H.R. 8115 — Precision Brain Health Research Act of 2026

This section modifies the Precision Medicine for Veterans Initiative established under the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act of 2019 (i.e., research to advance individualized treatments for veterans' PTSD, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and related conditions). Specifically, it (1) expands the initiative's scope in subsection (a) to explicitly include repetitive low-level blast exposure and dementia (from "and such other mental health conditions"); (2) adds subsection (d)(4)(E) to require VA and DoD to establish a data-sharing partnership within one year of enactment—stored on VA's open platform and including DoD data from the Armed Forces, Special Operations Command, and certain neurotrauma consortia—with biennial VA reports to the congressional Veterans' Affairs Committees on new therapies, partnership evaluation, and recommendations; and (3) adds subsections (f) through (j) to (A) require VA research under subsection (f) on repetitive low-level blast exposure, including a big-data assessment, at least two implementation studies, one translational study on growth hormone therapy, and at least four quality improvement studies (categorizing by military occupational specialties and units); (B) require VA under subsection (g) to contract with the National Academies within 60 days of enactment for biomarker validation and biennial reports to the congressional Veterans' Affairs Committees; (C) require VA under subsection (h) to assess all translational research studies (including under subsection (f)) and report to the committees within 60 days of completion; (D) require biennial VA reports under subsection (i) to the committees on the initiative, including recommendations for administrative and legislative actions; and (E) authorize $5 million annually for the initiative for FY2025 through FY2030 under subsection (j).