Department of Veterans Affairs Oversight Enhancement Act of 2019

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 698 To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to report biennially on actions taken to address areas of concern regarding the Department of Veterans Affairs in the High Risk List of the Government Accountability Office, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 22, 2019 Mr. BANKS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs A BILL To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to report bienni- ally on actions taken to address areas of concern regard- ing the Department of Veterans Affairs in the High Risk List of the Government Accountability Office, 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 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Department of Vet- 4 erans Affairs Oversight Enhancement Act of 2019’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:57 Jan 31, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H698.IH H698 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 698 IH SEC. 2. BIENNIAL REPORT BY SECRETARY OF VETERANS 1 AFFAIRS ON ACTIONS TAKEN TO ADDRESS 2 AREAS OF CONCERN IN THE HIGH RISK LIST 3 OF THE GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OF- 4 FICE. 5 (a) BIENNIAL REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than 6 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and 7 in each session of Congress thereafter in which the High 8 Risk List of the Government Accountability Office pub- 9 lished in that session includes areas of concern relating 10 to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Secretary of 11 Veterans Affairs shall submit to the appropriate commit- 12 tees of Congress and the Comptroller General of the 13 United States a report on the actions taken by the Sec- 14 retary and the progress made by the Secretary in imple- 15 menting the High Risk Action Plan of the Department 16 of Veterans Affairs to address such areas of concern iden- 17 tified by the Comptroller General in the most recently pub- 18 lished High Risk List. 19 (b) CONTENTS.—Each report submitted under sub- 20 section (a) shall include, for the period covered by the re- 21 port, the following: 22 (1) The corrective measures and specific steps 23 necessary for addressing root causes identified in the 24 High Risk Action Plan for removal from the high- 25 risk designation, including the progress of the Sec- 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:57 Jan 31, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H698.IH H698 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 698 IH retary in implementing those measures and steps. 1 The specific measures and steps shall— 2 (A) address each root cause; 3 (B) identify resources to implement correc- 4 tive actions, including funding, stakeholders, 5 technology, and the senior officials responsible 6 for implementing the corrective actions and re- 7 porting results; 8 (C) identify metrics that can be used to as- 9 sess progress and assign responsibility for 10 tracking progress, including the mechanism 11 that will be used to keep senior leadership in- 12 formed about progress made or challenges en- 13 countered; 14 (D) list key outcomes and goals that dem- 15 onstrate progress in addressing the concerns; 16 and 17 (E) establish timeframes with overall and 18 interim milestones. 19 (2) The progress of the Secretary in addressing 20 the five criteria for removal from the High Risk List 21 for each of the areas of concern identified by the 22 Comptroller General. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:57 Jan 31, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H698.IH H698 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 698 IH (3) An explanation and course of action for 1 each failure to fully adopt the criteria of the Comp- 2 troller General for removal from the High Risk list. 3 SEC. 3. ANNUAL REPORT BY SECRETARY OF VETERANS AF- 4 FAIRS ON IMPLEMENTATION OF CERTAIN 5 RECOMMENDATIONS OF COMPTROLLER GEN- 6 ERAL OF THE UNITED STATES PERTAINING 7 TO DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS. 8 (a) ANNUAL REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than 9 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and 10 not less frequently than once each year thereafter, the Sec- 11 retary of Veterans Affairs shall submit to the appropriate 12 committees of Congress and to the Comptroller General 13 of the United States a report on the implementation of 14 recommendations of the Comptroller General that pertain 15 to the Department of Veterans Affairs. 16 (b) CONTENTS.—Each report submitted under sub- 17 section (a) shall include, for the period covered by the re- 18 port, the following: 19 (1) The progress of the Secretary in imple- 20 menting all open priority recommendations of the 21 Comptroller General for the Department of Veterans 22 Affairs. 23 (2) An explanation for each instance where the 24 Secretary has decided not to implement, or has not 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:57 Jan 31, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H698.IH H698 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 698 IH fully implemented, an open priority recommendation 1 of the Comptroller General for the Department. 2 (3) Courses of action for the Secretary to im- 3 plement open priority recommendations of the 4 Comptroller General, including— 5 (A) resources to implement corrective ac- 6 tions, including funding, stakeholders, tech- 7 nology, and the senior officials responsible for 8 implementing the corrective actions and report- 9 ing results; 10 (B) metrics that can be used to assess 11 progress and assign responsibility for tracking 12 progress, including the mechanism that will be 13 used to keep senior leadership informed about 14 progress made or challenges encountered; 15 (C) key outcomes and goals that dem- 16 onstrate progress in addressing the concerns; 17 and 18 (D) timeframes with overall and interim 19 milestones. 20 (c) SUPPLEMENT AND NOT SUPPLANT CURRENT RE- 21 PORT REQUIREMENTS.—The requirements of this section 22 shall supplement and not supplant the requirements of 23 section 720 of title 31, United States Code. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:57 Jan 31, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H698.IH H698 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •HR 698 IH SEC. 4. APPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CONGRESS DE- 1 FINED. 2 In this Act, the term ‘‘appropriate committees of 3 Congress’’ means the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs of 4 the Senate and the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs of the 5 House of Representatives. 6 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:57 Jan 31, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H698.IH H698 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS