WINGMAN Act

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2800 To 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. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APRIL 22, 2021 Mr. PERRY (for himself, Mr. JOYCE of Ohio, Mr. PETERS, Mr. RICE of South Carolina, Mr. STEUBE, Mr. WALTZ, Mr. HICE of Georgia, Mr. MOONEY, Mr. MASSIE, Mr. TIFFANY, Mr. FITZPATRICK, Mr. BILIRAKIS, Ms. STEFANIK, Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana, Ms. MACE, Ms. TENNEY, Mr. TAYLOR, Mr. GAETZ, Mr. LARSEN of Washington, Mr. ROSE, Mr. RUTH- ERFORD, Ms. HERRELL, Mr. CLOUD, Mrs. RADEWAGEN, Mrs. RODGERS of Washington, Mr. GARBARINO, Mr. BUDD, Mr. RESCHENTHALER, Mr. BROOKS, Mr. KINZINGER, Mr. ROUZER, Mr. GUTHRIE, Mrs. GREENE of Georgia, Mr. CURTIS, Mr. CAWTHORN, Mr. HARRIS, Mr. BUCSHON, Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania, and Mr. DUNN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs A BILL To 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 des- ignated congressional employees, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:15 Jun 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2800.IH H2800 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 2800 IH SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Working to Integrate 2 Networks Guaranteeing Member Access Now Act’’ or the 3 ‘‘WINGMAN Act’’. 4 SEC. 2. PROVISION OF ACCESS TO CASE-TRACKING INFOR- 5 MATION. 6 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 59 of title 38, United 7 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol- 8 lowing new section: 9 ‘‘§ 5906. Access of certain congressional employees to 10 veteran records 11 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—(1) The Secretary shall provide 12 to each veteran who submits a claim for benefits under 13 the laws administered by the Secretary an opportunity to 14 permit a covered congressional employee employed in the 15 office of the Member of Congress representing the district 16 where the veteran resides to have access to all of the 17 records of the veteran in the databases of the Veterans 18 Benefits Administration. 19 ‘‘(2) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, 20 upon receipt of permission from the veteran under para- 21 graph (1), the Secretary shall provide read-only access to 22 such records to such a covered congressional employee in 23 a manner that does not allow such employee to modify 24 the data contained in such records or in any part of a 25 database of the Veterans Benefits Administration. 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:15 Jun 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2800.IH H2800 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 2800 IH ‘‘(3) A Member of Congress may designate not more 1 than two employees of the Member as covered congres- 2 sional employees. 3 ‘‘(b) COVERED CONGRESSIONAL EMPLOYEES.—(1) 4 In this section, a covered congressional employee is a per- 5 manent, full-time employee of a Member of Congress— 6 ‘‘(A) whose responsibilities include assisting the 7 constituents of the Member with issues regarding de- 8 partments or agencies of the Federal Government; 9 ‘‘(B) who satisfies the criteria required by the 10 Secretary for recognition as an agent or attorney 11 under this chapter; and 12 ‘‘(C) who is designated by a Member of Con- 13 gress as a covered congressional employee for pur- 14 poses of this section. 15 ‘‘(2) The Secretary may not impose any requirement 16 other than the requirements under paragraph (1) before 17 treating an employee as a covered congressional employee 18 for purposes of this section. 19 ‘‘(c) NONRECOGNITION.—A covered congressional 20 employee may not be recognized as an agent or attorney 21 under this chapter. 22 ‘‘(d) LIMITATION ON USE OF FUNDS.—None of the 23 amounts made available to carry out this section may be 24 used to design, develop, or administer any training for 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:15 Jun 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2800.IH H2800 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 2800 IH purposes of providing training to covered congressional 1 employees. 2 ‘‘(e) NO AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—No 3 additional funds are authorized to be appropriated to 4 carry out this section. This section may only be carried 5 out using amounts otherwise authorized to be appro- 6 priated, of which, during the period of fiscal years 2021 7 through 2024, not more than $10,000,000 may be obli- 8 gated or expended for such purpose. 9 ‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 10 ‘‘(1) The term ‘database of the Veterans Bene- 11 fits Administration’ means any database of the Vet- 12 erans Benefits Administration in which the records 13 of veterans relating to claims for benefits under the 14 laws administered by the Secretary are retained, in- 15 cluding information regarding medical records, com- 16 pensation and pension exams records, rating deci- 17 sions, statements of the case, supplementary state- 18 ments of the case, notices of disagreement, Form– 19 9, and any successor form. 20 ‘‘(2) The term ‘Member of Congress’ means a 21 Representative, a Senator, a Delegate to Congress, 22 or the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico.’’. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:15 Jun 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2800.IH H2800 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 2800 IH (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 1 at the beginning of such chapter is amended by adding 2 at the end the following new item: 3 ‘‘5906. Access of certain congressional employees to veteran records.’’. Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:15 Jun 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2800.IH H2800 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS