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The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is issuing this interim final rule to implement legislation authorizing VA to initiate a three-year community-based grant program to award grants to eligible entities to provide or coordinate the provision of suicide prevention services to eligible individuals and their families. This rulemaking specifies grant eligibility criteria, application requirements, scoring criteria, constraints on the allocation and use of the funds, and other requirements necessary to implement this grant program.

Overall Description of Deadline: Required consultation pursuant to section 201 of Pub. L. 116-171. This grant program is authorized by section 201 of Public Law 116-171. VA must publish regulations for matters related to grants as required by 38 U.S.C. 501(d).

Statement of Need:

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is issuing regulations for the implementation of section 201 of Public Law 116-171, the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act of 2019 (the Act). Title 38 of United States Code (U.S.C.) section 501(d) requires VA to publish regulations for matters related grants, notwithstanding section 553(a)(2) of the Administration Procedure Act. 

Summary of the Legal Basis:

This grant program is authorized by section 201 of Public Law 116-171. VA must publish regulations for matters related to grants as required by 38 U.S.C. 501(d).

Alternatives:

VHA initially was planning to implement the pilot program without any collaboration or planning with our internal or external partners. As an alternative, VHA intends to collaborate with other grant programs to examine certain costs which may be shared such as FTE, IT systems, and utilizing internal VA offices and infrastructure for certain aspect of grants management. This will maximize the effectiveness of the program and minimize any inefficiencies which would have otherwise arisen. VA determined the best course of action was to work with internal and external partners to develop the best grant program possible for suicide prevention among our Veteran population.

Anticipated Costs and Benefits:

VA has estimated that there are both transfers and costs associated with the provisions of this rulemaking. The transfers are estimated to be $51.7M in FY2023 and $156 7M through FY2025. The costs are estimated to be $1.6M in FY2021 and $16.8M over five years (FY2021-FY2025).

Risks:

None