Veterans COMPACT Act of 2020
Public Law 116-214 · H.R. 8247 · 116th Congress · began in the House
Signed by Donald Trump (R) on Dec 5, 2020 · Armed Forces and National Security
Sponsor: Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA-41)
Cosponsors: None
Passage votes
- HouseVoice vote
- SenateUnanimous consent
Data notes
The final version of the law, as each chamber passed it. A chamber that passed it by voice vote or unanimous consent has no count. “Method not stated” means the record does not say how the chamber voted. Where the record has a member-by-member vote, the “Who voted for it” section shows who voted yea.
Summary
The Congressional Research Service’s plain-language summary of what the law does.
Veterans Comprehensive Prevention, Access to Care, and Treatment Act of 2020 or the Veterans COMPACT Act of 2020
This bill implements programs, policies, and reports related to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) transition assistance, suicide care, mental health education and treatment, health care, and women veteran care.
(Sec. 101) This section requires the VA to carry out a two-year pilot program on information sharing between the VA and designated persons regarding the assistance and benefits available to veterans.
(Sec. 102) The VA must annually report (for a period of five years) on its Solid Start program, which is an outreach program for those in their first year of separation from the military. The report must exclude any personally identifiable information regarding a veteran.
(Sec. 201) The VA must furnish or pay for emergent suicide care, including transportation costs, at a VA or non-VA facility for certain veterans. The bill requires the VA to ensure certain notification procedures occur in relation to veterans receiving emergent suicide care.
The VA must determine the eligibility of individuals receiving emergent suicide care for other VA programs and benefits. Additionally, the VA must make referrals, as appropriate, for care following the period of emergent suicide care.
(Sec. 202) The VA must establish a four-year education program for the education and training of caregivers and family members of veterans with mental health disorders.
(Sec. 203) This section requires the VA to establish the Task Force on Outdoor Recreation for Veterans to report on and make recommendations regarding the use of public lands or other outdoor spaces for medical treatment and therapy for veterans.
(Sec. 204) The VA must seek to contact covered veterans to encourage them to receive comprehensive physical, mental health, eye, and audiological examinations. A covered veteran is a veteran who is enrolled in the VA health care system and has not received health care furnished or paid for by the VA in the past two years.
Under the bill, if a covered veteran elects to receive more than one of the comprehensive examinations at a VA health care facility, the VA shall seek to furnish all such examinations on the same day. A covered veteran may also receive an examination from another specified health care provider.
The bill provides that the VA may pay for a rural covered veteran to travel to a health care facility to receive a comprehensive examination.
The VA shall seek to enter into agreements with nonprofit organizations to provide shuttle service to rural covered veterans for such examinations.
(Sec. 205) The VA must provide its police officers with annual training on the prevention of suicide among the population it serves. Each police force of a VA facility must develop a plan to enter into partnerships with local community mental health organizations and experts, local community veterans organizations, local community criminal justice organizations and experts, and local police departments.
(Sec. 301) The VA must complete an analysis and report on its programs that provide assistance to women veterans who are homeless or precariously housed to identify the areas in which such programs are failing to meet the needs of such women.
(Sec. 302) The VA must annually report on the use of VA health care by women veterans.
Committees
The committees the bill was sent to, and what each did with it.
Data notes
A committee links to its page only where it exists in the current Congress; older and renamed committees are named without a link.
Related bills
4 bills the Library of Congress relates to this one.
H.R. 4154Related bill
Leave no Veteran Behind Act
H.R. 5324Related bill
Sergeant Daniel Somers Veterans Network of Support Act of 2019
H.R. 7747Related bill
To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to submit to Congress an annual report on the Solid Start program of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.
S. 2864Related bill
Sergeant Daniel Somers Veterans Network of Support Act of 2019
Data notes
Related bills are identified by the Congressional Research Service, the House and the Senate: companion and identical bills, bills with similar text, bills that were folded into this law, and rules that brought it to the floor. A bill that is itself a public law in this site’s data links here; the others link to Congress.gov.
Timeline
From introduction to signing, newest first: the committees, the floor and the president. 17 actions.
- Dec 5, 2020Became lawBecame law · Became Public Law No: 116-214.
- Became lawBecame law · Signed by President.
- Nov 24, 2020FloorFloor · Presented to President.
- Nov 12, 2020FloorFloor · Message on Senate action sent to the House.
- Nov 10, 2020FloorFloor · Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent.
- Sep 24, 2020CommitteeCommittee · Received in the Senate, read twice.
- Sep 23, 2020FloorFloor · Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
- FloorFloor · On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote.
- FloorFloor · DEBATE - The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H.R. 8247.
- FloorFloor · Considered under suspension of the rules.
- FloorFloor · Mr. Takano moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended.
- Sep 17, 2020CommitteeCommittee · Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held.
- CommitteeCommittee · Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by Voice Vote.
- CommitteeCommittee · Subcommittee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held.
- Sep 15, 2020CommitteeCommittee · Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.
- Sep 14, 2020CommitteeCommittee · Referred to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
- IntroducedIntroduced · Introduced in House
Data notes
Every action the Library of Congress lists for the bill, from introduction to signing, plus the dated committee hearings. The source lists many steps twice (the chamber’s own entry and the Library of Congress copy, or a presidential and a became-law entry with the same words); those are shown once. Amendments are listed in their own section.
Amendments
No amendments to this bill are on record.
Data notes
Amendments offered to this bill in either chamber, as the Library of Congress records them: each with a status read from its last recorded step: agreed to, rejected, withdrawn, ruled out of order, fell with another amendment, or offered with no vote recorded (most Senate amendments are only ever offered). The wording of each amendment is the source’s. Amendments to amendments and amendments to other bills are not listed.
Official record
The bill’s full text is on Congress.gov. Data through Oct 7, 2026.