Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SB264 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	II
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION S. 264
5	5	To amend title 38, United States Code, to establish the Veterans Experience
6	6	Office, and for other purposes.
7	7	IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
8	8	JANUARY28, 2025
9	9	Mr. K
10	10	ING(for himself and Mr. CORNYN) introduced the following bill; which
11	11	was read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
12	12	A BILL
13	13	To amend title 38, United States Code, to establish the
14	14	Veterans Experience Office, and for other purposes.
15	15	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
16	16	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
17	17	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
18	18	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Improving Veterans’ 4
19	19	Experience Act of 2025’’. 5
20	20	SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF VETERANS EXPERIENCE OF-6
21	21	FICE. 7
22	22	(a) E
23	23	STABLISHMENT.— 8
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27	27	(1) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 3 of title 38, United 1
28	28	States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 2
29	29	following new section: 3
30	30	‘‘§ 325. Veterans Experience Office 4
31	31	‘‘(a) E
32	32	STABLISHMENT.—There is established in the 5
33	33	Department within the Office of the Secretary an office 6
34	34	to be known as the ‘Veterans Experience Office’ (in this 7
35	35	section referred to as the ‘Office’). 8
36	36	‘‘(b) H
37	37	EAD OFOFFICE.—(1) The head of the Office 9
38	38	shall be the Chief Veterans Experience Officer. 10
39	39	‘‘(2) The Chief Veterans Experience Officer shall— 11
40	40	‘‘(A) be appointed by the Secretary from among 12
41	41	individuals the Secretary considers qualified to per-13
42	42	form the duties of the position; 14
43	43	‘‘(B) report directly to the Secretary; and 15
44	44	‘‘(C) be responsible for carrying out the func-16
45	45	tions of the Office set forth under subsection (c). 17
46	46	‘‘(c) F
47	47	UNCTION.—The functions of the Office are as 18
48	48	follows: 19
49	49	‘‘(1) Carrying out the key customer experience 20
50	50	initiatives of the Department relating to veterans’ 21
51	51	and other beneficiaries’ satisfaction with and usage 22
52	52	of benefits and services furnished under laws admin-23
53	53	istered by the Secretary for which they are eligible, 24
54	54	including setting the strategy, framework, policy, 25
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58	58	and other guidance for the Department relating to 1
59	59	customer experience, including ensuring the activi-2
60	60	ties of the Office and those of other organizations 3
61	61	and offices within the Department are coordinated 4
62	62	and not duplicative. 5
63	63	‘‘(2) Requiring the heads of other organizations 6
64	64	and offices within the Department to report regu-7
65	65	larly on customer experience metrics, action plans, 8
66	66	and other customer experience improvement efforts 9
67	67	to the Chief Veterans Experience Officer. 10
68	68	‘‘(3) Collecting veteran-derived data— 11
69	69	‘‘(A) to determine veteran and beneficiary 12
70	70	satisfaction with and usage of the benefits and 13
71	71	services furnished under laws administered by 14
72	72	the Secretary for which they are eligible; and 15
73	73	‘‘(B) to be considered during policymaking. 16
74	74	‘‘(4) Providing strategic guidance and strategies 17
75	75	to Department entities for engaging with veterans 18
76	76	and beneficiaries regarding benefits and services fur-19
77	77	nished under laws administered by the Secretary, in-20
78	78	cluding those not using such benefits and services. 21
79	79	‘‘(5) Assessing and advising the Secretary on 22
80	80	the accuracy and helpfulness of the websites and 23
81	81	other customer-facing information of the Depart-24
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85	85	ment, be it available electronically or in any other 1
86	86	format. 2
87	87	‘‘(6) Assessing and advising the Secretary on 3
88	88	the status and opportunities for improvement of the 4
89	89	customer service efforts of the Department. 5
90	90	‘‘(d) R
91	91	EPORTS.—(1) Each year, the Chief Veterans 6
92	92	Experience Officer shall submit to the Secretary a sum-7
93	93	mary of the data received by the Chief Veterans Experi-8
94	94	ence Officer under subsection (c)(2). 9
95	95	‘‘(2) Each year, not later than 180 days after the 10
96	96	date on which the Secretary receives the summary under 11
97	97	paragraph (1), the Secretary shall submit to Congress an 12
98	98	annual summary and analysis of the matters summarized 13
