H.R. 5073 · 117th Congress

REACH for Veterans Act

Introduced on Aug 23, 2021 by Antonio Delgado (D-NY-19). 68 cosponsors, 14 of them from another party. Latest action (Oct 14, 2021): Subcommittee Hearings Held.

Stage
Introduced
Introduced
Aug 23, 2021
Cosponsors
68
14 from the other party
Policy area
Armed Forces and National Security
Open in the Congress explorerCongress.govAlert me

Progress

The furthest stage the measure reached. Simple and concurrent resolutions do not go to the President.

  1. Introduced
  2. 2Reported by committee
  3. 3Passed one chamber
  4. 4Passed both chambers
  5. 5Sent to the President
  6. 6Became law

Official title

To improve the Veterans Crisis Line of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.

Subjects

  • Congressional oversight
  • Department of Veterans Affairs
  • Drug, alcohol, tobacco use
  • Emergency communications systems
  • Emergency medical services and trauma care
  • Government employee pay, benefits, personnel management
  • Government information and archives
  • Health promotion and preventive care
  • Mental health
  • Social work, volunteer service, charitable organizations
  • Telephone and wireless communication
  • Veterans' medical care
  • Veterans' organizations and recognition

Summary

By the Congressional Research Service (Introduced in House, Aug 23, 2021). Public domain.

Revising and Expediting Actions for the Crisis Hotline for Veterans Act or the REACH for Veterans Act

This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to update training and procedures for call responders of the Veterans Crisis Line.

Specifically, the VA must enter into an agreement with an outside organization to review the training for crisis line call responders. The VA must update the training if any deficiencies are identified after the review.

Among other requirements, the VA must

  • develop guidelines on retraining and quality management for when a call responder has an adverse event or needs improvement,
  • annually perform a common cause analysis for identified callers to the crisis line who died by suicide in situations where the crisis line was the last point of contact,
  • develop enhanced guidance and procedures to respond to calls to the crisis line related to substance use and overdose risk,
  • review the current emergency dispatch standard operating procedure of the crisis line, and
  • solicit feedback from veterans service organizations on how to conduct outreach regarding the move to 988 as the new suicide and mental health crisis hotline.

Each call responder must be subject to at least two calls per month that are silently monitored by a supervisor to check for quality of conduct.

The Veterans Crisis Line, Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention of the VA, and National Center for Patient Safety of the VA must establish quality management processes and expectations for staff of the crisis line.

Sponsor and cosponsors

Cosponsors by party as of the day they signed on. Original cosponsors signed on the day of introduction.

Antonio DelgadoD-NY-19Sponsor

Democrats · 54

Republicans · 14

Roll calls

Recorded votes on the measure. Most measures move by voice vote or unanimous consent, which record no individual positions.

No recorded roll call on this measure: it moved by voice vote or unanimous consent, or has not reached the floor.

History

Every action as published, oldest first. Roll calls link to how each member voted.

  1. Aug 23, 2021Introduced in House
  2. Aug 23, 2021Introduced in House
  3. Aug 23, 2021 · HouseReferred to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
  4. Sep 9, 2021 · HouseReferred to the Subcommittee on Health.
  5. Oct 14, 2021 · HouseSubcommittee Hearings Held.

Committees

Committees and subcommittees the measure was referred to.

Agencies in its committees' jurisdiction

Analisa's mapping of committee jurisdiction to federal agencies; the bill may touch others, or none of these.

Who lobbied on it

Organizations whose lobbying reports (LD-2) name this measure. Spending is what they reported for those quarters on all issues, not on this measure alone.

  1. AMERICAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE1 report

Reports filed in 2023.

Sources and method

Every figure on this page traces to these records.

  • Bill status: bills and resolutions, sponsors, actions, subjects and CRS summaries (U.S. Government Publishing Office (GovInfo), from Congress.gov (Library of Congress))GovInfo Bill Status bulk data (Congress.gov; summaries by the Congressional Research Service) · data current to Oct 9, 2026 · loaded Oct 9, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Members of Congress, their terms, committees and identifiers (The @unitedstates project (from the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, the House and the Senate))unitedstates/congress-legislators: legislators, committees and current committee membership · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication)
  • House roll-call votes (Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, roll-call vote records · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Senate roll-call votes and DW-NOMINATE scores (Voteview (UCLA Department of Political Science))Lewis, Jeffrey B., Keith Poole, Howard Rosenthal, Adam Boche, Aaron Rudkin, and Luke Sonnet (2026). Voteview: Congressional Roll-Call Votes Database. https://voteview.com/ · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Free to use with the required citation
  • Lobbying disclosures (LD-1 registrations, LD-2 quarterly reports, LD-203 contribution reports) (Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives)Clerk of the House, Lobbying Disclosure Act filings (organizations only; lobbyists' names are not loaded) · data current to Oct 9, 2026 · loaded Oct 9, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Positions are shown only where a roll call recorded them; voice votes and unanimous consent record none.
  • Money and votes are shown side by side; neither explains the other.