Equalizing Transparency for Veterans Act
Latest action. Referred to the subcommitteeA smaller panel inside a standing committee with jurisdiction over a slice of its subject matter. Most hearings and the first markup usually happen here.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) on Health.
Equalizing Transparency for Veterans Act - Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) to biennially publish information on the VA's provision of health care on a VA Internet database that is publicly available.
Includes among that information for each VA medical facility:
quality measures regarding inpatient and outpatient care that the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) is required to make publicly available under the Medicare program;
the average length of stay, opioid prescription rate, and suicide rate for patients discharged from the facility; and
the average number of days a patient waited for an appointment or procedure at such facility.
Includes in such information for each VA nursing home any quality measures the Secretary of HHS makes publicly available regarding Medicare nursing homes.
Directs the Secretary to establish a process to validate the published information.
Requires the Secretary to annually submit a plan to Congress to improve each VA medical facility that ranks within the bottom quartile on each quality measure used by the Secretary to rank such facilities.
Directs the Secretary to establish a toll-free telephone number for individuals to use to notify the Secretary of low-quality care being provided at a VA medical facility.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on June 17, 2014. 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 27, 2014: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.
- 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 113th Congress (2013-14), 296 of the 9,091 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.3 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?
Charles Boustany (R-LA) introduced it on June 17, 2014, and 1 member has since signed on as a cosponsor.
They are 1 Republican.
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 June 17, 2014, 4468 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 4458 days ago, on June 27, 2014.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 113th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2015 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