"The full-year VA appropriations bill passed Congress last week as part of a package of legislation that included a continuing resolution to end the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history. The FY26 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs bill, signed into law by President Donald Trump on Nov. 12, allocates more than $133 billion in discretionary funding for the department, including over $115 billion for VA medical care."
"VA has struggled for some time to bring down the overall veteran suicide rate. The department has reported that approximately 6,500 veterans take their own lives each year, with more than 17 retired servicemembers dying by suicide each day - statistics that have remained largely unchanged since 2008, when VA spent around $4.4 million on its suicide prevention initiatives."
"While the department has been using some of these tools - including machine learning, a subset of AI - to bolster its outreach to veterans in crisis, both the House and Senate Appropriations committees signaled their support for additional suicide prevention approaches that embrace innovative technologies. The committee reports do not carry the force of law, but they include the recommendations of the panels' lawmakers."
Congress enacted the FY26 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs bill, providing more than $133 billion discretionary funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs, including over $115 billion for medical care and roughly $698 million for suicide prevention outreach. Veterans continue to die by suicide at high rates, with VA reporting about 6,500 veteran suicides annually and more than 17 retired servicemembers per day, figures largely unchanged since 2008. The department has adopted machine learning and other AI-related tools to target outreach to veterans at risk. House and Senate appropriations committees recommended expanded innovative technologies for suicide prevention, though their reports are nonbinding.
Read at Nextgov.com
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