The Precision Brain Health Research Act of 2026 would expand the Department of Veterans Affairs' Precision Medicine for Veterans Initiative to cover repetitive low-level blast exposure and dementia, on top of the mental-health conditions it already studies. The VA would set up a data-sharing partnership with the Department of Defense within a year, pulling in records from the Armed Forces, U.S. Special Operations Command, and a long-running military brain-injury consortium. The bill orders specific research projects on blast-exposure interventions, growth hormone replacement therapy, and care quality, plus a separate partnership with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on brain-health biomarkers. It authorizes $5 million per year through fiscal year 2030 and requires reports to Congress every two years.
Transparency & Accountability
- VA-DoD data-sharing partnership — Required within one year for veteran brain-injury research data
- Biennial reports to Congress — New reporting required on partnership outcomes and initiative progress
Congressional Summary
Precision Brain Health Research Act of 2026This bill expands the Scott Hannon Initiative for Precision Mental Health, a program at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).Specifically, the bill expands the scope of the initiative by requiring the identification and validation of brain and mental health biomarkers among veterans for repetitive low-level blast exposure, dementia, and other such brain conditions. Currently, the initiative addresses several other conditions such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.The VA must work with the Department of Defense to establish a data-sharing partnership under the initiative.The bill requires the VA to conduct various research studies about repetitive low-level blast exposure under the initiative.The VA must seek to enter into a contract with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to work in tandem with the initiative on validation of brain and mental health biomarkers among veterans and report on the findings at least once every two years.The VA must assess all in progress and planned translational research studies under the initiative and report to Congress on the assessment.Additionally, the VA must report to Congress on the initiative at least once every two years and include recommendations for immediate administrative and legislative action to improve the initiative.The bill authorizes the initiative through FY2030.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in House
- Action Date
- 2026-03-26
- Date Added
- 2026-04-28
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