[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 242 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 242

  To amend title 38, United States Code, to permit veterans to grant 
   access to their records in the databases of the Veterans Benefits 
 Administration to certain designated congressional employees, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 30, 2017

 Mr. Cassidy (for himself, Mr. Johnson, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Cotton, Mr. 
 Rounds, Mr. Sullivan, and Mr. Boozman) 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 permit veterans to grant 
   access to their records in the databases of the Veterans Benefits 
 Administration to certain designated congressional employees, 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 ``Working to Integrate Networks 
Guaranteeing Member Access Now Act'' or the ``WINGMAN 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. Access of certain congressional employees to veteran 
              records
    ``(a) In General.--(1) The Secretary shall provide to each veteran 
who submits a claim for benefits under the laws administered by the 
Secretary an opportunity to permit a covered congressional employee 
employed in the office of the Member of Congress representing the 
district where the veteran resides to have access to all of the records 
of the veteran in the databases of the Veterans Benefits 
Administration.
    ``(2) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, upon receipt of 
the permission from the veteran under paragraph (1), the Secretary 
shall provide read-only access to such records to such a covered 
congressional employee in a manner that does not allow such employee to 
modify the data contained in such records or in any part of a database 
of the Veterans Benefits Administration.
    ``(3) A Member of Congress may designate not more than two 
employees of the Member as covered congressional employees.
    ``(b) Requirements.--The Secretary may not impose any requirement 
other than the requirements specified under subsection (e)(1) before 
treating an employee as a covered congressional employee for purposes 
of this section.
    ``(c) Nonrecognition.--A covered congressional employee may not be 
recognized as an agent or attorney under this chapter.
    ``(d) Limitation on Use of Funds.--None of the amounts made 
available to carry out this section may be used to design, develop, or 
administer any training for purposes of providing training to covered 
congressional employees.
    ``(e) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) The term `covered congressional employee' means a 
        permanent, full-time employee of a Member of Congress--
                    ``(A) whose responsibilities include assisting the 
                constituents of the Member with issues regarding 
                departments or agencies of the Federal Government;
                    ``(B) who satisfies the criteria required by the 
                Secretary for recognition as an agent or attorney under 
                this chapter; and
                    ``(C) who is designated by the Member of Congress 
                as a covered congressional employee for purposes of 
                this section.
            ``(2) The term `database of the Veterans Benefits 
        Administration' means any database of the Veterans Benefits 
        Administration in which the records of veterans relating to 
        claims for benefits under the laws administered by the 
        Secretary are retained, including information regarding medical 
        records, compensation and pension exams records, rating 
        decisions, statements of the case, supplementary statements of 
        the case, notices of disagreement, Form-9, and any successor 
        form.
            ``(3) The term `Member of Congress' means a Representative, 
        a Senator, a Delegate to Congress, or the Resident Commissioner 
        of Puerto Rico.''.
    (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. Access of certain congressional employees to veteran 
                            records.''.
    (c) No Authorization of Appropriations.--
            (1) In general.--No additional funds are authorized to be 
        appropriated to carry out this section or the amendments made 
        by this section. This section and such amendments may only be 
        carried out using amounts otherwise authorized to be 
        appropriated.
            (2) Amounts otherwise available.--For the period of fiscal 
        years 2018 through 2021, not more than $10,000,000 may be made 
        available to carry out section 5906 of title 38, United States 
        Code, as added by subsection (a).
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