Nobody asked me about my priorities when I was sitting in a TAP briefing getting handed pamphlets I’d throw away before I hit the parking lot. But someone is asking now.
Mission Roll Call — a nonpartisan nonprofit that has reached more than 1.3 million veterans and supporters — just dropped their 2026 veteran priorities, built directly from annual survey feedback. More than 2,400 veterans, family members, and supporters weighed in. The result isn’t a think-tank wish list. It’s what vets actually said they need.
Understanding the veteran priorities 2026 that actually came from veterans — not from lobbyists or party platforms — requires looking at what this survey actually found. Here’s what the data shows, and what Congress is, and isn’t, doing about it.
The Four Priorities Veterans Set for 2026
According to Mission Roll Call’s published 2026 agenda, veterans identified four interconnected priorities they want Congress to act on:
- Access to Quality Healthcare (VA and Non-VA)
- Support for Service-Connected Injuries and Conditions
- Veteran Suicide Prevention
- Housing Access and Homelessness Prevention
Mission Roll Call CEO Jim Whaley — a 20-year Army veteran — put it plainly to reporters: these aren’t separate issues. Healthcare access, when it fails, sets off a chain reaction — untreated pain, delayed specialty care, isolation, job loss, then housing instability or suicidal ideation. One problem feeds the next. That’s the reality on the ground that any survey of actual veterans will surface.
Priority 1: Healthcare Access — Getting Care When and Where You Need It
The top item on the list isn’t a surprise to anyone who has waited six weeks to see a VA specialist for a condition that’s getting worse by the day. Veterans consistently rank timely, high-quality care as one of their most urgent needs, and the tension between VA-direct care and community care options has been a fault line in veteran policy for years.
Some lawmakers fear that expanding community (non-VA) care will hollow out the VA system. Veterans, according to Whaley, largely reject that binary. They want a functional network — inside or outside VA — that delivers quality care without making them drive three hours or wait three months.
The 2026 surveys also flagged secondary concerns: mental health services, caregiver support, access to alternative therapies, and support for underserved veteran populations. Mission Roll Call is currently conducting research to identify where the specific access barriers are; findings are expected to guide advocacy throughout the year.
Priority 2: Service-Connected Injuries — The Ones That Show Up Later
Traumatic brain injury is Whaley’s go-to example, and for good reason. An estimated 400,000 people in the U.S. have TBI, and a significant share of them are veterans. The problem isn’t just the injury — it’s that symptoms often emerge gradually, sometimes years after the exposures that caused them, and the VA claims and treatment process is slow to respond.
The VA’s Polytrauma/TBI System of Care includes four Polytrauma Rehabilitation Centers plus 21 network sites. For the veteran in a rural county two states away from the nearest center, that infrastructure might as well not exist.
In January 2026, House members introduced the BEACON Act, which would allow the VA to directly reimburse nonprofits providing evidence-based, non-pharmacological therapies for TBI. The intent: scale innovative TBI care beyond VA facilities by funding the organizations already doing the work on the ground. Whaley called it out specifically as a bill Congress should pass. It’s the right idea — the VA doesn’t need to reinvent everything if it can fund what already works.
This priority also ties directly into the disability claims backlog. If you’re navigating that system right now, check out our post on VA Disability Ratings & Meds: What Changed in 2026 for what’s new and what’s not.
Priority 3: Suicide Prevention — The Number That Won’t Move Enough
The VA released its 2025 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report in February 2026, covering data through 2023. The headline: 6,398 veterans died by suicide in 2023 — 44 fewer than 2022. Progress, technically. But the suicide rate actually went up, from 34.7 to 35.2 per 100,000 veterans, because the overall veteran population is shrinking.
More than 141,000 veterans have died by suicide since 2001. That’s not a footnote. That’s a sustained mass casualty event that gets treated like a budgeting problem.
A few numbers that should be stapled to every office door on Capitol Hill:
- 17.5 veterans die by suicide every day — on average, in 2023
- 61% of veterans who died by suicide were not receiving VA healthcare in the last year of their life
- Suicide was the second-leading cause of death for veterans under 45
- Veterans aged 18–34 had a suicide rate of 47.9 per 100,000 — the highest of any age group
- Veterans face a 58% higher suicide risk than the general population
The data also shows that veterans in VA care have substantially lower suicide rates than those not in the system. Which circles back to Priority 1: getting veterans into care in the first place matters. If you or someone you know needs immediate support, the Veterans Crisis Line is available 24/7 — call 988 and press 1, text 838255, or visit VeteransCrisisLine.net.
