PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Hearings held. Hearings printed: S.Hrg. 115-299.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Mar 21, 2017
Deborah Sampson Act
This bill directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to carry out a three-year pilot program to assess the feasibility of peer-to-peer assistance for women veterans (including those who are separating or newly separated from the Armed Forces), with emphasis placed on women who suffered service-related sexual trauma or who are at risk of becoming homeless.
Additionally, the VA shall:
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
expand the women veterans call center to include a text messaging capability;
establish a partnership with at least one nongovernmental organization to provide legal services to women veterans based upon their 10 highest unmet needs;
retrofit VA medical facilities with fixtures, materials, and other outfitting measures to support the care of women veterans;
ensure that each VA medical facility has at least one full-time or part-time women's health primary care provider;
expand to 14 days VA post-delivery care services for women veterans who are receiving maternity care in a VA or VA-contracted facility;
ensure that the women veteran manager program is supported at each VA medical center with a program manager and an ombudsman;
collect, analyze, and publish data on each VA service or benefit program and disaggregate such data by sex and minority status; and
publish an Internet website that serves as a centralized information source for women veterans' benefits and services.
The bill makes funds available for: (1) primary care and emergency care clinicians' participation in the women veterans health care mini-residency program, and (2) organizations that focus on providing assistance to women veterans and their families.
The bill: (1) provides for reintegration and readjustment services to veterans and family members in group retreat settings, and (2) expresses the sense of Congress that the VA's motto should be more inclusive.
People & committees
Sen. Tester, Jon [D-MT] · D–MT
Legislative record
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Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Hearings held. Hearings printed: S.Hrg. 115-299.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.
Source last updated: Dec 5, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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