VET Act
Latest action. Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
Veteran Engagement Teams Act or the VET Act
(Sec. 2) This bill directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), beginning not later than October 1, 2016, to carry out a three-year pilot program under which the VA shall carry out Veteran Engagement Team events to assist veterans in completing VA disability and pension claims.
Such events shall be carried out:
during the first year, at least once a month within the jurisdiction of each of 10 VA regional offices, including at least 2 regional offices in each of the 5 districts of the Veterans Benefits Administration;
during each of the second and third years, at least once a month within the jurisdiction of each of 15 VA regional offices, including at least 3 regional offices in each district;
at different locations within each regional office's jurisdiction and at least 50 miles from any regional office;
during the sponsoring regional office's normal business hours; and
with a sufficient number of physicians (to be available for opinions only), veteran service and rating representatives, and other appropriate claims personnel to initiate, update, and finalize the completion and adjudication of claims.
Amounts shall be paid to a VA employee for event work only from amounts otherwise available for the employee's salary. No additional appropriations are authorized for such payments.
The VA shall: (1) collect and analyze event-satisfaction information from attending veterans, and (2) report annually to Congress on event implementation.
The VA may not permanently transfer any Veterans Health Administration physician to staff an event.
(Sec. 3) The Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 is amended to reduce the aggregate amount of awards and bonuses that may be paid by the VA in FY2017.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Passed House amended" stage on June 21, 2016. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on June 22, 2016: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 114th Congress (2015-16), 329 of the 10,233 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.2 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Ryan Costello (R-PA) introduced it on November 5, 2015, and 6 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 1 Democrat, 5 Republicans.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on November 5, 2015, 3962 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 3732 days ago, on June 22, 2016.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 114th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2017 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers