VA funds research on a variety of health issues relevant to veterans' well-being, including in mental health, post-traumatic stress disorder, prosthetics, brain and spinal injury, and other areas. Congress usually makes only minor, if any, adjustments to the VA research budget request, which has remained above $1 billion for the past six years.
In the House, the Appropriations Committee encouraged the VA to explore advanced prosthetic research "at the intersection of bioengineering, neuroscience, and rehabilitation," to convene an interagency working group on intelligent prostheses, and to pursue research in colorectal cancer. The Senate Committee encouraged greater collaboration between VA and the Department of Defense, particularly on prostate cancer research, and to include stroke survivors in VA's other brain-oriented research activities.