II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 264
To amend title 38, United States Code, to establish the Veterans Experience
Office, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY28, 2025
Mr. K
ING(for himself and Mr. CORNYN) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
A BILL
To amend title 38, United States Code, to establish the
Veterans Experience Office, 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 ‘‘Improving Veterans’ 4
Experience Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF VETERANS EXPERIENCE OF-6
FICE. 7
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.— 8
VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:06 Feb 26, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S264.IS S264
rfrederick on LAP8M3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2
•S 264 IS
(1) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 3 of title 38, United 1
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 2
following new section: 3
‘‘§ 325. Veterans Experience Office 4
‘‘(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—There is established in the 5
Department within the Office of the Secretary an office 6
to be known as the ‘Veterans Experience Office’ (in this 7
section referred to as the ‘Office’). 8
‘‘(b) H
EAD OFOFFICE.—(1) The head of the Office 9
shall be the Chief Veterans Experience Officer. 10
‘‘(2) The Chief Veterans Experience Officer shall— 11
‘‘(A) be appointed by the Secretary from among 12
individuals the Secretary considers qualified to per-13
form the duties of the position; 14
‘‘(B) report directly to the Secretary; and 15
‘‘(C) be responsible for carrying out the func-16
tions of the Office set forth under subsection (c). 17
‘‘(c) F
UNCTION.—The functions of the Office are as 18
follows: 19
‘‘(1) Carrying out the key customer experience 20
initiatives of the Department relating to veterans’ 21
and other beneficiaries’ satisfaction with and usage 22
of benefits and services furnished under laws admin-23
istered by the Secretary for which they are eligible, 24
including setting the strategy, framework, policy, 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:32 Feb 21, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S264.IS S264
rfrederick on LAP8M3WLY3PROD with BILLS 3
•S 264 IS
and other guidance for the Department relating to 1
customer experience, including ensuring the activi-2
ties of the Office and those of other organizations 3
and offices within the Department are coordinated 4
and not duplicative. 5
‘‘(2) Requiring the heads of other organizations 6
and offices within the Department to report regu-7
larly on customer experience metrics, action plans, 8
and other customer experience improvement efforts 9
to the Chief Veterans Experience Officer. 10
‘‘(3) Collecting veteran-derived data— 11
‘‘(A) to determine veteran and beneficiary 12
satisfaction with and usage of the benefits and 13
services furnished under laws administered by 14
the Secretary for which they are eligible; and 15
‘‘(B) to be considered during policymaking. 16
‘‘(4) Providing strategic guidance and strategies 17
to Department entities for engaging with veterans 18
and beneficiaries regarding benefits and services fur-19
nished under laws administered by the Secretary, in-20
cluding those not using such benefits and services. 21
‘‘(5) Assessing and advising the Secretary on 22
the accuracy and helpfulness of the websites and 23
other customer-facing information of the Depart-24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:32 Feb 21, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S264.IS S264
rfrederick on LAP8M3WLY3PROD with BILLS 4
•S 264 IS
ment, be it available electronically or in any other 1
format. 2
‘‘(6) Assessing and advising the Secretary on 3
the status and opportunities for improvement of the 4
customer service efforts of the Department. 5
‘‘(d) R
EPORTS.—(1) Each year, the Chief Veterans 6
Experience Officer shall submit to the Secretary a sum-7
mary of the data received by the Chief Veterans Experi-8
ence Officer under subsection (c)(2). 9
‘‘(2) Each year, not later than 180 days after the 10
date on which the Secretary receives the summary under 11
paragraph (1), the Secretary shall submit to Congress an 12
annual summary and analysis of the matters summarized 13
pursuant to such paragraph. 14
‘‘(3) Each annual summary submitted pursuant to 15
paragraph (2) shall include the following: 16
‘‘(A) Data regarding customer service and expe-17
rience feedback, disaggregated by benefit or service 18
furnished under laws administered by the Secretary, 19
and relevant demographic data of the veterans and 20
beneficiaries providing the feedback. 21
‘‘(B) Data regarding veteran and beneficiary 22
satisfaction with and usage of benefits or services, 23
disaggregated by benefit or service furnished under 24
laws administered by the Secretary, and relevant de-25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:32 Feb 21, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S264.IS S264
rfrederick on LAP8M3WLY3PROD with BILLS 5
•S 264 IS
mographic data of the veterans and beneficiaries 1
providing the feedback, including— 2
‘‘(i) potential reasons for not using the 3
benefits or services, such as— 4
‘‘(I) eligibility; 5
‘‘(II) lack of knowledge or awareness 6
of existence of benefit or service; 7
‘‘(III) barriers of technology, informa-8
tion, or time; and 9
‘‘(IV) other related reasons; and 10
‘‘(ii) an analysis of how such reasons may 11
be addressed. 12
‘‘(e) S
TAFF ANDRESOURCES.—(1) The Secretary 13
shall ensure that— 14
‘‘(A) the Office has such staff, resources, and 15
access to customer service and experience informa-16
tion as may be necessary to carry out the functions 17
of the Office; and 18
‘‘(B) any information provided to the Office 19
does not include personally identifiable information 20
of an individual veteran, survivor, dependent, or 21
other beneficiary unless such individual provides ap-22
propriate consent to allow such information to be 23
shared with the Office. 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:32 Feb 21, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S264.IS S264
rfrederick on LAP8M3WLY3PROD with BILLS 6
•S 264 IS
‘‘(2) Funds available for basic pay and other adminis-1
trative expenses of other Department organizations and 2
offices may be available to reimburse the Office for all 3
services provided at rates which will recover actual costs 4
for services provided to such organizations if the Secretary 5
determines that contributing to such costs will not under-6
mine the ability of any such organization or office to pro-7
vide services required by such office. 8
‘‘(3) Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to 9
authorize an increase in the number of full-time employees 10
otherwise authorized for the Department. 11
‘‘(f) P
RIVACY.—Nothing in this section shall be con-12
strued to authorize the Chief Veterans Experience Officer 13
to disclose any record in contravention of section 552a of 14
title 5 (commonly referred to as the ‘Privacy Act of 15
1974’). 16
‘‘(g) S
UNSET.—The requirements and authorities of 17
this section shall terminate on September 30, 2028.’’. 18
(2) C
LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of sec-19
tions at the beginning of chapter 3 of such title is 20
amended by adding at the end the following new 21
item: 22
‘‘325. Veterans Experience Office.’’.
(b) COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED 23
S
TATESREVIEW OFVETERANSEXPERIENCEOFFICE AND 24
C
USTOMERSERVICEIMPROVEMENT EFFORTS.—Not later 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:32 Feb 21, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S264.IS S264
rfrederick on LAP8M3WLY3PROD with BILLS 7
•S 264 IS
than 540 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, 1
the Comptroller General of the United States shall— 2
(1) complete an analysis of the methodology, ef-3
fectiveness, and implementation of findings and 4
feedback of veterans and beneficiaries used by the 5
Department of Veterans Affairs, including the Vet-6
erans Experience Office, to improve veteran and 7
beneficiary customer experience and satisfaction, in-8
cluding through the use of what are known as 9
‘‘trust-scores’’, Veteran Signals also known as 10
‘‘VSignals’’, and related survey and data collection 11
activities, processes, and initiatives; and 12
(2) submit to the Committee on Veterans’ Af-13
fairs of the Senate and the Committee on Veterans’ 14
Affairs of the House of Representatives a report set-15
ting forth the findings of the Comptroller General 16
with respect to the analysis completed pursuant to 17
paragraph (1). 18
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:32 Feb 21, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S264.IS S264
rfrederick on LAP8M3WLY3PROD with BILLS