99	99	pursuant to such paragraph. 14
100	100	‘‘(3) Each annual summary submitted pursuant to 15
101	101	paragraph (2) shall include the following: 16
102	102	‘‘(A) Data regarding customer service and expe-17
103	103	rience feedback, disaggregated by benefit or service 18
104	104	furnished under laws administered by the Secretary, 19
105	105	and relevant demographic data of the veterans and 20
106	106	beneficiaries providing the feedback. 21
107	107	‘‘(B) Data regarding veteran and beneficiary 22
108	108	satisfaction with and usage of benefits or services, 23
109	109	disaggregated by benefit or service furnished under 24
110	110	laws administered by the Secretary, and relevant de-25
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114	114	mographic data of the veterans and beneficiaries 1
115	115	providing the feedback, including— 2
116	116	‘‘(i) potential reasons for not using the 3
117	117	benefits or services, such as— 4
118	118	‘‘(I) eligibility; 5
119	119	‘‘(II) lack of knowledge or awareness 6
120	120	of existence of benefit or service; 7
121	121	‘‘(III) barriers of technology, informa-8
122	122	tion, or time; and 9
123	123	‘‘(IV) other related reasons; and 10
124	124	‘‘(ii) an analysis of how such reasons may 11
125	125	be addressed. 12
126	126	‘‘(e) S
127	127	TAFF ANDRESOURCES.—(1) The Secretary 13
128	128	shall ensure that— 14
129	129	‘‘(A) the Office has such staff, resources, and 15
130	130	access to customer service and experience informa-16
131	131	tion as may be necessary to carry out the functions 17
132	132	of the Office; and 18
133	133	‘‘(B) any information provided to the Office 19
134	134	does not include personally identifiable information 20
135	135	of an individual veteran, survivor, dependent, or 21
136	136	other beneficiary unless such individual provides ap-22
137	137	propriate consent to allow such information to be 23
138	138	shared with the Office. 24
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142	142	‘‘(2) Funds available for basic pay and other adminis-1
143	143	trative expenses of other Department organizations and 2
144	144	offices may be available to reimburse the Office for all 3
145	145	services provided at rates which will recover actual costs 4
146	146	for services provided to such organizations if the Secretary 5
147	147	determines that contributing to such costs will not under-6
148	148	mine the ability of any such organization or office to pro-7
149	149	vide services required by such office. 8
150	150	‘‘(3) Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to 9
151	151	authorize an increase in the number of full-time employees 10
152	152	otherwise authorized for the Department. 11
153	153	‘‘(f) P
154	154	RIVACY.—Nothing in this section shall be con-12
155	155	strued to authorize the Chief Veterans Experience Officer 13
156	156	to disclose any record in contravention of section 552a of 14
157	157	title 5 (commonly referred to as the ‘Privacy Act of 15
158	158	1974’). 16
159	159	‘‘(g) S
160	160	UNSET.—The requirements and authorities of 17
161	161	this section shall terminate on September 30, 2028.’’. 18
162	162	(2) C
163	163	LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of sec-19
164	164	tions at the beginning of chapter 3 of such title is 20
165	165	amended by adding at the end the following new 21
166	166	item: 22
167	167	‘‘325. Veterans Experience Office.’’.
168	168	(b) COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED 23
169	169	S
170	170	TATESREVIEW OFVETERANSEXPERIENCEOFFICE AND 24
171	171	C
172	172	USTOMERSERVICEIMPROVEMENT EFFORTS.—Not later 25
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176	176	than 540 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, 1
177	177	the Comptroller General of the United States shall— 2
178	178	(1) complete an analysis of the methodology, ef-3
179	179	fectiveness, and implementation of findings and 4
180	180	feedback of veterans and beneficiaries used by the 5
181	181	Department of Veterans Affairs, including the Vet-6
182	182	erans Experience Office, to improve veteran and 7
183	183	beneficiary customer experience and satisfaction, in-8
184	184	cluding through the use of what are known as 9
185	185	‘‘trust-scores’’, Veteran Signals also known as 10
186	186	‘‘VSignals’’, and related survey and data collection 11
187	187	activities, processes, and initiatives; and 12
188	188	(2) submit to the Committee on Veterans’ Af-13
189	189	fairs of the Senate and the Committee on Veterans’ 14
190	190	Affairs of the House of Representatives a report set-15
191	191	ting forth the findings of the Comptroller General 16
192	192	with respect to the analysis completed pursuant to 17
193	193	paragraph (1). 18
194	194	Æ
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