119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 423
AN ACT
To protect regular order for budgeting for 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 2
†S 423 ES
SECTION 1. PROTECTING REGULAR ORDER FOR VET-1
ERANS. 2
(a) S
HORTTITLE.—This section may be cited as the 3
‘‘Protecting Regular Order for Veterans Act of 2025’’ or 4
the ‘‘PRO Veterans Act of 2025’’. 5
(b) Q
UARTERLYBRIEFINGS ONDEPARTMENT OF 6
V
ETERANSAFFAIRSBUDGETARYSHORTFALLS.— 7
(1) Q
UARTERLY BRIEFINGS.— 8
(A) Q
UARTERLY BRIEFINGS REQUIRED .— 9
During the first quarter beginning after the 10
date of the enactment of this Act and in each 11
quarter thereafter until the date that is three 12
years after the date of the enactment of this 13
Act, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall pro-14
vide to the appropriate committees of Congress 15
a quarterly briefing, in person, on the budget of 16
the Department of Veterans Affairs and any 17
shortfall the Department may be experiencing. 18
(B) P
LANS.—In any case in which the Sec-19
retary informs Congress during a briefing 20
under paragraph (1) that the Department is ex-21
periencing a shortfall, the Secretary shall, dur-22
ing such briefing, present the plans of the Sec-23
retary to address or mitigate the shortfall. 24
(2) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 25 3
†S 423 ES
(A) APPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CON -1
GRESS.—The term ‘‘appropriate committees of 2
Congress’’ means— 3
(i) the Committee on Veterans’ Af-4
fairs and the Committee on Appropriations 5
of the Senate; and 6
(ii) the Committee on Veterans’ Af-7
fairs and the Committee on Appropriations 8
of the House of Representatives. 9
(B) S
HORTFALL.—The term ‘‘shortfall’’, 10
with respect to a fiscal year, means that the 11
amount of appropriations required by the De-12
partment of Veterans Affairs for such fiscal 13
year to meet all of the statutory obligations of 14
the Department during that fiscal year exceeds 15
the amount of appropriations requested for the 16
Department for that fiscal year in the budget of 17
the President submitted pursuant to section 18
1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, for 19
that fiscal year. 20
(c) L
IMITATIONS ONPROVISION OFINCENTIVES FOR 21
C
RITICALSKILLS TOSENIOREXECUTIVESERVICEEM-22
PLOYEES OF DEPARTMENT OF VETERANSAFFAIRS.— 23
Section 706(d) of title 38, United States Code, is amended 24
by adding at the end the following: 25 4
†S 423 ES
‘‘(7)(A) Subject to subparagraph (B)(ii), a critical 1
skill incentive may not be provided under paragraph (1) 2
to an employee of the Department employed in a Senior 3
Executive Service position, or a position in another com-4
parable system for senior-level Government employees, as 5
defined by the Secretary, whose position is at the Central 6
Office of the Department, including the Veterans Health 7
Administration, the Veterans Benefits Administration, 8
and the National Cemetery Administration, regardless of 9
the actual location where the employee performs the func-10
tions of the position. 11
‘‘(B)(i) A critical skill incentive provided under para-12
graph (1) to an employee of the Department employed in 13
a Senior Executive Service position, or a position in an-14
other comparable system for senior-level Government em-15
ployees, as defined by the Secretary, not described in sub-16
paragraph (A) of this paragraph may only be provided— 17
‘‘(I) on an individual basis and may not be pro-18
vided to a group of such employees; and 19
‘‘(II) upon approval of the following officers or 20
those serving in an acting capacity: 21
‘‘(aa) The Under Secretary for Benefits, 22
the Under Secretary for Health, or the Under 23
Secretary for Memorial Affairs. 24 5
†S 423 ES
‘‘(bb) The Assistant Secretary for Human 1
Resources and Administration. 2
‘‘(cc) The Director of the Office of Man-3
agement or the Chief Financial Officer. 4
‘‘(dd) The Assistant Secretary for Ac-5
countability and Whistleblower Protection. 6
‘‘(ee) The General Counsel. 7
‘‘(ff) Such other officers as the Secretary 8
determines appropriate. 9
‘‘(ii) In the case of an employee of the Department 10
employed in a Senior Executive Service position, or a posi-11
tion in another comparable system for senior-level Govern-12
ment employees, as defined by the Secretary, whose posi-13
tion is primarily at the Central Office of the Department, 14
but who performs some portion of the employee’s job func-15
tion at other facilities of the Department, as defined by 16
the Secretary, not at Central Office— 17
‘‘(I) the employee shall not be considered de-18
scribed in subparagraph (A) with respect to the por-19
tion of the employee’s job function that is based out 20
of non-Central Office facilities of the Department; 21
and 22
‘‘(II) any critical skill incentive provided under 23
paragraph (1) to the employee for the portion of the 24
employee’s job function that is based out of facilities 25 6
†S 423 ES
of the Department other than the Central Office 1
shall be proportionate to the time spent at those De-2
partment facilities. 3
‘‘(C)(i) Not later than one year after the date of the 4
enactment of the Protecting Regular Order for Veterans 5
Act of 2025, and not less frequently than once each year 6
thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to the Committee 7
on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on 8
Veterans’ Affairs of the House of Representatives an an-9
nual report on the employees of the Department employed 10
in a Senior Executive Service position, or a position in 11
another comparable system for senior-level Government 12
employees, as defined by the Secretary, who were provided 13
a critical skill incentive under paragraph (1). 14
‘‘(ii) Reports submitted pursuant to clause (i) may 15
be submitted by incorporating their contents into other 16
congressionally mandated reports to the committees de-17
scribed in such clause. 18
‘‘(D) In this paragraph, the term ‘Senior Executive 19
Service position’ has the meaning given such term in sec-20
tion 3132(a) of title 5.’’. 21
SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF VETERANS EXPERIENCE OF-22
FICE. 23
(a) S
HORTTITLE.—This section may be cited as the 24
‘‘Improving Veterans’ Experience Act of 2025’’. 25 7
†S 423 ES
(b) ESTABLISHMENT.— 1
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Chapter 3 of title 38, United 2
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 3
following new section: 4
‘‘§ 325. Veterans experience office 5
‘‘(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—There is established in the 6
Department within the Office of the Secretary an office 7
to be known as the ‘Veterans Experience Office’ (in this 8
section referred to as the ‘Office’). 9
‘‘(b) H
EAD OFOFFICE.—(1) The head of the Office 10
shall be the Chief Veterans Experience Officer. 11
‘‘(2) The Chief Veterans Experience Officer shall— 12
‘‘(A) be appointed by the Secretary from among 13
individuals the Secretary considers qualified to per-14
form the duties of the position; 15
‘‘(B) report directly to the Secretary; and 16
‘‘(C) be responsible for carrying out the func-17
tions of the Office set forth under subsection (c). 18
‘‘(c) F
UNCTION.—The functions of the Office are as 19
follows: 20
‘‘(1) Carrying out the key customer experience 21
initiatives of the Department relating to veterans’ 22
and other beneficiaries’ satisfaction with and usage 23
of benefits and services furnished under laws admin-24
istered by the Secretary for which they are eligible, 25 8
†S 423 ES
including setting the strategy, framework, policy, 1
and other guidance for the Department relating to 2
customer experience, including ensuring the activi-3
ties of the Office and those of other organizations 4
and offices within the Department are coordinated 5
and not duplicative. 6
‘‘(2) Requiring the heads of other organizations 7
and offices within the Department to report regu-8
larly on customer experience metrics, action plans, 9
and other customer experience improvement efforts 10
to the Chief Veterans Experience Officer. 11
‘‘(3) Collecting veteran-derived data— 12
‘‘(A) to determine veteran and beneficiary 13
satisfaction with and usage of the benefits and 14
services furnished under laws administered by 15
the Secretary for which they are eligible; and 16
‘‘(B) to be considered during policymaking. 17
‘‘(4) Providing strategic guidance and strategies 18
to Department entities for engaging with veterans 19
and beneficiaries regarding benefits and services fur-20
nished under laws administered by the Secretary, in-21
cluding those not using such benefits and services. 22
‘‘(5) Assessing and advising the Secretary on 23
the accuracy and helpfulness of the websites and 24
other customer-facing information of the Depart-25 9
†S 423 ES
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 10
†S 423 ES
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 11
†S 423 ES
‘‘(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.’’.
(c) COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED 23
S
TATESREVIEW OFVETERANSEXPERIENCEOFFICE AND 24
C
USTOMERSERVICEIMPROVEMENT EFFORTS.—Not later 25 12
†S 423 ES
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
Passed the Senate April 8, 2025.
Attest:
Secretary. 119
TH
CONGRESS
1
ST
S
ESSION
S. 423
AN ACT
To protect regular order for budgeting for the De-
partment of Veterans Affairs, and for other pur-
poses.