Veterans Transportation Program

This program furthers the Department's mission by establishing a program to provide grants to eligible recipients to assist veterans in highly rural areas through innovative transportation services to travel to Department of Veterans Affairs Medical

Grants available to Veteran Service Organizations and State Veterans Agencies to provide transportation for Veterans in Highly Rural Areas to their VA approved medical appointments.

The Secretary may award the grants to an "eligible entity" which is defined as either a Veterans Service Organization or State Veterans Service Agency, in accordance with paragraphs (a)(2)(A)-(B) of section 307 of PL 111-163.

A "participant" would be defined as a veteran receiving Veterans Health Administration (VHA) care that resides in a highly rural area who obtains transportation services from a grantee.

VA will award grants to "eligible entities" to assist veterans in highly rural areas to travel to VA medical centers, and otherwise assist in providing transportation in connection with the provision of VA medical care of these veterans. A "highly rural area" would be defined as an area consisting of a county or counties having a population of less than seven persons per square mile, consistent with paragraph (c)(1) of section 307 of PL 111-163. VA currently monitors and maintains a specific listing of such highly rural areas, and grants will only be awarded to applicants whose programs will service one or more of these areas, as identified in the application and notice of funding availability.

Length-of-time limitations are established in the notice of fund availability. Grantees will receive payments electronically through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Financial Management System.

Scoring and selection categories for the award of grants in accordance with the mandate in paragraph (b)(1) of section 307 of PL 111-163, which requires that VA prescribe regulations to evaluate grant applications. VA would specify the scoring criteria for initial grant applications. The criteria are weighted according to their probability of influencing an applicant's development of a successful program, as well as meeting the requirement for innovation in paragraph (a)(1) of section 307 of PL 111-163.

VA will specify in the NOFA, the process VA will use to award initial grants, where VA would score applications using a criteria and rank applications that receive at least the minimum amount of total points and points per category set forth in the NOFA. VA would then award grants for the highest ranked applications for which funding is available.

VA will publish, in grants.gov, a notice of fund availability, soliciting applications for the grant program and information on applications for requesting eligibility to receive grant funds.

VA would publish in the NOFA renewal grant information. Similarly weighted as those for initial grant applications, but are specific to renewal grant applications to assist VA in evaluating those programs which would already be operating. Accordingly, points would be awarded based on a grantee's program's success, cost effectiveness, and compliance with the grant agreement and other applicable laws and regulations, subject to the availability of funds. Grantees would be required to submit a renewal application within the time frame established in a notice of fund availability