[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7971 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7971

   To amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of 
 Veterans Affairs to provide timely equitable relief to an individual 
 who suffers a loss based on an administrative error by the Secretary, 
                        and for other purposes.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 12, 2024

Mr. Van Orden (for himself, Mr. Pappas, Mr. Edwards, and Mr. Ciscomani) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                           Veterans' Affairs

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                                 A BILL


 
   To amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of 
 Veterans Affairs to provide timely equitable relief to an individual 
 who suffers a loss based on an administrative error by the Secretary, 
                        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. IMPROVEMENTS TO EQUITABLE RELIEF IN THE CASE OF AN 
              ADMINISTRATIVE ERROR BY THE SECRETARY OF VETERANS 
              AFFAIRS.

    (a) Affirmative Duty To Provide Timely Equitable Relief.--Section 
503 of title 38, United States Code, is amended by striking ``may'' 
both places it appears and inserting ``shall, not later than 120 days 
after such determination,''.
    (b) Elimination of Expired Report.--Such section is further amended 
by striking subsection (c).
    (c) Cancellation of Debt Collection.--Section 5314 of such title is 
amended, in subsection (a), by adding at the end the following new 
paragraph:
    ``(3) The Secretary shall promptly cancel any agreement, entered 
into by the Secretary with a debt collector (as defined in section 803 
of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (15 U.S.C. 1692a)) to collect 
an amount of indebtedness described in paragraph (1), if the Secretary 
determines that the determination of such indebtedness was in error.''.
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