S. 2422: Ensuring Veterans Access to Care Act of 2014

113th Congress · introduced 2014-06-03 · Armed Forces and National Security · Latest: Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 408.

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Follow this bill, step by step

Where it came from: introduced 2014-06-03 · official record
Who proposed it: Sen. Sanders, Bernard [I-VT] · what a sponsor is
What happened next: no floor votes in our records yet. Why?
Where it stands now: Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 408. Not final yet: this can still change. We check for updates every day.
If it becomes law and spends money: follow the money to money laws, then agencies and contracts and grants.

What does this mean?

Official title

Ensuring Veterans Access to Care Act of 2014

Plain summary

Ensuring Veterans Access to Care Act of 2014 - Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) to: (1) implement an upgraded and centralized electronic system for scheduling individuals' appointments for VA health care, and (2) contract for an independent assessment of the process at each VA medical facility for scheduling such appointments. Sets forth measures concerning the training and hiring of VA health personnel that: protect primary care physicians from liability for failing to perform their period of obligated service under the Health Professionals Educational Assistance Program due to VA staffing changes or an oversupply of primary care physicians; allow individuals, as part of that Program, to enroll in the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences to pursue a medical education with a primary care specialization; require the Secretary to annually identify the five VA health care occupations for which there are the largest staffing shortages, to recruit and appoint health care providers to those positions, and to give scholarship priority under the Health Professionals Educational Assistance Program to applicants pursuing careers in those occupations; direct the Secretary to implement a clinic management training program to provide in-person, standardized education on health care management to all managers of, and health care providers at, VA medical facilities; and include service at VA medical facilities as obligated service under the National Health Service Corps Scholarship and Loan Repayment Programs. Establishes measures to improve veterans' access to health care from non-VA providers by: requiring the Secretary to make enhanced use of the Secretary's existing authorities to give veterans access to health care at non-VA facilities if they cannot get timely access to care at VA health facilities; extending a joint Department of Defense (DOD)-VA program to identify, implement, and evaluate creative health care coordination and sharing initiatives at facility, intraregional, and nationwide levels; requiring the Secretary to transfer the authority to pay for health care through non-VA facilities from the VA's Veterans Integrated Service Networks and medical centers to the Veterans Health Administration's Chief Business Office; requiring the Secretary to provide outreach to Indian medical facilities regarding their ability to enter into agreements with the VA for reimbursement for providing veterans with health care; requiring the Secretary to enter into agreements to reimburse Native Hawaiian health care systems for the provision of health care to veterans. Sets forth VA health care administrative matters, which include: requiring the Secretary to improve veterans' access to telemedicine and other health care through the use of VA mobile vet centers by establishing standardized requirements for the operation of such centers, establishing the Commission on Access to Care, establishing the Commission on Capital Planning for Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Facilities, and authorizing the Secretary to remove any individual from the Senior Executive Service if the Secretary determines that the individual's performance warrants such removal. Authorizes the Secretary to carry out certain major medical facility leases at specified locations for up to specified amounts. Sets forth requirements for the budgetary treatment of such leases.

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.

What a vote does

A “Yea” vote

If it passes both chambers and is signed, it becomes law.

A “Nay” vote

If it is not passed, current law stays as it is.

PSI Sci description of the legislative step (not an opinion).

What does this mean? (plain words)

Official text

Ensuring Veterans Access to Care Act of 2014

Source: Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate)

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How did my representative vote? · This bill's floor votes

Officials and money

Sponsor: Sen. Sanders, Bernard [I-VT] · 32 cosponsors

Cost estimate: No cost estimate published yet.

Cosponsors on this site

Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Cory A. Booker (D-NJ), Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), Christopher A. Coons (D-DE), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)

Sponsor's campaign money: Sen. Sanders, Bernard [I-VT] reported raising $26.5 million (2025–2026). Details. Shown for context only; it does not mean any donor supported this bill.

No linked floor roll calls in our collected records yet. This does not mean the bill has never had a vote. Check the official bill history.

Words on this page, explained (2)

Ballot initiative: A proposed law or constitutional amendment that citizens place on the ballot by gathering enough voter signatures, so voters decide it directly. About half the states allow some form of it.
Obligation: A binding promise by a government agency to pay money, for example by signing a contract or awarding a grant. Spending data such as USAspending.gov counts money when it is obligated, which can be before it is actually paid out.

Plain meanings written from linked sources. All words.

Sources

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate)
Congress.gov
Data: GovInfo BILLSTATUS bulk data (Library of Congress), BILLSTATUS-113s2422.xml <https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/113/s>

Record fed-us-cong113-s2422 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong113 · updated 2026-11-15 by psicol fed-bills-cong113