S. 711 would authorize the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), in consultation with the Department of Defense (DoD), to provide mental health care to members of the reserve components of the U.S. Armed Forces. CBO estimates that implementing the bill would cost $158 million over the 2021-2025 period; such spending would be subject to the appropriation of the necessary amounts (see Table 1).
Under current policy, VA offers suicide prevention services to all veterans, regardless of whether they are enrolled in the VA health care system. Some reservists do not have enough active-duty service to qualify as veterans and thus are not eligible for that care. Section 4 would require VA to provide such services to those veterans.
