S. 423 — PRO Veterans Act of 2025

This section requires the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide in-person quarterly briefings to the House and Senate Committees on Veterans' Affairs and Appropriations—beginning in the first quarter after enactment and continuing for three years thereafter—on the VA budget and any shortfall (i.e., when appropriations required to meet statutory obligations exceed the President's budget request for the fiscal year), including plans to address or mitigate any such shortfall if applicable. This section also amends VA hiring authority to (1) prohibit critical skill incentives for employees in Senior Executive Service (SES) positions, or equivalent senior-level positions as defined by the Secretary, at the VA Central Office (including the Veterans Health Administration, Veterans Benefits Administration, and National Cemetery Administration), regardless of actual work location; (2) limit such incentives for other SES employees to an individual basis upon approval by specified senior VA officials (e.g., Under Secretaries for Health, Benefits, and Memorial Affairs; Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and Administration; and others); (3) require proportionate incentives for SES employees with hybrid Central Office and non-Central Office duties based on time spent at non-Central Office facilities; and (4) mandate annual reports to the House and Senate Committees on Veterans' Affairs on all SES employees receiving such incentives, which may be incorporated into other required reports.

This section establishes in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), within the Office of the Secretary, the Veterans Experience Office, headed by a Chief Veterans Experience Officer appointed by and reporting directly to the Secretary. The office's functions include (1) carrying out VA's key customer experience initiatives on veterans' satisfaction with and usage of VA-administered benefits and services; (2) requiring regular reports from other VA offices on customer experience metrics and improvement efforts; (3) collecting veteran-derived data on satisfaction and usage for policymaking; (4) providing strategic guidance for engaging veterans and beneficiaries; (5) assessing VA websites and customer-facing information; and (6) assessing customer service efforts. The Chief Veterans Experience Officer must submit annual data summaries to the Secretary, who must submit to Congress, within 180 days, annual reports with disaggregated data on customer feedback, satisfaction, usage, and non-use reasons (e.g., eligibility, lack of awareness, barriers) by benefit/service and relevant demographics. The section provides for staff and resources from existing VA funds without authorizing additional full-time employees, protects privacy under the Privacy Act, sunsets the office on September 30, 2028, makes a clerical amendment to the table of sections for 38 U.S.C. chapter 3, and requires a Comptroller General review of VA's methodologies, effectiveness, and implementation of veterans' feedback for customer service improvements, including by the office, within 540 days of enactment.