To designate the medical center of the Department of Veterans Affairs in West Haven, Connecticut, as the Captain Paul W. Bud Bucha VA Medical Center.
Summary
What This Bill Does
Designates the Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in West Haven, Connecticut, or any successor location, as the Captain Paul W. Bud Bucha Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center or Captain Paul W. Bud Bucha VA Medical Center. It also provides detailed congressional findings about Bucha's life: West Point, the 101st Airborne Division, command of Company D, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment in Vietnam, the March 1968 action that led to the Medal of Honor, his work with veterans service organizations, his advocacy around post-traumatic stress, and the care he received at the West Haven VA before his death in 2024.
Who Benefits and How
The West Haven VA Medical Center, Connecticut veterans, veterans service organizations, Medal of Honor communities, and Bucha's family benefit from a formal federal commemoration attached to the facility where he received mental-health, neurological, psychiatric, and oncology care late in life. VA patients and staff gain a public-facing institutional name tied to a veteran who advocated for destigmatizing post-traumatic stress and supporting injured veterans through groups such as Homes for Our Troops.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Department of Veterans Affairs and West Haven VA administrators must update federal references, maps, records, signs, documents, websites, and other materials to use the new name. The burden is mostly administrative and commemorative; the bill does not authorize new medical programs, construction funding, staffing levels, or benefit eligibility changes.
Key Provisions
- Provides congressional findings that Paul W. Bud Bucha was a Medal of Honor recipient, Vietnam veteran, West Point graduate, and veterans advocate.
- Establishes a commemorative record of Bucha's March 1968 heroism near Phuoc Vinh, Vietnam, including leadership under attack and evacuation of wounded soldiers.
- Provides findings on Bucha's service with veterans organizations, Homes for Our Troops, and the Department of Labor's veterans employment advisory committee.
- Uses the facility naming to connect Bucha's post-traumatic-stress advocacy and his care at the West Haven VA Medical Center.
- Provides the new statutory name for the West Haven VA medical center and any successor location: Captain Paul W. Bud Bucha VA Medical Center.
- Requires every federal legal, regulatory, map, document, paper, or record reference to use the new facility name.
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
Names the Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in West Haven, Connecticut, after Medal of Honor recipient and veterans advocate Captain Paul W. 'Bud' Bucha, and makes all federal references to that facility use the new name.
Key Policy Areas
Veterans, Federal Facilities, Commemoration
Primary Purpose
Names the Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in West Haven, Connecticut, after Medal of Honor recipient and veterans advocate Captain Paul W. 'Bud' Bucha, and makes all federal references to that facility use the new name.
Policy Domains
Sections 2-3 - Bud Bucha findings and West Haven VA designation
Identified Gains
- West Haven VA Medical Center
- Connecticut veterans
- Veterans service organizations
- Medal of Honor communities
- Bucha family members
- VA patients and staff
Identified Costs
- Department of Veterans Affairs
- West Haven VA administrators
- Federal records managers
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
Passed SenateMr. Blumenthal (for himself and Mr. Murphy) introduced the following …
Passed Senate (inferred from es version)
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Department of Veterans Affairs, West Haven VA Medical Center
Positive-direction: West Haven VA Medical Center
Negative-direction: Department of Veterans Affairs
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "department"
- → Department of Veterans Affairs
- "captain_bucha"
- → Captain Paul W. Bud Bucha
- "medical_center"
- → West Haven VA Medical Center
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
The new statutory name for the Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in West Haven, Connecticut, including any successor location.
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.
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