The Senate on Friday night adopted a $455 billion spending bill for the VA that invests in recruiting clinicians at hospitals, increases the toxic exposures fund and sets minimum funding levels for rural health care and other critical programs.

Brian Greeson, an Army veteran from Boulder, Colo., has been biking across the U.S. to bring more attention to the high suicide rate among veterans. Greeson is donating the money he receives to Veterans Expeditions, a Colorado nonprofit. 

Sgt. Gordon Reed, a motor vehicle operator with 4th Marine Logistics Group, collapsed June 24 at the Navy Reserve Center in Orlando during a fitness test.

The VA reported receiving 57,400 claims for military sexual trauma in fiscal 2024. But auditors found the operations center has challenges retaining experienced employees to review the claims and addressing errors in the review process.

President Donald Trump is re-establishing the Presidential Fitness Test for American children, a fixture of public schools for decades that gauged young people’s health and athleticism with 1-mile runs, sit-ups and stretching exercises.

Pentagon directives issued in 2014 and 2017 instructed review boards to give liberal consideration to applicants who were sexual assault victims or who have conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder. But that guidance isn’t being followed regularly within the services.

Nearly three-dozen veterans gathered at the Minnesota State Capitol on Friday, July 25, for the 8th Annual Soldier Ride. The event, sponsored by the Wounded Warrior Project, provides bikes modified to accommodate each veteran’s specific injuries.

Though about 33% of veterans who use VA health care live in rural areas, they “drive longer distances, wait longer for appointments and have fewer providers to choose from,” said Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Mich., an Army veteran.

Jerome Avery has been a guide runner for the U.S. Paralympic track and field team since 2004, and for the sixth year is serving as the track coach for the U.S. Special Operations Command’s Warrior Care Program during the Warrior Games.

Brain injuries and mental health problems diagnosed in veterans exposed to repeated low-level blasts from firing their own weapons would be closely tracked and studied under legislation sponsored by Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., who is chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.