[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5533 Introduced in House (IH)]






107th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5533

To provide for reduction in the backlog of claims for benefits pending 
                with the Department of Veterans Affairs.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 2, 2002

     Mr. Baca (for himself, Mr. Acevedo-Vila, Mrs. Napolitano, Mr. 
  Rohrabacher, Mr. Hinojosa, Mr. Cummings, Mr. Berry, and Mr. Ortiz) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                           Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To provide for reduction in the backlog of claims for benefits pending 
                with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

     This Act may be cited as the ``Department of Veterans Affairs 
Claims Backlog Reduction Act of 2002''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

     Congress finds the following:
            (1) There are over 25,000,000 honorably discharged veterans 
        of the Armed Forces of the United States.
            (2) There are over 500,000 veterans who have claims pending 
        with the Department of Veterans Affairs for veterans' benefits, 
        and approximately 100,000 of such claims are over one year old 
        without resolution.
            (3) The Nation's veterans are dying at a rate of over 1,000 
        veterans a day.
            (4) It is the responsibility of the United States 
        Government to live up to the promises to the Nation's veterans 
        that were made and accepted.
            (5) The National Association of County Veterans Service 
        Officers is an organization that includes approximately 2,400 
        full-time employees and whose members are present in 37 States.
            (6) Members of the National Association of County Veterans 
        Service Officers stand ready to partner with the Department of 
        Veterans Affairs in order to eliminate the backlog of claims 
        for veterans' benefits.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

     In this Act:
            (1) The term ``claimant'' means an individual applying for, 
        or submitting a claim for, any benefit under the laws 
        administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
            (2) The term ``County Veterans Service Officer'' means any 
        person employed by or funded by any county, parish, borough, or 
        territory whose job it is to assist veterans and eligible 
        dependents in the application for, administration of, or 
        receipt of benefits under any Federal, State, or County 
        veterans' benefit program.
            (3) The term ``injury or illness claim'' means a claim for 
        benefits that is documented as being service-connected.
            (4) The term ``presumptive claim'' means a claim for 
        benefits that is presumptively connected to a specific tour of 
        duty or to specific types of military assignment.
            (5) The term ``statutory claims'' means those claims for 
        benefits defined in section 5101 of title 38, United States 
        Code.
            (6) The term ``specific claims'' includes statutory claims, 
        presumptive claims, and injury or illness claims.
            (7) The term ``ready to be rated'' means that there is 
        sufficient information to evaluate the claimed disability and 
        to assign a rating based on degree of disability.
            (8) The term ``State'' has the meaning given that term in 
        section 101(20) of title 38, United States Code.

SEC. 4. REDUCTION OF BACKLOG OF VETERANS' CLAIMS.

    (a) Referral of Claims to County Veterans Service Officers.--
            (1) The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall identify the 
        backlog of veterans' claims as of the date of the enactment of 
        this Act and shall categorize those claims into types of 
        specific claims. As part of such categorization, the Secretary 
        shall identify the pending claims that require development. The 
        Secretary shall refer those claims requiring development to a 
        County Veterans Service Office for development.
            (2) The Secretary shall choose a County Veterans Service 
        Office for development of a claim based upon the office's 
        geographical proximity to the claimant.
            (3) A claim referred to a County Veterans Service Office 
        for development shall be accompanied by specification from the 
Secretary of the information that is required to develop the claim and 
the information that is needed to make the claim ready to rate.
    (b) Filing of Claims With County Veterans Service Officers.--Claims 
for benefits under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans 
Affairs may be submitted to County Veterans Service Officers. Receipt 
of such a claim by a County Veterans Service Officer under this Act 
shall be treated for all purposes as receipt of the claim by the 
Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

SEC. 5. DEVELOPMENT OF CLAIMS.

    (a) Development of Claims by County Veterans Service Officer.--When 
a County Veterans Service Officer receives a claim referred under 
section 4(a) or receives a claim under section 4(b), that officer shall 
make personal contact with the claimant, explain the situation, and 
develop the claim.
    (b) Authority to Fully Develop Claim.--A County Veterans Service 
Officer to whom a claim is referred under section 4(a) or receives a 
claim under section 4(b) shall have the authority to fully develop the 
claim and to transmit the claim to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs 
when the claim is ready to be rated.
    (c) Procedure.--Once the claim has been fully developed, the claim 
shall be transmitted back to the Secretary with the information 
developed in accordance with the specification under section 3(a)(3) 
and a statement from the County Veterans Service Officer indicating 
that the claim is ready to rate.
    (d) Fully Developed Claims.--For purposes of this section, a claim 
shall be considered to be fully developed when the County Veterans 
Service Officer has obtained all items that that officer determines are 
necessary to substantiate the claim and all items that the Secretary of 
Veterans Affairs has specifically specified to be developed in 
connection with the claim.

SEC. 6. INFORMATION SHARING.

     Veterans' information contained in the Benefits Delivery Network 
of the Department of Veterans Affairs shall be accessible to County 
Veterans Service Offices in order to provide County Veterans Service 
Offices with online access to client information contained in the 
Department of Veterans Affairs database. Such information shall be used 
by such offices to develop veterans' claims under this Act and for no 
other purpose.

SEC. 7. ALLOCATION OF FUNDS.

    (a) In General.--Funding for purposes of this Act shall be 
allocated by grant to the States based on the population of veterans in 
the respective States. Funds allocated to a State under this Act shall 
be directed to County Veterans Service Offices within the State through 
the State Department of Veterans Affairs (or the equivalent).
    (b) State Overhead.--A State Department of Veterans Affairs may 
retain from any such grant for any fiscal year an amount equal to the 
expenses incurred by that State for administrative overhead in 
administering grants for that year, except that the amount so retained 
in any fiscal year may not exceed 3 percent of the amount of the grant 
to that State for that fiscal year.
    (c) Funds for Education and Training.--A portion of the funding 
received by a State under this Act for any fiscal year, as determined 
by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs in agreement with County Veterans 
Service Offices, shall be used for County Veterans Service Officers to 
attend educational programs sponsored by or equivalent to the National 
Association of County Veterans Service Officers annual continuing 
education and accreditation training.
    (d) Limitation on Federal Funding.--Federal funds under this Act 
may not be used to provide more than 50 percent of the total costs for 
County Veterans Service Offices and shall be used to expand existing 
programs, not to supplant existing local government funding.
    (e) Establishment of New Cvso Programs.--(1) In the case of a State 
that as of the date of the enactment of this Act does not have a County 
Veterans Service Officer program, Federal funding under this Act may be 
used by units of local government to establish such a program to assist 
veterans and their dependents in filing applications for veterans 
benefits and for the purposes specified in this Act.
    (2) In a State covered by paragraph (1), if a unit of local 
government chooses not to establish a County Veterans Service Officers 
program as described in that paragraph, the State department of 
veterans affairs (or the equivalent) may elect to perform the services 
as specified in this Act for that State.
    (3) In a State covered by paragraph (1), if both units of local 
government and the State government elect not to use some or all of the 
funds, the unused amount shall revert back to the Secretary of Veterans 
Affairs and shall be reallocated to those State department of veterans 
affairs (or the equivalent) in which County Veterans Service Officers 
programs exist to further expand services to veterans in those States 
in support of the veterans claims backlog reduction services under this 
Act.

SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

     There are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of 
Veterans Affairs to carry out this Act $70,000,000 for each of fiscal 
years 2003, 2004, and 2005.
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