H.R. 2605: SAVES Act

The SAVES Act doesn't have the VA train dogs or run kennels. It has the VA write checks to nonprofits that already do this work — on the condition that the dogs reach veterans for free.

The path runs like this. A veteran is enrolled in VA care and a VA clinician prescribes a service dog. A nonprofit that wins a competitive grant trains the dog, trains the veteran to work with it, and places the two together. The nonprofit can't bill the veteran a cent for a dog the grant paid for.

To qualify for a grant, an organization has to prove it already trains service dogs, that it does so in line with the Americans with Disabilities Act, that it treats the animals humanely, and that it has a plan to reach the veterans who need dogs. The VA can audit grantees, demand reports, and cap how much of the money goes to overhead instead of dogs.

The covered conditions are broad: blindness or low vision, hearing loss, paralysis or serious mobility loss, PTSD, and traumatic brain injury — plus anything else a VA clinician judges a service dog would meaningfully help. The bill also lets the VA buy commercial veterinary insurance for each placed dog and keep that coverage going even after the pilot shuts down, unless the VA decides ending it is better for the veteran, the dog, or the government.

The money: $10 million a year for fiscal 2027 through 2031, with no single nonprofit getting more than $2 million. The pilot's authority ends September 30, 2031. CBO estimates the program would cost about $54 million over a decade and put service dogs with roughly 1,000 veterans.

One provision rides along that has nothing to do with dogs. Section 3 pushes back, by about 15 months, the expiration of an existing cap on monthly VA pension payments for certain low-income veterans in Medicaid-covered nursing homes.