[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 170 (Tuesday, November 29, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H6338-H6340]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    WORKING TO INTEGRATE NETWORKS GUARANTEEING MEMBER ACCESS NOW ACT

  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
pass the bill (H.R. 5166) 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, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 5166

       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:

[[Page H6339]]

  


     ``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 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) Covered Congressional Employees.--(1) In this 
     section, a covered congressional employee is 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 a Member of Congress as a 
     covered congressional employee for purposes of this section.
       ``(2) The Secretary may not impose any requirement other 
     than the requirements under paragraph (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) Authorization of Appropriations.--(1) No additional 
     funds are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this 
     section. This section may only be carried out using amounts 
     otherwise authorized to be appropriated.
       ``(2) For the period of fiscal years 2017 through 2020, not 
     more than $10,000,000 may be made available to carry out this 
     section.
       ``(f) Definitions.--In this section:
       ``(1) 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.
       ``(2) 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.''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Miller) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida.


                             General Leave

  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend 
their remarks and add extraneous material on H.R. 5166, as amended.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Florida?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge all of my colleagues to support 
H.R. 5166, as amended, the WINGMAN Act. I thank our colleagues, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Yoho) and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. 
Rodney Davis), for introducing the WINGMAN Act, which will help Members 
better serve our constituents.
  H.R. 5166 would allow our offices to assist veterans who are seeking 
information about the status of their claims for disability 
compensation. Unfortunately, when a congressional staff member contacts 
the VA for more information about a claim, it can take often weeks or 
months for the Department of Veterans Affairs to respond. VA's delay in 
answering congressional inquiries only adds to the veteran's 
frustration. The veteran simply wants to know the status of his or her 
claim.
  H.R. 5166, as amended, would require VA to give designated permanent, 
full-time congressional employees access to VA databases so that our 
staff can tell a veteran the current status of their application for 
benefits. Moreover, to protect veterans' privacy, the WINGMAN Act 
mandates that congressional employees first obtain permission before 
viewing a veteran's information. At the same time, the congressional 
employee would not be able to alter the electronic file in any way.
  Passing this bill will help veterans who simply want to understand 
where their claim is in the process. I urge my colleagues to support 
H.R. 5166, as amended.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I rise in support of H.R. 5166, sponsored by Representative Yoho, 
which would give certified congressional office caseworkers access to 
veterans' electronic disability claims records at the Veterans Benefits 
Administration.
  The purpose of the bill is to provide faster answers to our veteran 
constituents who call our offices to help with their VA claims. By the 
time veterans contact us, many have already faced delays or frustrating 
experiences trying to get answers themselves. This bill will allow our 
congressional caseworkers read-only access to disability claims 
records. This means they will not be able to add or remove anything 
from a veteran's record.
  The bill also includes privacy safeguards, which reinforce the 
necessity for getting prior consent from a veteran before a caseworker 
can access a veteran's files. Additionally, the bill requires that 
congressional employees certified for this access must be full-time 
employees who provide constituent services.
  I am hopeful that as this program is developed, VA will put in place 
a tracking system to ensure these employees are only assisting 
constituents from their congressional districts and that congressional 
staff are held accountable if found to have abused any aspect of this 
new and unprecedented authority.
  In short, Mr. Speaker, there is broad, bipartisan support among our 
colleagues for helping veterans get timely answers to their claims 
questions. Allowing full-time congressional staff members access to 
electronic disability claims records on a read-only basis is a step in 
the direction of putting the veteran's interest first and foremost.
  I support H.R. 5166, as amended, and urge my colleagues to do the 
same.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the 
gentleman from the Third District of the State of Florida (Mr. Yoho), a 
primary sponsor of this legislation.
  Mr. YOHO. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Miller, a fellow Floridian, 
for his support of this measure. Without his help and the help of his 
team--Maria and Cecilia in particular--we would not be here today.
  This is a monumental bill for our veterans. This comes down to 
customer service for our veterans. I feel we are in the customer 
service business. They are not constituents. These are people who have 
paid the price to defend this country, and it is time that we give them 
the service that they need.
  What this does is it gives us read-only access to a veteran's claim. 
We have already got a privacy form. We are on a secure system, and this 
just moves the claim through the process that much quicker so that we 
can find out why it is hung up. So many times, as the chairman said, 
the average time it takes for an office to receive the records they 
request from the VA is 6 months, and at times even over a year. What 
this will do is, we can look into there, we can read only that 
particular case, and we can say, You forgot to sign it, you forgot to 
date it, you forgot to check this box; and we can report immediately 
back to the veteran. It should free up the VA system.
  No single man or woman who has served and protected our freedoms 
should have to wait to receive the care and benefits that they have 
more than earned. Unfortunately, they have become statistics, nothing 
more than numbers on the page, so many times with the VA system. This 
ends with the

[[Page H6340]]

passage of the WINGMAN bill. The WINGMAN removes the middleman and 
allows the staff to access these records directly without waiting on 
the VA.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues in the House to support this 
measure and be a good wingman and let our Nation's veterans know that 
we have their six. Again, I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. 
Rodney Davis) for his help on this strong bipartisan bill.

                              {time}  1700

  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman 
from Georgia (Mr. Collins).
  Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor as a veteran 
who is currently still serving in the United States Air Force Reserve. 
I served in Iraq. What Mr. Yoho and Mr. Davis have done here is come 
together to bring common sense to something that really is amazing: we 
have veterans today who have to call their Congressman to get help, and 
we are actually hamstrung in trying to help them.
  That is not the way it should be. Our veterans deserve the best 
service that they can have. They deserve it on time, they deserve it in 
a prompt fashion, and they should not have to call their Congressman. 
But when they do, we need to give our congressional offices all the 
tools that they need to help with that.
  I just want to compliment these Congressmen for bringing this bill 
forward and encourage the House to support this. This is a great bill, 
and it is really the reason why we are here.
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rodney Davis), another prime sponsor of 
this bill, who is from the 13th Congressional District.
  Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about Carl, 
an Army veteran from Springfield, Illinois, who couldn't get a response 
from the VA to receive cancer treatment through the VA Choice program. 
After multiple communications, my office was finally able to get the 
authorization from the VA.
  Bette, from Staunton, Illinois, the wife of a decorated Vietnam vet 
who served his country for more than a decade, waited over a year for 
an answer from the VA about benefits owed to her late husband. Finally, 
my office was successful in getting Bette, who was experiencing 
financial difficulty at the time, the accrued benefits owed to her 
husband.
  Kenneth, of Urbana, Illinois, a Bronze Star recipient while serving 
in Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan, was denied benefits due to a missing 
doctor's examination because he was deployed at the time and the VA 
never rescheduled the appointment. He contacted my office, and we 
worked with the VA to ensure that the benefits were received.
  Lawrence, of Palmer, Illinois, another Bronze Star and Purple Heart 
recipient, simply wanted a copy of his medical records but never heard 
back from the VA. After several months, he reached out to our office 
and we were able to get them from the VA.
  Another constituent of mine recently asked my office for help after 
her husband, who was a veteran, passed away. She has been waiting for 6 
months for an answer from the VA, and now my office continues to wait 
for a response from the VA.
  These examples not only show the sometimes incompetence and 
unresponsiveness of certain personnel at the VA, but they also show how 
important congressional offices are to getting the answers our veterans 
need and deserve.
  Many times when a veteran contacts their Member of Congress for help, 
it is their last resort. It is not their first call. They don't know 
where else to turn. Our caseworkers become the middleman between the 
veteran and the VA.
  VA casework in my office remains highest in volume. We currently have 
over 96 open cases, and we have closed nearly 1,000 in the 4 years that 
I have been in office. Ask almost any caseworker, and they will tell 
you the VA is one of the most difficult agencies to get a response 
from.
  It is unacceptable that it takes this long. That is why the WINGMAN 
Act, H.R. 5166, needs to be passed. It simply allows our certified 
constituent caseworkers, our advocates, to access certain VA files in 
order to check the status and progress of claims. This technology will 
be used to help our veterans get the answers they deserve. It is not 
going to solve the systemic problems we see at the VA, but it is going 
to help us hold the VA accountable and get answers for veterans whom we 
are honored to represent.
  I want to thank my colleague, Representative Yoho, for working with 
me and many others on this important piece of legislation; and, Mr. 
Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Miller not only for his help on this, 
but for his service to this great institution. He is somebody who has 
put our veterans first as chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee 
and somebody who has spent his career making sure that commonsense 
proposals like this get enacted so that our veterans, those whom he 
cares about the most and we care about the most, get the answers and 
the responses they deserve.
  Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting 
H.R. 5166, as amended.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to 
support H.R. 5166, as amended.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Miller) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 5166, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  The title of the bill was amended so as to read: ``A bill 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.''.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________