BRAVE Act of 2025
Latest action. Referred to the subcommitteeA smaller panel inside a standing committee with jurisdiction over a slice of its subject matter. Most hearings and the first markup usually happen here.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) on Health.
Building Resources and Access for Veterans' Mental Health Engagement Act of 2025 or the BRAVE Act of 2025
This bill addresses mental health services and care provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), including matters related to personnel, Vet Center administration, care for women veterans, and access to care.
The bill authorizes the VA to waive the licensure or certification requirement for individual licensed professional mental health counselor appointees for a reasonable period of time.
The bill also extends the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program and increases the maximum annual grant amount.
The VA must provide Vet Centers with guidance for assessing outreach activities and implement processes to periodically assess the extent to which (1) veterans and eligible members of the Armed Forces experience barriers to obtaining services at Vet Centers, and (2) Vet Center staff may encounter barriers to providing services.
Among other requirements, the VA must also
survey and host listening sessions with women veterans to gauge the effectiveness of the VA’s suicide prevention, lethal-means safety, and mental health resources and messaging campaigns;
initiate efforts to modify the Recovery Engagement and Coordination for Health-Veterans Enhanced Treatment (REACH VET) program to incorporate risk factors weighted for women;
annually offer a mental health consultation to veterans who are receiving compensation for a service-connected disability relating to a mental health diagnosis; and
implement a pilot program to provide access to mental health residential treatment programs for veterans with a spinal cord injury or disorder.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on November 12, 2025. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on December 3, 2025: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 118th Congress (2023-24), 274 of the 16,565 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 1.7 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Jason Crow (D-CO) introduced it on November 12, 2025, and 10 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 7 Democrats, 3 Republicans.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on November 12, 2025, 302 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 281 days ago, on December 3, 2025.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 119th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2027 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers