SAVES Act of 2025
Sponsored By: Senator Thomas Tillis
In Committee
Summary
Grants to fund service dogs for eligible veterans. This bill would create a VA pilot program that pays nonprofit groups to train and give service dogs and related support to veterans with qualifying disabilities.
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- Families and veterans: Eligible veterans could receive a service dog at no cost and VA-paid commercial veterinary insurance for the dog. Eligibility lists blindness, mobility loss, hearing loss, PTSD, traumatic brain injury, or other VA-approved disabilities.
- Nonprofit providers: Nonprofits may apply for grants up to $2.0 million per fiscal year to plan, develop, implement, and manage programs, and must show experience training service dogs and meet humane and Americans with Disabilities Act standards.
- VA operations and oversight: VA would run the pilot for five years after the first award, provide technical help, set reporting and monitoring rules, cap administrative costs if needed, and may raise grant amounts for inflation with congressional notice.
- Budget and funding: The bill authorizes $10.0 million per year for five years to carry out the pilot.
*This bill would increase federal spending by about $50.0 million over five years from the authorized appropriations.*
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
1 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Service dogs and dog insurance for veterans
If enacted, VA would set up a competitive pilot to fund nonprofits that give service dogs to eligible veterans. VA must start the pilot within 24 months and it would run five years after the first grant is awarded. Grants would generally be capped at $2,000,000 per nonprofit per year, paid in intervals, and used to run programs that only enroll eligible veterans. Nonprofits could not charge veterans fees, must tell veterans the dog was paid for by VA, and must provide training and humane standards. VA would also provide each veteran a commercially available veterinary insurance policy for the service dog and continue that policy even if the pilot ends. The bill would authorize $10,000,000 in appropriations each year for five years to carry out the pilot.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Thomas Tillis
NC • R
Cosponsors
Richard Blumenthal
CT • D
Sponsored 4/10/2025
John Cornyn
TX • R
Sponsored 4/10/2025
Richard Durbin
IL • D
Sponsored 4/10/2025
Kevin Cramer
ND • R
Sponsored 4/10/2025
Elissa Slotkin
MI • D
Sponsored 4/10/2025
Angus King
ME • I
Sponsored 4/10/2025
Jacky Rosen
NV • D
Sponsored 4/10/2025
Jeanne Shaheen
NH • D
Sponsored 4/10/2025
Charles Schumer
NY • D
Sponsored 4/29/2025
Ted Budd
NC • R
Sponsored 5/6/2025
Sen. Luján, Ben Ray [D-NM]
NM • D
Sponsored 6/2/2025
Alex Padilla
CA • D
Sponsored 6/2/2025
Cory Booker
NJ • D
Sponsored 6/2/2025
Martin Heinrich
NM • D
Sponsored 6/2/2025
Mazie Hirono
HI • D
Sponsored 6/12/2025
Christopher Coons
DE • D
Sponsored 7/17/2025
Adam Schiff
CA • D
Sponsored 7/17/2025
Catherine Cortez Masto
NV • D
Sponsored 7/22/2025
Tammy Baldwin
WI • D
Sponsored 7/23/2025
Maggie Hassan
NH • D
Sponsored 7/29/2025
Angela Alsobrooks
MD • D
Sponsored 7/30/2025
Tammy Duckworth
IL • D
Sponsored 9/3/2025
Shelley Capito
WV • R
Sponsored 9/9/2025
Jon Husted
OH • R
Sponsored 10/3/2025
Jon Ossoff
GA • D
Sponsored 3/10/2026
Maria Cantwell
WA • D
Sponsored 3/10/2026
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
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