Veteran Artists Healing Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Veteran Artists Healing Act requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to establish a program allowing each VA medical-center director to buy original artwork directly from veterans enrolled as patients. A district, regional, or Veterans Integrated Service Network official generally cannot require separate approval unless another law requires it.
A purchase must use federal micro-purchase authority and be made directly from a veteran currently enrolled at that medical center who either has a clinical recommendation for creative-arts therapy or has participated in the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival. The work must be the veteran's own original art. It must be nonpartisan and clinical in nature, with themes of recovery, nature, or service, and the veteran must certify originality.
A medical center may make multiple purchases from the same veteran, but total purchases from that veteran by that center may not exceed $2,500 in one fiscal year. The veteran need not register in the System for Award Management or hold SBA small-business certification. The purchase counts toward veteran-owned small-business contracting goals and need not use multiple offers or equitable award distribution, provided the price is reasonable.
Who Benefits and How
Eligible veteran patients gain a direct revenue opportunity for therapeutic or festival-connected artwork without ordinary federal vendor registration. VA creative-arts therapy participants gain a concrete market for original work. Medical centers gain local authority to acquire clinically themed art quickly. VA contracting offices receive veteran-owned small-business goal credit for qualifying purchases. Patients, visitors, and staff may benefit from recovery-focused art displayed in medical facilities.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Medical-center directors and micro-purchase staff must verify patient enrollment, clinical or festival eligibility, original authorship, permitted themes, annual veteran-level limits, and price reasonableness. Veterans must certify that the work is original and accept the $2,500 per-center annual cap. Other art vendors lose ordinary multiple-source and equitable-distribution protections for these purchases. VA oversight staff must monitor decentralized purchasing and contracting-goal treatment.
Key Provisions
- Establishes direct VA medical-center artwork purchases from enrolled veterans.
- Requires creative-arts therapy recommendation or festival participation.
- Restricts purchases to original, nonpartisan, clinically themed artwork.
- Caps one center's purchases from one veteran at $2,500 per year.
- Waives System for Award Management registration.
- Treats purchases as veteran-owned small-business procurement.
- Waives multiple-source and equitable-distribution rules when price is reasonable.
- Removes routine regional or network approval.
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
Requires VA medical centers to operate decentralized micro-purchase authority for up to $2,500 per veteran per year of original, nonpartisan, clinically themed artwork made by enrolled veteran patients with a creative-arts recommendation or festival history, while waiving ordinary registration and competition rules.
Key Policy Areas
Veteran Artists, VA Medical Centers, Creative Arts Therapy, Federal Micro-Purchases, Veteran-Owned Procurement
Primary Purpose
Requires VA medical centers to operate decentralized micro-purchase authority for up to $2,500 per veteran per year of original, nonpartisan, clinically themed artwork made by enrolled veteran patients with a creative-arts recommendation or festival history, while waiving ordinary registration and competition rules.
Policy Domains
Section 2 direct medical-center artwork procurement
Identified Gains
- Veteran patients creating original artwork
- Veterans receiving creative-arts therapy
- Veterans Creative Arts Festival participants
- VA medical centers purchasing therapeutic art
- VA veteran-owned contracting goals
- Patients viewing recovery-themed artwork
Identified Costs
- VA medical-center micro-purchase staff
- VA staff verifying veteran eligibility
- Veteran artists certifying original work
- Other art vendors competing for VA purchases
- VA procurement-oversight staff
- Medical-center staff tracking annual purchase caps
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
Introduced in House
Mr. Mills introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Medical-center staff tracking annual purchase caps, VA medical centers purchasing therapeutic art, VA medical-center micro-purchase staff
Positive-direction: VA medical centers purchasing therapeutic art, VA veteran-owned contracting goals
Negative-direction: Medical-center staff tracking annual purchase caps, VA medical-center micro-purchase staff, VA staff verifying veteran eligibility
Veteran artists certifying original work, Veteran patients creating original artwork, Veterans Creative Arts Festival participants
Other art vendors competing for VA purchases
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "buyer"
- → Head of a VA medical center
- "seller"
- → Eligible veteran patient creating original artwork
- "therapist"
- → Clinician recommending creative-arts therapy
- "administrator"
- → Secretary of Veterans Affairs
- "contracting_office"
- → VA micro-purchase staff
Note: {'scope_ids': ['veteran_art_procurement'], 'description': 'The program waives ordinary registration, certification, multiple-source, and equitable-distribution rules, but purchases remain limited by micro-purchase authority, a $2,500 veteran-level annual cap, eligibility checks, and price reasonableness.'}
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Veteran-certified original art that is nonpartisan and clinical in nature and focuses on recovery, nature, or service.
A micro-purchase directly from an enrolled veteran patient with a creative-arts recommendation or festival history for that veteran's qualifying original artwork.
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