II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1311
To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to seek to enter into an agreement
with a federally funded research and development center for an assess-
ment of notice letters that the Secretary sends to claimants for benefits
under laws administered by the Secretary, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
APRIL5 (legislative day, APRIL4), 2025
Mr. B
ANKSintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
A BILL
To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to seek to enter
into an agreement with a federally funded research and
development center for an assessment of notice letters
that the Secretary sends to claimants for benefits under
laws administered by the Secretary, and for other pur-
poses.
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 ‘‘Clear Communication 4
for Veterans Claims Act of 2025’’. 5
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•S 1311 IS
SEC. 2. INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT OF NOTICES THAT THE 1
SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS SENDS 2
TO CLAIMANTS. 3
(a) A
GREEMENT.—Not later than 30 days after the 4
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Vet-5
erans Affairs shall seek to enter into an agreement with 6
a federally funded research and development center 7
(FFRDC) for an assessment of notices that the Secretary 8
sends to claimants. 9
(b) A
SSESSMENT.—A federally funded research and 10
development center that enters to an agreement under 11
subsection (a) shall submit to the Secretary a written as-12
sessment of such notices. The assessment shall include the 13
following: 14
(1) The determination of the federally funded 15
research and development center, made in consulta-16
tion with covered entities, whether each such notice 17
may be feasibly altered to reduce paper consumption 18
by, and costs to, the Federal Government. 19
(2) The recommendations of the federally fund-20
ed research and development center regarding how 21
the Secretary may make such notices clearer to 22
claimants, better organized, and more concise. 23
(c) R
EPORT; IMPLEMENTATION.—Not later than 90 24
days after the Secretary receives the assessment under 25
subsection (b), the Secretary shall— 26
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•S 1311 IS
(1) submit to the Committee on Veterans’ Af-1
fairs of the Senate and the Committee on Veterans’ 2
Affairs of the House of Representatives a copy of 3
such assessment; and 4
(2) commence implementing the recommenda-5
tions in the assessment that are in compliance with 6
the laws administered by the Secretary. 7
(d) D
EADLINE FOR IMPLEMENTATION.—The Sec-8
retary shall complete the implementation required by sub-9
section (c)(2) by not later than one year after the date 10
on which the Secretary commences such implementation. 11
(e) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 12
(1) C
OVERED ENTITIES.—The term ‘‘covered 13
entities’’ includes— 14
(A) the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; 15
(B) an expert in laws administered by the 16
Secretary of Veterans Affairs; 17
(C) a veterans service organization recog-18
nized under section 5902 of title 38, United 19
States Code; 20
(D) an entity that advocates for veterans; 21
and 22
(E) an entity that advocates for the sur-23
vivors of veterans. 24
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(2) CLAIMANT AND NOTICE .—The terms 1
‘‘claimant’’ and ‘‘notice’’ have the meanings given 2
such terms in section 5100 of title 38, United States 3
Code. 4
Æ
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