Priority 4: Housing — 33,000 Veterans Without a Roof Tonight
The VA’s most recent Point-in-Time count found 32,882 veterans experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2024 — the lowest number since HUD began tracking in 2009. That’s the good news. The bad news is that Whaley believes the real number is higher, the VA itself has set a 2026 goal of housing at least 48,000 homeless veterans this fiscal year, and the housing market has made those vouchers increasingly hard to actually use.
HUD-VASH (HUD–Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing) and SSVF (Supportive Services for Veteran Families) are the two main federal programs working on this. They’ve driven a 50% reduction in veteran homelessness since 2009. But local execution varies wildly, which is exactly Whaley’s point: “Homelessness is not going to be solved by some office in D.C. It’s going to be solved by collaborating with veteran support organizations and supporting them through grants.”
National templates don’t translate to every local housing market. Congress can provide the funding and the flexibility — but the solutions have to come from the communities where veterans actually live.
What Congress Is Actually Doing (So Far)
Here’s the honest picture: some movement, not enough action.
In February 2026, the House passed a pair of bills aimed at modernizing the GI Bill for education and job training. Chairman Mike Bost of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs called it a win — and it is, for veterans going back to school. But it doesn’t touch any of the four priorities above in a meaningful way.
In September 2025, the House passed 14 bipartisan veteran bills covering rural healthcare access, telehealth, benefits outreach, and claims modernization. A few of those are directly relevant — particularly the Protecting Veteran Access to Telemedicine Services Act and the Rural Veteran Improved Access to Benefits Act. Whether those make it through the Senate and get signed is the question.
The BEACON Act for TBI has been introduced but hasn’t passed. The hard work of navigating the Senate filibuster, reconciliation, and committee fights is where most veteran legislation goes to die, regardless of how bipartisan it looks at introduction.
For current intel on what Congress is doing to VA benefits specifically, read our coverage on VA Benefits Cuts 2026: What Veterans Need to Know Right Now.
How to Make Your Voice Count — Before the 2026 Midterms
The midterms are coming. Mission Roll Call is running a March national survey to capture what veteran priorities should define the next Congress. Results go directly to congressional offices and VA leadership. That’s not a symbolic gesture — that’s the kind of documented, nonpartisan feedback that staffers actually cite when drafting legislation.
Here’s how to amplify veteran priorities 2026 beyond a survey response:
- Take the Mission Roll Call survey at missionrollcall.org/veteran-voices-survey — it takes five minutes and goes directly to policymakers
- Call your reps — congressional offices track constituent call volume. Find yours at congress.gov/members/find-your-member
- Connect with your local VSO — organizations like DAV, VFW, and American Legion have direct lobbying channels and know which bills to push
- Register and vote — candidates who dismiss veteran issues deserve to know it at the ballot box
- Share your story — Mission Roll Call is explicit that personal narratives from veterans shape national conversations in ways aggregate data can’t
Sebastian Junger’s Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging captures this disconnect between veterans and civilians better than anything I’ve read.
The Bottom Line
The four veteran priorities 2026 — healthcare access, service-connected conditions, suicide prevention, and housing — aren’t new problems. They’ve been on every veteran advocacy list for a decade. What Mission Roll Call’s survey makes clear is that they’re still not solved, they’re still the top concerns, and veterans haven’t stopped caring about them just because Congress has moved on to the next news cycle.
You served. You held up your end of the deal. It’s not unreasonable to expect your government to hold up theirs. Use the resources above, make your voice heard before November, and don’t let this year’s survey results become next year’s survey results.
If you’re newer to navigating what’s available to you, also check out Finding Your Tribe: Veteran Communities and Networks Worth Joining for organizations that can help you get connected and stay connected to the fight.
Books That Frame the Conversation
- Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging — Sebastian Junger on why veterans miss war — and what it says about the civilian world they come home to.
- Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance — Angela Duckworth’s research on why talent alone isn’t enough — persistence and passion win.
- Leaders Eat Last — Simon Sinek on why some teams pull together — translates military leadership principles to the civilian world.
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