“This is what he was meant to do,” Dave Crenshaw, a former master sergeant in the Army National Guard, said about his 7-year-old service dog, Doc, which he received from the nonprofit K9s for Warriors. A bill called the SAVES Act would help cover costs for the six to 12 months of training to certify service dogs. (Dave Crenshaw)

WASHINGTON — More than a dozen bills for improving veterans services were introduced Wednesday to House lawmakers in a series of brief hearings, from covering the cost of prosthetics for amputees to play sports to helping ensure veterans in crisis can access mental health care close to home.

“Each of these bills would attempt to improve the delivery of health care to the men and women who have served. These bills include creative solutions that would seek to address difficult problems,” said Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, the chairwoman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee’s subpanel on health.

The subpanel heard testimony from lawmakers sponsoring the bills and veterans groups supporting the legislation. Several pieces of legislation focused on providing unconventional resources and assistance that are not part of traditional medical care at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The Veterans Supporting Prosthetics Opportunities and Recreational Therapy Act would provide coverage for prosthetics and other adaptive equipment that veterans who are amputees use to participate in sports and other recreational activities.

The new legislation would recognize prosthetic devices and other adaptive equipment for sports and recreational use as medically necessary, said Miller-Meeks, the bill’s sponsor.

Miller-Meeks is a physician and retired Army lieutenant colonel who served for 24 years in the military.

“It is critical we ensure veterans have the equipment and tools to live active lifestyles as they please and to ensure the highest quality of life for them,” she said.

Though the VA provides equipment and services to disabled veterans from artificial limbs to wheelchair ramps, the prosthetics must be deemed medically necessary.

Rules now potentially limit VA approval for the equipment when it is used for athletics and recreational activities, said Clark Pennington, chief operating officer of the Independence Fund, which helps provide mobility and adaptive technologies to veterans.

“This legislation will ensure veterans seeking to enjoy and benefit from the physical and psychological aspects of recreational activities will now be guaranteed access to the prosthetics they need to thrive,” he said.

The Service Dogs Assisting Veterans Act, also known as the SAVES Act, is another piece of legislation that would seek to enhance the life of veterans with disabilities and help them to live independently.

The bill would authorize the VA for the first time to award grants to nonprofit organizations to provide service dogs to eligible veterans with traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions.

Nonprofit organizations that train and offer service dogs to veterans with mental health conditions now exclusively depend on donations to fund operations, supporters said.

Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas, a former Navy SEAL, introduced the bill and said VA funding would decrease the time that veterans seeking a service dog must wait to receive one.

The SAVES Act would enable the VA to subsidize the costs for “the necessary six to 12 months of training to dogs to become certified service dogs for veterans suffering from the psychological wounds of war,” according to the nonprofit K9s for Warriors.

“This is what he was meant to do,” Dave Crenshaw, a former master sergeant in the Army National Guard, said about Doc, his 7-year-old service dog. “Doc can facilitate and navigate those spaces you cannot do alone or without medication or constant therapy.”

While serving in Iraq for 14 months, Crenshaw said his unit came under “mortar fire that knocked us around quite a bit. I was in and around explosions within 100 meters of myself and my unit.”

Crenshaw, who suffers from PTSD after experiencing trauma from the blasts, said he received his service dog from K9s for Warriors in 2020 after ending his 20-year military career.

A critical tool for screening suicide risks among veterans would be reauthorized under the Sergeant Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Act, which provides grants to non-VA, community-based organizations.

The program would continue under legislation titled No Wrong Door for Veterans. Non-VA organizations would receive funds to screen veterans for mental health and brain injuries and disorders, Miller-Meeks said.

She said sometimes veterans can face delays for a VA appointment when they might need to be assessed immediately in their community and close to home. Community health providers can call a VA hospital to help make appointments for them, Miller-Meeks said.

“The whole point of this is that through any avenue, veterans can get screened and then sent to a VA facility for care and or telehealth,” she said.

The volume of bills introduced limited comment and discussion about them. Bills that advance will get a more-detailed look in committee hearings.

“The bills will come up in committee next week or the week after. At that point in time, they’ll be voted upon if they pass through the subcommittee on health, then they will go to the full Veterans Affairs committee for all members to vote upon,” Miller-Meeks said.

Though time was limited, some lawmakers used the bill introduction as an opportunity to voice early opposition to some legislation.

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., complained about several bills that would provide funding for non-VA, community-based medical care, which she said takes dollars away from the VA.

“I am disheartened to see so many bills from my Republican counterparts on the agenda that focus on diverting more care out of VA. We know that VA provides the best care, and that more often than not, veterans want to receive their care from the VA,” she said.

Mentioning the No Wrong Door Act by name, Cherfilus-McCormick said the bill and others send more money to outside entities, effectively creating “grant giveaways” with no assurance they will meet their goals.

“These bills lack vital matrices to monitor the performance of grantees and ensure these programs are meeting their intended purposes,” she said.