H.R. 912 would require the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to hire and train at least one full-time employee at each VA medical center to work with minority veterans. Through the Minority Veterans Program, VA provides information on benefits and services that support the unique needs of minority veterans in its health care facilities. Based on information from VA, CBO expects that the department would need to hire about 100 full-time employees to meet the requirement of having a minority veteran coordinator at all 170 medical centers. At an average cost of $105,000 per employee, salaries, training, and other expenses would total $47 million over five years.
The bill would also require VA to submit a report to the Congress on its outreach efforts to minority veterans, Native American veterans, and Alaska Native veterans. Using information on similar reports of similar scope, CBO estimates that satisfying that requirement would cost less than $500,000.
Section 3 of the bill would require VA to include Native American tribes in the Governors Challenge Program. Under that program VA provides grants to state and local governments to support suicide prevention activities. Under current law, VA has expanded the grant program and plans to include all states by the end of 2022. In addition, the department’s local suicide prevention coordinators have partnered with more than 30 tribes under a VA-led pilot program. Thus, CBO expects that implementing section 3 of the bill would cost less than $500,000 over the 2022-2026 period for administrative activities.
In total, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would cost $48 million over the 2022‑2026 period.
