[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3052 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3052

  To amend title 38, United States Code, to require the Secretary of 
Veterans Affairs to provide veterans, when such veterans electronically 
file claims for benefits under laws administered by the Secretary, with 
  notice that relevant services may be available to the veterans from 
        veterans service organizations, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 9, 2012

 Mr. Brown of Ohio 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 require the Secretary of 
Veterans Affairs to provide veterans, when such veterans electronically 
file claims for benefits under laws administered by the Secretary, with 
  notice that relevant services may be available to the veterans from 
        veterans service organizations, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. PROVISION BY SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS OF NOTICE TO 
              VETERANS ELECTRONICALLY FILING CLAIMS OF AVAILABILITY OF 
              SERVICES FROM VETERANS SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS.

    (a) In General.--Subchapter I of chapter 51 of title 38, United 
States Code, is amended by inserting after section 5103A the following 
new section:
``Sec. 5103B. Notice to claimants filing claims electronically of 
              availability of services from veterans service 
              organizations
    ``(a) In General.--(1) To the degree practicable, the Secretary 
shall, during and as part of any electronic filing process established 
by the Secretary for the filing of applications by claimants for 
benefits under laws administered by the Secretary--
            ``(A) notify each claimant or the claimant's 
        representative, if any, who is filing an application for a 
        benefit under a law administered by the Secretary using such 
        electronic filing process, that services may be available to 
        the claimant from veterans service organizations with respect 
        to the claimant's application or the benefit for which the 
        claimant is applying; and
            ``(B) provide such claimant or claimant's representative 
        with a list of veterans service organizations that provide such 
        services.
    ``(2) When providing a list of veterans service organizations to a 
claimant or claimant's representative under paragraph (1), the 
Secretary shall include contact information for each veterans service 
organization and, whenever applicable, the Uniform Resource Locator 
(URL) for the Internet website of each organization.
    ``(b) Collaboration.--To the degree practicable, the Secretary 
shall collaborate with veterans service organizations in carrying out 
this section.
    ``(c) Veterans Service Organization Defined.--In this section, the 
term `veterans service organization' means any organization recognized 
by the Secretary for the representation of veterans under section 5902 
of this title.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections at the beginning of 
chapter 51 of such title is amended by inserting after the item 
relating to section 5103A the following new item:

``5103B. Notice to claimants filing claims electronically of 
                            availability of services from veterans 
                            service organizations.''.
                                 <all>