# 119-hr-10419: SMILE for Veterans Act

119-hr-10419, SMILE for Veterans Act, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Rep. Bergman, Jack [R-MI-1] (R-MI); status in_committee; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-11-04).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-10419
- As of: 2026-11-04
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-hr-10419
- Congress: 119
- Title: SMILE for Veterans Act
- Status: in_committee
- Introduced: 2026-09-16
- Sponsor: Rep. Bergman, Jack [R-MI-1] (R-MI)
- Cosponsors: 6
- Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2026-11-04

## Summary

**This bill would create a Rural Veterans Dental Access Pilot Program to **expand dental access for rural veterans** by paying community providers, including mobile clinics, to deliver basic and urgent outpatient dental care and by conducting targeted outreach.** - Veterans: Would make VA-enrolled rural veterans eligible if they are not covered under existing VA dental rules or if they cannot access VA or Community Care services within established access standards. Homeless veterans may get waived enrollment rules and alternative verification. - Community providers and locations: Would recruit nonprofit clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers, rural clinics, dental schools, mobile units, and private practices. The pilot must run in at least 10 rural locations across at least 5 states and include an annually updated public provider directory. - Operations and oversight: Would require outreach through VA channels, at least one VA point of contact at each site, an internal VA working group to assess mobile and community models, and a Congress report after 3 years with counts of veterans served, types of services, geographic coverage, and total costs. *Would authorize $5.0 million for FY2027 and $20.0 million annually for FY2028–2030, totaling $65.0 million in authorized funding and increasing federal spending by that amount subject to appropriation.*

## Cosponsors (6)

- Rep. McBride, Sarah [D-DE-At Large] (D-DE), 2026-11-02T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Davis, Donald G. [D-NC-1] (D-NC), 2026-09-16T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Van Drew, Jefferson [R-NJ-2] (R-NJ), 2026-09-16T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Golden, Jared F. [D-ME-2] (D-ME), 2026-09-16T00:00:00.000Z
- Del. King-Hinds, Kimberlyn [R-MP-At Large] (R-MP), 2026-09-16T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Murphy, Gregory F. [R-NC-3] (R-NC), 2026-09-16T00:00:00.000Z

## Provisions PRIA read

- Rural veterans dental care pilot: benefit, medium. If enacted, the bill would require VA to start a three-year pilot to expand dental care for eligible rural veterans. The pilot must begin no later than one year after enactment and run in at least 10 rural locations across at least 5 States. It would offer basic, preventive, restorative, and urgent…
- Funding for rural dental pilot: benefit, medium. If enacted, the bill would authorize $5 million for fiscal year 2027 to set up the pilot and $20 million for each of fiscal years 2028, 2029, and 2030 to run it. These are authorizations of appropriations to VA to operate the pilot, not direct payments to veterans.
- Protections for veteran dental billing: benefit, low. If enacted, the bill would require participating providers to accept the VA-set reimbursement as full payment for covered services and generally not bill veterans extra. Providers could charge for non-covered elective services only after giving a clear advance cost disclosure and getting the vetera…

## Related bills

- 119-hr-9237: Take Care of America’s Veterans Act
- 119-hr-4669: FEMA Act of 2025
- 119-hr-3151: SHIPS for America Act of 2025
- 119-hr-842: Nancy Gardner Sewell Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act
- 119-hr-9250: Great American Outdoors Act 250
- 119-hr-5401: Pay Our Troops Act of 2026

## Sources
- [119-hr-10419 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/10419)

## Related
- [119-hr-9237: Take Care of America’s Veterans Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-9237)
- [119-hr-4669: FEMA Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-4669)
- [119-hr-3151: SHIPS for America Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-3151)
- [119-hr-842: Nancy Gardner Sewell Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage A…](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-842)
- [119-hr-9250: Great American Outdoors Act 250](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-9250)
- [119-hr-5401: Pay Our Troops Act of 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-5401)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-10419 (as of 2026-11-04).