21st Century Veterans Benefits Delivery Act
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
21st Century Veterans Benefits Delivery Act - Revises or adds provisions concerning the submission of veterans' claims for benefits administered through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), including by:
modifying the Transition Assistance Program to enable online participation;
adding a requirement to encourage claimants to use appropriate forms;
requiring specified communications to users of the eBenefits website;
extending through FY2020 VA authority for the retroactive dating of awards upon the filing of fully developed claims;
requiring claim decisions to explain the benefits of filing claim appeals within 180 days;
requiring the use of a specified VA form in regional offices for filing notices of disagreement with claim decisions; and
requiring hearings before the Board of Veterans' Appeals to be conducted, as the Board considers appropriate or, upon request by an appellant, as the appellant considers appropriate, in person or through picture and voice transmission by electronic or other means.
Revises or adds provisions concerning the practices of VA regional offices, including by:
requiring the Comptroller General to complete an audit of Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) regional offices,
requiring the VA Secretary to complete a study on service-connected disabilities that worsen with age,
extending the authority for the performance of medical disability examinations by contract physicians,
requiring the Secretary to develop and implement a plan to establish a uniform mail processing and scanning system throughout the regional offices,
requiring the VA Inspector General to conduct a review of the practices of regional offices regarding the use of suspense dates during the disability claim assessment process,
requiring the Secretary to submit semiannual reports on progress in implementing the Veterans Benefits Management System,
requiring the Secretary to submit an annual report on VBA capacity to process benefits claims,
requiring the Secretary to include in each Monday Morning Workload Report the number of claims for benefits that have been received by a regional office and that are pending a decision, and
requiring the Secretary to make the VA reports entitled "Appeals Pending" and "Appeals Workload By Station" available to the public on a VA website.
The summary continues for 2 more paragraphs. Read it in full on Congress.gov
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on March 6, 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 March 6, 2014: 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 Senate
- Passage by the House
- 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?
Dean Heller (R-NV) introduced it on March 6, 2014, and 21 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 14 Democrats, 7 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 March 6, 2014, 4571 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 4571 days ago, on March 6, 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
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers