[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 733 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 733

To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide certain employees of 
      Members of Congress and certain employees of State or local 
 governmental agencies with access to case-tracking information of the 
                    Department of Veterans Affairs.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 14, 2013

 Mr. Runyan (for himself and Mr. Walz) introduced the following bill; 
        which was referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide certain employees of 
      Members of Congress and certain employees of State or local 
 governmental agencies with access to case-tracking information of 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 ``Access to Veterans Benefits 
Improvement Act''.

SEC. 2. PROVISION OF ACCESS TO CASE-TRACKING INFORMATION.

    (a) In General.--Chapter 59 of title 38, United States Code, is 
amended by adding at the end the following:
``Sec. 5906. Provision of access to case-tracking information
    ``(a) In General.--(1) In accordance with subsection (b), the 
Secretary shall provide a covered employee with access to the case-
tracking system to provide a veteran with information regarding the 
status of a claim submitted by such veteran, regardless of whether such 
employee is acting under a power of attorney executed by such veteran.
    ``(2) In providing a covered employee with access to the case-
tracking system under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall ensure--
            ``(A) that such access--
                    ``(i) is provided in a manner that does not allow 
                such employee to modify the data contained in such 
                system; and
                    ``(ii) does not include access to medical records; 
                and
            ``(B) that each time a covered employee accesses such 
        system, the employee must certify that such access is for 
        official purposes only.
    ``(b) Privacy Certification Course.--The Secretary may not provide 
a covered employee with access to the case-tracking system under 
subsection (a)(1) unless the covered employee has successfully 
completed a certification course on privacy issues provided by the 
Secretary.
    ``(c) Treatment of Disclosure.--The access to information by a 
covered employee pursuant to subsection (a)(1) shall be deemed to be--
            ``(1) a covered disclosure under section 552a(b) of title 
        5; and
            ``(2) a permitted disclosure under regulations promulgated 
        under section 264(c) of the Health Insurance Portability and 
        Accountability Act of 1996 (42 U.S.C. 1320d-2 note).
    ``(d) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) The term `case-tracking system' means the system of 
        the Department of Veterans Affairs that provides information 
        regarding the status of a claim submitted by a veteran.
            ``(2) The term `covered employee' means--
                    ``(A) an employee of a Member of Congress who 
                assists the constituents of the Member with issues 
                regarding departments or agencies of the Federal 
                Government; or
                    ``(B) an employee of a State or local governmental 
                agency (including a veterans service officer) who, in 
                the course of carrying out the responsibilities of such 
                employment, assists veterans with claims for any 
                benefit under the laws administered by the 
                Secretary.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections at the beginning of 
such chapter is amended by adding at the end the following new item:

``5906. Provision of access to case-tracking information.''.
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