[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4038 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4038

      To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to make certain 
  improvements in the information technology of the Veterans Benefits 
Administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs to process claims 
               more efficiently, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 11, 2014

  Mr. Flores introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                     Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
      To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to make certain 
  improvements in the information technology of the Veterans Benefits 
Administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs to process claims 
               more efficiently, 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. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Veterans Benefits Administration 
Information Technology Improvement Act of 2014''.

SEC. 2. IMPROVEMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY OF THE VETERANS BENEFITS 
              ADMINISTRATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS.

    (a) Processing of Certain Educational Assistance Claims.--The 
Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall, to the maximum extent possible, 
make such changes and improvements to the information technology system 
of the Veterans Benefits Administration of the Department of Veterans 
Affairs to ensure that--
            (1) to the maximum extent possible, all original and 
        supplemental claims for educational assistance under chapter 33 
        of title 38, United States Code, are adjudicated 
        electronically; and
            (2) rules-based processing is used to make decisions with 
        respect to such claims with little human intervention.
    (b) Vocational Rehabilitation Claims.--The Secretary of Veterans 
Affairs shall reduce redundancy and inefficiencies in the use of 
information technology to process claims for rehabilitation programs 
under chapter 31 of title 38, United States Code, by--
            (1) ensuring that payments of subsistence allowance for 
        veterans participating in a rehabilitation program under such 
        chapter are only processed and paid out of one corporate 
        information technology system, in order to eliminate the 
        redundancy of multiple information technology payment systems; 
        and
            (2) enhancing the information technology system supporting 
        veterans participating in such a program to support more 
        accurate accounting of services and outcomes for such veterans.
    (c) Report.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall submit 
to Congress a report on the changes made pursuant to the requirements 
os subsections (a) and (b).
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