House Subcommittee on Defense and Veterans’ Affairs – HB 114

On July 8, 2026, the Meadows Institute’s Vice President for Veterans and Public Safety, Sean Hanna, provided testimony to the Texas House Subcommittee on Defense & Veterans’ Affairs at an oversight hearing in San Antonio, Texas. Hanna’s testimony offered recommendations regarding the implementation of House Bill 114, relating to the transition of certain veterans’ mental health initiatives from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to the Texas Veterans Commission.

Hanna’s recommendations to the committee included:

• Protecting the Military Veteran Peer Network’s direct peer work. Hold its one-on-one contacts and peer support groups at or above the fiscal year 2025 baseline. That baseline is the clearest measure of whether this transfer has helped or harmed veterans.
• Keeping the Texas Veterans and Families Alliance grants continuous, with no gap between cycles, and protect the rural grantees who have the least margin to absorb a gap.
• Building the the Suicide Prevention Action Plan around three things. One, formal coordination between the peer network and the veteran transition program, so that Texas begins closing that shortfall of 491 sponsors. Two, earlier connection to justice-involved veterans, at the first point of law enforcement contact rather than after a crisis, a model the Institute will soon be putting into practice in Los Angeles County, and perhaps Bexar County. Three, deliberate outreach to the veteran police officers and first responders, similarly to the Blue Chip and Red Chip models.