Washington, D.C. – Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed three bills championed in the Senate by U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) as part of a comprehensive veterans’ mental health package called the Support the Resilience of Our Nation’s Great (STRONG) Veterans Act. This bipartisan package now heads to the Senate, where Cortez Masto will work to pass it and send it to the President’s desk to be signed into law.
“Nevada’s veterans sacrifice so much to defend our country, and it’s our responsibility to ensure they have the support they need when they finish their service,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “I’ll continue to work with my colleagues to pass this bipartisan legislation through the Senate and deliver life-saving resources to veterans in Nevada and across the country.”
The House’s STRONG Veterans Act included the following bipartisan bills cosponsored by Senator Cortez Masto:
- Post-9/11 Veterans’ Mental Health Care Improvement Act – Bipartisan legislation to strengthen the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) mental health care workforce, expand care options, and support mental health research.
- Solid Start Act – Bipartisan legislation to strengthen the VA’s Solid Start program, which contacts veterans by phone after they leave active duty service to check in and help connect them to VA programs and benefits. The bill will codify the program and help ensure that women veterans are getting the critical information they need.
- Veterans Peer Specialist Act – Bipartisan legislation to expand the VA peer specialist mental health program to all VA medical centers.
Senator Cortez Masto is a champion in the Senate advocating for our veterans and their families. She just introduced a bipartisan bill to provide peer support to veteran survivors of military sexual trauma. In December, her legislation to protect VA benefits for student veterans was signed into law. She recently introduced bipartisan legislation to make it easier for veterans who have a service-related medical condition to get the benefits they are owed. As part of the NDAA of 2021, she secured measures to improve mental health services for members of the National Guard and Reserves, support Navy members in getting the retirement benefits owed to them, and increase the transparency and efficiency of the Department of Defense’s TRICARE medical billing practices.
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