S. 2264 — Advancing VA’s Emergency Response to (AVERT) Crises Act of 2025

This section directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA), not later than 180 days after enactment, to submit to the congressional veterans' affairs committees a report outlining the roles and responsibilities of all VA offices involved in emergency management. In preparing the report, the Secretary must consult with the Comptroller General, the VA Inspector General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and other relevant federal agencies. The report must include (1) a description of each office's organizational structure during normal and emergency operations; (2) the roles and responsibilities of each office; (3) a detailed description and analysis of shared roles between the VA Office of Emergency Management and the VA Office of Operations, Security, and Preparedness; (4) recommendations for improving office structure and alignment to better prepare for emergencies, remove redundancies, and enhance accountability; and (5) an analysis of the feasibility and advisability of consolidating relevant offices into one centralized emergency management office.

This section directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to submit to the Committees on Veterans' Affairs of the Senate and House of Representatives, not later than 180 days after the date of enactment, a report on the department's Regional Readiness Centers (i.e., facilities that store and distribute emergency supplies to VA medical centers and support the department's Fourth Mission of assisting the Department of Defense during national emergencies). The report must include, disaggregated by Regional Readiness Center where applicable: (1) number of supply requests from VA facilities since program inception; (2) types and amounts of materials distributed since inception; (3) current inventory; (4) inventory changes over the two-year period ending on the date of enactment; (5) percentage of inventory that is expired or will expire within the next month; (6) operational costs since inception; (7) analysis of types and sizes of emergencies—including natural disasters, public health emergencies, and Fourth Mission activations—each center can support based on current capacity; and (8) any plans to realign or change the number of centers.

This section directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, after consulting with the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to submit to the Senate and House Committees on Veterans’ Affairs and Homeland Security (Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs), not later than 90 days after enactment, a report identifying (1) current limitations preventing FEMA from providing fuel or other resources to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) during emergencies; (2) whether Congress must act to enable such resource sharing; (3) whether the Secretary has been unable to coordinate with FEMA during prior emergencies or VA Fourth Mission activations (i.e., VA's disaster response support to other federal agencies) due to lack of authority; and (4) whether Congress must act to address any coordination gaps under (3).