No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, not later than one year after enactment, to develop policies, procedures, and technological capabilities ensuring that Veterans Benefits Administration employees who commit avoidable deferrals (i.e., preventable delays) of claims in the National Work Queue are notified of such deferrals for the same claim. The section further requires the Secretary, in consultation with the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of General Counsel and the Chairman of the Board of Veterans’ Appeals and also not later than one year after enactment, to complete a study identifying (1) issues where a General Counsel opinion would promote consistency in benefit claim decisions and (2) issues from pre-enactment appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims involving inconsistent General Counsel opinions on substantially similar matters; and to submit a report to the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs containing the study findings, issues for which the General Counsel intends to publish opinions, and a publication timeline.
This section requires the Chairman of the Board of Veterans' Appeals (BVA) to implement a quality assurance program for BVA decisions under new subsection (f) of 38 U.S.C. §7101. Under the program, the Chairman must (1) develop policies and procedures to measure decision quality, track errors (including those in CAVC-remanded or vacated decisions), identify trends by BVA member, and ensure remands are legally necessary; (2) for CAVC-remanded claims, notify and provide relevant court documents to drafting employees and offer review incentives; (3) correct identified errors before final decisions to the maximum extent practicable; and (4) consider error data and trends in quality metrics (potentially using artificial intelligence). The Secretary must submit annual reports to the House and Senate Veterans' Affairs Committees identifying Board review process elements causing errors and common CAVC remand reasons, with the first report due not later than one year after enactment. This section also establishes under new 38 U.S.C. §7101B a training program (developed jointly by the Secretary and BVA Chairman) for BVA members on timely and correct appeal adjudication. The program must consider member and covered employee (i.e., non-member decision drafters) feedback, quality assurance error data, and CAVC remand decisions (including joint motions); include annual effectiveness assessments using best practices (e.g., Kirkpatrick model); and be detailed in annual congressional reports on training topics (disaggregated by mandatory versus non-mandatory) and assessment results. This section revises 38 U.S.C. §7101A to require annual performance reviews for covered employees (from not less often than once every three years) and prohibits considering BVA members' work timeliness or quality in such reviews.