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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.
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.
Summary
This bill amends veterans benefits law to require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide equitable relief to veterans who suffer losses due to VA administrative errors, with a deadline of 120 days from the error's determination. It also requires the VA to promptly cancel any debt collection agreements if the Secretary determines that an indebtedness was determined in error. These provisions change the Secretary's authority from discretionary to mandatory, ensuring affected veterans receive timely relief.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
1 cosponsor
- Rep. Pappas, Chris [D-NH-1] (D-NH)
Actions (4)
- Jun 11, 2025 Subcommittee Hearings Held · house
- Mar 7, 2025 Referred to the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. · house
- Feb 5, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. · house
- Feb 5, 2025 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 5, 2025
Mr. Van Orden introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
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) 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.”. <all>
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