Rural Veterans Transportation to Care Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Rural Veterans Transportation to Care Act expands a VA transportation grant program from highly rural areas to rural or highly rural areas. It adds county veterans service organizations and Tribal organizations as eligible participants, replaces references to only State agencies or veterans service organizations with broader "recipient" language, and updates rural and highly rural definitions to use the Department of Agriculture's Rural-Urban Commuting Areas coding system.
The bill also changes grant amounts. A standard grant may not exceed $60,000, but a recipient may receive up to $80,000 if it must buy a vehicle to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act while carrying out the transportation program. The authorization is changed from $3,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2010 through 2022 to such sums as may be necessary.
Who Benefits and How
Veterans in rural and highly rural areas benefit from broader transportation support to reach VA care. County veterans service organizations benefit because they become eligible transportation grant recipients. Tribal organizations benefit from explicit eligibility to serve Native veterans and other veterans in Tribal communities. Veterans with disabilities benefit when grantees can receive a higher amount to purchase ADA-compliant vehicles.
Who Bears the Burden and How
VA grant administrators must update eligibility, grant-award documents, rural-area definitions, and funding practices. Grant recipients must operate transportation services within the new grant caps and document when an ADA-compliant vehicle purchase justifies the higher $80,000 amount. Federal appropriators bear the budget burden of moving the program to such sums as may be necessary.
Key Provisions
- Expands the VA transportation grant program to rural as well as highly rural areas.
- Adds county veterans service organizations and Tribal organizations as eligible grant recipients.
- Raises the ordinary grant cap to $60,000 and allows up to $80,000 for ADA-compliant vehicle purchases.
- Defines rural and highly rural using USDA Rural-Urban Commuting Areas codes.
- Replaces the expired fixed authorization with such sums as may be necessary.
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
Expands and modifies VA's transportation grant program so rural areas, county veterans service organizations, and Tribal organizations can participate, raises grant caps for ADA-compliant vehicle purchases, updates rural definitions, and authorizes such sums as necessary.
Key Policy Areas
Veterans, Transportation, Rural Health, Grants
Primary Purpose
Expands and modifies VA's transportation grant program so rural areas, county veterans service organizations, and Tribal organizations can participate, raises grant caps for ADA-compliant vehicle purchases, updates rural definitions, and authorizes such sums as necessary.
Policy Domains
VA rural transportation grant expansion
Identified Gains
- Veterans in rural areas
- Veterans in highly rural areas
- County veterans service organizations
- Tribal organizations
- Veterans needing ADA-compliant transportation
Identified Costs
- VA transportation grant administrators
- Transportation grant recipients
- Federal appropriators
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the Subcommittee on Health.
Ms. Perez (for herself, Mr. Ciscomani, Mr. Vasquez, Mr. Davis …
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.
Tribal organizations providing veteran transportation, VA transportation grant administrators
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "recipient"
- → VA transportation grant recipient
- "county_vso"
- → County veterans service organization
- "tribal_organization"
- → Tribal organization
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Terms defined using the Rural-Urban Commuting Areas coding system of the Department of Agriculture.
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