[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5870 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 5870

To amend title 38, United States Code, to make certain improvements to 
 the processing of claims for benefits under the laws administered by 
 the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the transparency of actions of 
          Board of Veterans' Appeals, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 2, 2023

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

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend title 38, United States Code, to make certain improvements to 
 the processing of claims for benefits under the laws administered by 
 the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the transparency of actions of 
          Board of Veterans' Appeals, 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 ``Veteran Appeals Transparency Act of 
2023''.

SEC. 2. OPTIONS OF CLAIMANTS FOR BENEFITS UNDER LAWS ADMINISTERED BY 
              SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS FOLLOWING DECISION BY 
              AGENCY OF ORIGINAL JURISDICTION.

    Section 5104C(a) of title 38, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (1), by striking ``any of the following'' 
        and inserting ``one of the following''; and
            (2) in paragraph (2)(B)--
                    (A) by striking ``Nothing in this subsection shall 
                prohibit a claimant from taking'' and inserting ``A 
                claimant may take'';
                    (B) by striking ``in succession''; and
                    (C) by striking the period and inserting ``as long 
                as--''; and
                    (D) by adding at the end the following new clauses:
            ``(i) the claimant only takes one such action at a time; 
        and
            ``(ii) any such action is taken in response to, and not 
        later than one year after, the date of the most recent decision 
        on the claim made by the agency of original jurisdiction''.

SEC. 3. BOARD OF VETERANS' APPEALS PUBLICATION OF DATES OF DOCKET 
              ACTIVITY.

    Section 7107 of title 38, United States Code, is amended by adding 
at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(f) Publication of Expected Actions.--On a weekly basis, for each 
docket, the Board shall publish the docket dates of the cases assigned 
to a Board member for a decision for that week.''.
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