YourVoice.Now Summary
Your MoneyTransparency & AccountabilityFree trained service dogs for disabled veterans — a five-year VA test, with pet health care paid.
Your Money
The VA would run a five-year test program giving grants to nonprofit groups that train and place service dogs. A doctor must confirm the veteran has a qualifying condition, such as hearing loss or a brain injury.
A group that takes one of these grants cannot charge a veteran any fee for the dog. The rule covers only dogs provided through this program.
The VA would buy a regular pet health insurance policy for each dog it helps pay for. Coverage keeps going even after the five-year test program ends.
Transparency & Accountability
Each veteran must be told in plain terms that the VA paid for the dog. The group must also explain what other VA benefits are open to the veteran and the dog.
Grants are capped at $2 million per group each year. The VA can go above that only if costs or needs rise. It would have to tell the House and Senate veterans' committees 30 days first.
The pilot runs five years from the day the first grant is awarded. Nothing in the bill keeps it going after that.
More about this bill
Veterans with certain disabilities could get a trained service dog at no cost. A doctor would have to confirm the condition. The list includes blindness or low vision, hearing loss, and loss of use of a limb. Paralysis, post-traumatic stress disorder, and traumatic brain injury also count. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) could add other conditions when a dog would help a veteran live on their own. The VA would have to set up the program within 24 months of the bill becoming law. It would run five years from the first grant. The VA would award the grants to nonprofit groups that train and place the dogs. Groups would compete for the money. Each group could get up to $2 million a year. The VA could go higher if costs or needs rise. It would have to tell the House and Senate veterans' committees 30 days ahead. The bill would authorize $10 million a year for five years. Congress would still have to approve that money each year. Groups could not charge a veteran a fee for a dog. They would have to tell each veteran that the VA paid for it. They would also have to explain other VA benefits open to the veteran and the dog. The VA would buy a pet health insurance policy for each dog. That coverage would keep going even after the pilot ends.
Congressional Summary
Service Dogs Assisting Veterans Act of 2025 or the SAVES Act of 2025 This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to establish a five-year pilot program to award grants on a competitive basis to nonprofit entities to provide service dogs to veterans who have certain disabilities, conditions, or diagnoses (e.g., a visual impairment). Under the program, the VA may provide up to $2 million to a nonprofit entity in a fiscal year. The VA must provide a veterinary insurance policy to veterans who receive a service dog through a grant under the program.
Legislative Subjects
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- Senate
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Reported to Senate
- Action Date
- 2026-02-24
- Date Added
- 2026-06-29
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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