WINGMAN Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 628 To 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 JANUARY 16, 2019 Mr. YOHO (for himself, Ms. GABBARD, Mr. BERGMAN, Mr. BIGGS, Mr. BOST, Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania, Mr. CICILLINE, Mr. COLLINS of Georgia, Mr. COSTA, Mr. DESAULNIER, Mrs. DINGELL, Mr. DUNCAN, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. GIBBS, Mr. GOSAR, Mr. GUTHRIE, Mr. HARRIS, Mr. HICE of Georgia, Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana, Mr. HIMES, Mr. JONES, Mr. JOYCE of Ohio, Mr. KING of Iowa, Mr. KINZINGER, Mr. LARSEN of Washington, Mr. SEAN PATRICK MALONEY of New York, Mr. MARINO, Mr. MASSIE, Mr. MCCAUL, Mr. MEADOWS, Mr. MOONEY of West Vir- ginia, Mr. PANETTA, Mr. PERRY, Mr. PETERS, Mrs. RADEWAGEN, Mr. RATCLIFFE, Mr. RICE of South Carolina, Mr. ROONEY of Florida, Mr. SMITH of Missouri, Ms. STEFANIK, Mr. SWALWELL of California, Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania, Mr. TIPTON, Mr. WALKER, Mr. WEBER of Texas, Mr. BYRNE, Mr. SIRES, Mr. CA´RDENAS, Mr. CRIST, Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. EMMER, Mrs. BEATTY, Mr. GOHMERT, Mr. MITCH- ELL, Miss RICE of New York, Mr. RUTHERFORD, Mr. SABLAN, Mr. BARR, Mr. BUCSHON, Mr. FLORES, Mr. KILMER, Mr. LAWSON of Flor- ida, Mr. OLSON, Mrs. LURIA, Mr. WALTZ, and Mr. GRIFFITH) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Af- fairs A BILL To 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 congres- sional employees, and for other purposes. VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:05 Jan 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H628.IH H628 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 628 IH Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Working to Integrate 4 Networks Guaranteeing Member Access Now Act’’ or the 5 ‘‘WINGMAN Act’’. 6 SEC. 2. PROVISION OF ACCESS TO CASE-TRACKING INFOR- 7 MATION. 8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 59 of title 38, United 9 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol- 10 lowing new section: 11 ‘‘§ 5906. Access of certain congressional employees to 12 veteran records 13 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—(1) The Secretary shall provide 14 to each veteran who submits a claim for benefits under 15 the laws administered by the Secretary an opportunity to 16 permit a covered congressional employee employed in the 17 office of the Member of Congress representing the district 18 where the veteran resides to have access to all of the 19 records of the veteran in the databases of the Veterans 20 Benefits Administration. 21 ‘‘(2) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, 22 upon receipt of permission from the veteran under para- 23 graph (1), the Secretary shall provide read-only access to 24 such records to such a covered congressional employee in 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:05 Jan 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H628.IH H628 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 628 IH a manner that does not allow such employee to modify 1 the data contained in such records or in any part of a 2 database of the Veterans Benefits Administration. 3 ‘‘(3) A Member of Congress may designate not more 4 than two employees of the Member as covered congres- 5 sional employees. 6 ‘‘(b) COVERED CONGRESSIONAL EMPLOYEES.—(1) 7 In this section, a covered congressional employee is a per- 8 manent, full-time employee of a Member of Congress— 9 ‘‘(A) whose responsibilities include assisting the 10 constituents of the Member with issues regarding de- 11 partments or agencies of the Federal Government; 12 ‘‘(B) who satisfies the criteria required by the 13 Secretary for recognition as an agent or attorney 14 under this chapter; and 15 ‘‘(C) who is designated by a Member of Con- 16 gress as a covered congressional employee for pur- 17 poses of this section. 18 ‘‘(2) The Secretary may not impose any requirement 19 other than the requirements under paragraph (1) before 20 treating an employee as a covered congressional employee 21 for purposes of this section. 22 ‘‘(c) NONRECOGNITION.—A covered congressional 23 employee may not be recognized as an agent or attorney 24 under this chapter. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:05 Jan 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H628.IH H628 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 628 IH ‘‘(d) LIMITATION ON USE OF FUNDS.—None of the 1 amounts made available to carry out this section may be 2 used to design, develop, or administer any training for 3 purposes of providing training to covered congressional 4 employees. 5 ‘‘(e) NO AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—No 6 additional funds are authorized to be appropriated to 7 carry out this section. This section may only be carried 8 out using amounts otherwise authorized to be appro- 9 priated, of which, during the period of fiscal years 2019 10 through 2022, not more than $10,000,000 may be obli- 11 gated or expended for such purpose. 12 ‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 13 ‘‘(1) The term ‘database of the Veterans Bene- 14 fits Administration’ means any database of the Vet- 15 erans Benefits Administration in which the records 16 of veterans relating to claims for benefits under the 17 laws administered by the Secretary are retained, in- 18 cluding information regarding medical records, com- 19 pensation and pension exams records, rating deci- 20 sions, statements of the case, supplementary state- 21 ments of the case, notices of disagreement, Form– 22 9, and any successor form. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:05 Jan 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H628.IH H628 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 628 IH ‘‘(2) The term ‘Member of Congress’ means a 1 Representative, a Senator, a Delegate to Congress, 2 or the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico.’’. 3 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 4 at the beginning of such chapter is amended by adding 5 at the end the following new item: 6 ‘‘5906. Access of certain congressional employees to veteran records.’’. Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:05 Jan 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H628.IH H628 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS