I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2970
To amend title 38, United States Code, to make certain improvements to
the laws relating to advocacy for veterans who receive health care and
other benefits furnished by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and
for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL17, 2025
Mr. Y
AKYMintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Veterans’ Affairs
A BILL
To amend title 38, United States Code, to make certain
improvements to the laws relating to advocacy for vet-
erans who receive health care and other benefits fur-
nished by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for
other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘National Veterans Ad-4
vocate Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. INDEPENDENT OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL VET-1
ERANS’ ADVOCATE IN DEPARTMENT OF VET-2
ERANS AFFAIRS. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 7309A of title 38, United 4
States Code, is amended— 5
(1) by striking the section heading and insert-6
ing the following new section heading: 7
‘‘§ 7309A. Office of the National Veterans’ Advocate’’; 8
(2) in subsection (a)— 9
(A) by striking ‘‘within the Office of the 10
Under Secretary for Health’’; 11
(B) by striking ‘‘an office’’ and inserting 12
‘‘an independent office’’; and 13
(C) by striking ‘‘‘Office of Patient Advo-14
cacy’’’ and inserting ‘‘‘Office of the National 15
Veterans’ Advocate’’’; 16
(3) by striking ‘‘patient advocate’’ each place it 17
appears and inserting ‘‘veteran advocate’’; 18
(4) in subsection (b)— 19
(A) by striking paragraph (1) and insert-20
ing the following new paragraph (1): 21
‘‘(1) The Office of the National Veterans’ Advocate 22
shall be under the supervision and direction of an official 23
to be known as the ‘‘National Veterans’ Advocate’’. The 24
National Veterans’ Advocate shall report directly to the 25
Secretary and shall be entitled to compensation at the 26
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same rate as the highest rate of basic pay established for 1
the Senior Executive Service under section 5382 of title 2
5, United States Code.’’; and 3
(B) in paragraph (2)— 4
(i) by striking ‘‘Office of Patient Ad-5
vocacy’’ and inserting ‘‘Office of the Na-6
tional Veterans’ Advocate’’; 7
(ii) by striking ‘‘by the Under Sec-8
retary for Health’’ and inserting ‘‘by the 9
Secretary’’; and 10
(iii) by striking ‘‘shall report directly 11
to the Under Secretary for Health’’ and in-12
serting ‘‘shall be independent of the Sec-13
retary’’; 14
(5) by striking ‘‘Director’’ each place it appears 15
and inserting ‘‘National Veterans’ Advocate’’; 16
(6) in subsection (c)— 17
(A) by striking the subsection heading and 18
inserting ‘‘(c) F
UNCTIONS.—’’; 19
(B) in paragraph (1)— 20
(i) by striking ‘‘function’’ and insert-21
ing ‘‘functions’’; 22
(ii) by striking ‘‘is’’ and inserting 23
‘‘are’’; and 24
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(iii) by inserting before the period at 1
the end the following: ‘‘and to monitor De-2
partment processes and make rec-3
ommendations to Congress on how to im-4
prove the Department’s efficiency and care 5
for veterans’’; 6
(C) in paragraph (2)— 7
(i) in subparagraph (B), by striking 8
‘‘and’’ after the semicolon; 9
(ii) in subparagraph (C), by striking 10
the period and inserting a semicolon; and 11
(iii) by adding at the end the fol-12
lowing new subparagraphs: 13
‘‘(D) identify areas in which veterans have 14
problems in dealings with the Department; 15
‘‘(E) to the extent possible, propose changes in 16
the administrative practices of the Department to 17
mitigate problems identified under subparagraph 18
(D); and 19
‘‘(F) identify potential legislative changes which 20
may be appropriate to mitigate such problems.’’; 21
(D) in paragraph (3)— 22
(i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 23
‘‘and’’ after the semicolon; 24
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(ii) by redesignating subparagraph 1
(B) as subparagraph (C); 2
(iii) by inserting after subparagraph 3
(A) the following new subparagraph (B): 4
‘‘(B) fill out forms to relating to casework prob-5
lem that facilitate the rapid assignment of a local 6
veteran advocate caseworker who can directly inter-7
face with the veteran if needed; and’’; and 8
(iv) in subparagraph (C), as redesig-9
nated by clause (ii), by inserting ‘‘or 10
forms’’ after ‘‘complaint’’ both times it ap-11
pears; 12
(E) by adding at the end the following new 13
paragraphs: 14
‘‘(4) The Office shall have the authority to manage 15
casework issues across the Department. 16
‘‘(5)(A) Not later than March 30 and September 30 17
of each year, the National Veterans’ Advocate shall submit 18
to the Committees on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate and 19
House of Representatives a report on the operations of 20
the Office of the National Veterans’ Advocate. Each such 21
report shall include— 22
