies reviewers
- VA medical centers
- Federal taxpayers
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the Subcommittee on Health.
Mr. Buchanan (for himself and Mr. Connolly) introduced the following …
Referred to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Families of deceased veterans, Veterans at suicide risk
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology