S928-118

What This Bill Does

The "Not Just a Number Act" requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to submit a comprehensive annual report on veteran suicide prevention, starting 18 months after enactment. The bill aims to improve the tracking, analysis, and prevention of veteran suicides by mandating detailed data collection on suicide rates correlated with VA benefits usage, health care engagement, and various life circumstances like financial hardship and housing status.

Who Benefits and How

Veterans and their families benefit from improved suicide prevention strategies and more targeted interventions based on comprehensive data analysis. The bill specifically tracks outcomes for veterans across multiple categories - those using VA healthcare, educational benefits, disability compensation, housing loans, and homeless services - enabling better identification of at-risk populations.

Public health agencies (CDC, state/local coroners) benefit from standardized toolkits and best practices for accurately identifying and reporting veteran suicide deaths, improving the quality of nationwide data.

Congress and policymakers gain access to detailed annual reports that enable evidence-based decisions on expanding services that most effectively prevent veteran suicides.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The Department of Veterans Affairs bears the primary administrative burden, being required to:
- Compile and publish detailed annual reports with extensive data disaggregated by age, gender, race, and VA engagement levels
- Collaborate with CDC to develop toolkits for state/local medical examiners
- Conduct a feasibility study on creating a dedicated suicide prevention office at the Secretary level
- Brief Congress before each report submission

State and local coroners/medical examiners receive new guidance on identifying veteran status in suicide cases, requiring some process changes in death investigations.

Key Provisions

• Annual Reporting Mandate: Secretary of VA must submit the "National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report" by September 30 each year, with detailed suicide rate data disaggregated by demographics and VA service engagement
• Benefits Impact Analysis: Within 3 years, VA must analyze which specific benefits and services have the greatest impact on preventing veteran suicides
• Coroner Toolkit: VA and CDC must develop and distribute best practices for state/local officials to accurately identify and report veteran suicides
• Suicide Prevention Office Study: VA must study the feasibility of creating a dedicated suicide prevention office at the Secretary level, examining staffing needs, costs, and organizational structure
• Solid Start Program Review: Requires analysis of the effectiveness of the Solid Start veteran outreach program on suicide prevention