‘‘(i) a description of the activities of the Office 23
carried out pursuant so subsection (c)(2)(D) 24
through (F); and 25
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‘‘(ii) independent legislative recommendations 1
for the improvement of health outcomes for veterans, 2
the quality of health care and benefits provided by 3
the Department, and the cost efficiency of the De-4
partment. 5
‘‘(B) Recommendations included in a report under 6
this paragraph may not be reviewed by the Secretary or 7
by any other official of the Department prior to submis-8
sion. 9
‘‘(C) Each report under this paragraph shall be 10
transmitted to the Secretary and made publicly available 11
on the website the National Veterans’ Advocate. 12
‘‘(6) The Office shall have a designated publicly ac-13
cessible website that includes access to the information 14
technology system required under paragraph (3).’’; 15
(7) in subsection (d)— 16
(A) in the subsection heading, by striking 17
‘‘P
ATIENTADVOCACY’’ and inserting ‘‘VET-18
ERANADVOCACY’’; and 19
(B) by adding at the end the following new 20
paragraph: 21
‘‘(15) In coordination with the recommendation 22
team, to identify problems experienced within the 23
Department in the course of providing hospital care, 24
medical services, and nursing home care and burial 25
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and interment benefits to veterans and to develop 1
recommendations to address such problems.’’; 2
(8) in subsection (e)— 3
(A) by striking ‘‘shall ensure that such 4
training is consistent throughout the Depart-5
ment.’’ and inserting ‘‘shall—’’; 6
(B) by adding at the end the following new 7
subparagraphs: 8
‘‘(A) develop the curriculum for such train-9
ing in coordination with the Under Secretary 10
for Benefits, the Under Secretary for Health, 11
the Director of each of the Veterans Integrated 12
Service Networks, and veterans service organi-13
zations; 14
‘‘(B) ensure that each veteran advocate is 15
required to receive such training on an annual 16
basis; 17
‘‘(C) ensure that such training includes up- 18
to-date information on Department policy, crisis 19
management, health care, and such other mat-20
ters as the Secretary determines appropriate; 21
and 22
‘‘(D) ensure that such training is con-23
sistent throughout the Department.’’; 24
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(9) by redesignating subsection (f) as sub-1
section (l); and 2
(10) by inserting after subsection (e) the fol-3
lowing new subsections: 4
‘‘(f) D
EPUTYNATIONALVETERANS’ ADVOCATES.— 5
(1) There is in each Veterans Integrated Service Network 6
(hereinafter referred to as a ‘VISN’) a Deputy National 7
Veterans’ Advocate who shall have responsibility for man-8
aging the employees of the Office with primary responsi-9
bility for casework. 10
‘‘(2) The Deputy National Veterans’ Advocate for a 11
VISN shall ensure that for the geographic area served by 12
that VISN, the Department employs at least one veteran 13
advocate for every 12,000 veterans who reside in such area 14
and are enrolled in the patient enrollment system under 15
section 1705 of this title. 16
‘‘(g) O
FFICEEMPLOYEES.—The Office of the Na-17
tional Veterans’ Advocate shall have employees in the 18
Washington, D.C., office in the Department. Such employ-19
ees shall carry out the responsibilities under subsection 20
(c)(2)(D) through (F), coordinate with Deputy National 21
Veterans’ Advocates and veteran advocates, and carry out 22
such other responsibilities as the National Veterans’ Advo-23
cate determines appropriate. 24
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‘‘(h) CASEWORKREQUESTPORTAL.—The National 1
Veterans’ Advocate shall establish, on the website of the 2
National Veterans’ Advocate, a casework request portal 3
that veterans can use to request assistance with casework. 4
‘‘(i) O
UTREACH.—The Secretary shall conduct out-5
reach to veterans receiving benefits under the laws admin-6
istrated by the Secretary to provide information to such 7
veterans about the Office and the assistance available to 8
veterans through the Office. 9
‘‘(j) C
OORDINATIONTOIMPROVEPOLICIES.—The 10
Secretary, the National Veterans’ Advocate, the Under 11
Secretary for Health, and the Under Secretary for Bene-12
fits shall— 13
‘‘(1) work closely together on a continual basis 14
to improve the policies of the Department without 15
the necessity for congressional action; and 16
‘‘(2) communicate frequently to ensure such im-17
provement. 18
‘‘(k) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 19
is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 20
$25,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2030.’’. 21
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 22
at the beginning of chapter 73 of such title is amended 23
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by striking the item relating to section 7309A and insert-1
ing the following new item: 2
‘‘7309A. Office of the National Veterans’ Advocate.’’.
Æ
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