A change in federal grant rules rarely sounds urgent. But for veterans waiting for effective diagnostics and treatments for blast-wave brain injury and other debilitating ailments, this one is.
The Office of Management and Budget’s proposed overhaul of government-wide grant rules may sound like inside-baseball policy. It is not. The proposal could help decide whether promising studies about myriad disorders associated with military service keep advancing — or quietly wither.
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The proposal is all about accountability and oversight, according to the OMB. Of course, taxpayers should expect federal grants to be awarded and managed responsibly. But the draft rule also would expand political review of many research awards, broaden agency power to terminate grants, restrict certain foreign collaborations, and narrow support for professional activities and peer-reviewed publication.
In veteran research, those are not paperwork details. Long-term studies depend on continuity, stable data, scientific independence, and trust from participants who have already given more than most people will ever be asked to give.
This should not boil down to another partisan fight. Rather, all people, regardless of political stripe, should care. Because if grants can be interrupted, if researchers face new barriers to sharing findings, veterans will pay the price in slower cures, delayed care, and an even less responsive bureaucracy.
That’s unacceptable, especially to those veterans already grappling with a deep mistrust of the Department of Veterans Affairs that can have the effect of pushing them away from VA support. If veterans can’t trust the system, and many do not, then they are at risk of isolation and suicidal ideation. Isolation is a top precursor to suicide.
That many veterans already carry with them a deep sense of “institutional betrayal” is underscored by the tragic fact that some two-thirds of those veterans who die by suicide either never set foot in a VA hospital or disconnected themselves from the VA. “Institutional betrayal” refers to the effect of the government bureaucracy, which veterans often describe as unresponsive, incoherent, or even outright adversarial.
The administration is seeking the damaging changes to research at a time when the rise in veteran suicide rates demands greater focus and continuity.
According to a recent report by the Department of Veterans Affairs, suicide among younger veterans is especially dire. It was the 12th-leading cause of death for veterans overall, but the second leading cause of death for veterans under 45 in 2023, the year with the most recent data, the report found. The suicide rate for veterans under 34 was 47.9 deaths per 100,000 people in 2023, nearly three times the rate of civilians the same age.
The response to the draft rule has been overwhelmingly negative, particularly from organizations and researchers tasked with curtailing ailments suffered by veterans.
“The proposed rule would fundamentally alter how federally funded research is conducted, creating new uncertainty for veterans’ health research,” reads a statement by the National Association of Veterans’ Research and Education Foundations. “These changes could slow or discourage research in clinically urgent areas for millions of veterans — including PTSD, suicide prevention, women veterans’ health, toxic exposures, substance use disorders, reproductive health, and emerging therapies such as psychedelics.”
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One essential research area that could be slowed as a result of the rule change, which goes into effect this fall, is understanding the connection between brain injuries and suicide. The VA found that the suicide rate for those vets with TBI diagnoses was some 94.3% higher than that of veterans without a TBI diagnosis. This research has added urgency since brain injury is so prevalent among veterans, with more than half a million veterans diagnosed since 2001.
The measure of the nation’s commitment to veterans is not how often we thank them for their service. It is whether we keep searching for the answers and researching the treatments that their service now demands.
A former Navy SEAL, 40th Senate sergeant-at-arms, and father of a Navy SEAL son who died by suicide, Frank Larkin is the chairman of Warrior Call, a national nonprofit organization aimed at curtailing suicide among veterans and service members.