Veterans Serving Veterans Act of 2019

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 846 To amend the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a vacancy and recruitment database to facilitate the recruitment of certain members of the Armed Forces to satisfy the occupational needs of the Department of Veterans Affairs, to establish and implement a training and certification program for intermediate care technicians in that Department, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 29, 2019 Miss GONZA´LEZ-COLO´N of Puerto Rico (for herself, Mrs. DEMINGS, Mr. JONES, Mrs. RADEWAGEN, and Mr. CISNEROS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs A BILL To amend the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a vacancy and recruitment database to facilitate the re- cruitment of certain members of the Armed Forces to satisfy the occupational needs of the Department of Vet- erans Affairs, to establish and implement a training and certification program for intermediate care technicians in that Department, 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 22:11 Feb 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H846.IH H846 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 846 IH SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Veterans Serving Vet- 2 erans Act of 2019’’. 3 SEC. 2. RECRUITMENT DATABASE. 4 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—Section 208 of the VA Choice 5 and Quality Employment Act (Public Law 115–46; 38 6 U.S.C. 701 note) is amended as follows: 7 (1) In subsection (a)— 8 (A) in the matter proceeding paragraph 9 (1), by striking ‘‘a single database’’ and insert- 10 ing ‘‘and maintain a single searchable database 11 (to be known as the ‘Departments of Defense 12 and Veterans Affairs Recruitment Database’)’’; 13 (B) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘; and’’ 14 and inserting a semicolon; 15 (C) in paragraph (2), by striking the pe- 16 riod at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 17 (D) by adding after paragraph (2) the fol- 18 lowing new paragraph: 19 ‘‘(3) with respect to each vacant position under 20 paragraphs (1) and (2)— 21 ‘‘(A) the military occupational specialty or 22 skill that corresponds to the position, as deter- 23 mined by the Secretary, in consultation with the 24 Secretary of Defense; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:11 Feb 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H846.IH H846 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 846 IH ‘‘(B) each qualified member of the Armed 1 Forces who may be recruited to fill the position 2 before such qualified member of the Armed 3 Forces has been discharged and released from 4 active duty.’’. 5 (2) By redesignating subsections (b), (c), and 6 (d) as subsections (f), (g), and (h), respectively. 7 (3) By inserting after subsection (a) the fol- 8 lowing new subsections: 9 ‘‘(b) ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.—Subject to sub- 10 section (c), the database established under subsection (a) 11 shall include, with respect to each qualified member of the 12 Armed Forces, the following information: 13 ‘‘(1) The name and contact information of the 14 qualified member of the Armed Forces. 15 ‘‘(2) The date on which the qualified member of 16 the Armed Forces is expected to be discharged and 17 released from active duty. 18 ‘‘(3) Each military occupational specialty cur- 19 rently or previously assigned to the qualified member 20 of the Armed Forces. 21 ‘‘(c) AVAILABILITY.—Information in the database 22 shall be available to offices, officials, and employees of the 23 Department of Veterans Affairs to the extent the Sec- 24 retary of Veterans Affairs determines appropriate. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:11 Feb 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H846.IH H846 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 846 IH ‘‘(d) EXPEDITED HIRING PROCEDURES.—The Sec- 1 retary shall hire qualified members of the Armed Forces 2 who apply for vacant positions listed in the database es- 3 tablished under subsection (a) without regard to the provi- 4 sions of subchapter I of chapter 33 of title 5, United 5 States Code. 6 ‘‘(e) RELOCATION BONUS.—The Secretary may au- 7 thorize a relocation bonus, in an amount determined ap- 8 propriate by the Secretary and subject to the same limita- 9 tions as in the case of the authority provided under section 10 5753 of title 5, to any qualified member of the Armed 11 Forces who has accepted a position listed in the database 12 established under subsection (a).’’. 13 (4) In subsection (g)(1), as redesignated in 14 paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘subsection (b)’’ and in- 15 serting ‘‘subsection (g)’’. 16 (5) In subsection (h), as redesignated in para- 17 graph (2), by striking ‘‘of this Act’’ and inserting 18 ‘‘of the Veterans Serving Veterans Act of 2019, and 19 annually thereafter’’. 20 (6) By adding after subsection (h), as redesig- 21 nated in paragraph (2), the following new sub- 22 section: 23 ‘‘(i) QUALIFIED MEMBER OF THE ARMED FORCES 24 DEFINED.—In this section, the term ‘qualified member of 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:11 Feb 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H846.IH H846 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 846 IH the Armed Forces’ means a member of the Armed 1 Forces— 2 ‘‘(1) described in section 1142(a) of title 10; 3 ‘‘(2) who elects to be listed in the database es- 4 tablished under subsection (a); and 5 ‘‘(3) who has been determined by the Secretary, 6 in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, to 7 have a military occupational speciality that cor- 8 responds to a vacant position described in subsection 9 (a).’’. 10 (b) IMPLEMENTATION PLAN.—Not later than 180 11 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec- 12 retary of Veterans Affairs shall submit to the Committees 13 on Veterans’ Affairs of the House of Representatives and 14 the Senate a plan to implement, including a timeline, sec- 15 tion 208 of the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act 16 (Public Law 115–46; 38 U.S.C. 701 note), as amended 17 by this section. 18 SEC. 3. INTERMEDIATE CARE TECHNICIAN TRAINING PRO- 19 GRAM. 20 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of Veterans 21 Affairs shall implement a program to train and certify cov- 22 ered veterans to work as intermediate care technicians in 23 the Department of Veterans Affairs. 24 (b) LOCATIONS.— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:11 Feb 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H846.IH H846 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •HR 846 IH (1) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall es- 1 tablish centers at medical facilities of the Depart- 2 ment selected by the Secretary for the purposes of 3 carrying out the program under subsection (a). 4 (2) SELECTION OF MEDICAL FACILITIES.—In 5 selecting a medical facility of the Department under 6 this subsection to serve as a center, the Secretary 7 shall consider— 8 (A) the experience and success of the facil- 9 ity in training intermediate care technicians; 10 and 11 (B) the availability of resources of the fa- 12 cility to train intermediate care technicians. 13 (c) COVERED VETERAN DEFINED.—In this section, 14 the term ‘‘covered veteran’’ means a veteran whom the 15 Secretary determines served as a basic health care techni- 16 cian while serving in the Armed Forces. 17 SEC. 4. NO AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 18 No additional funds are authorized to be appro- 19 priated to carry out section 208 of the VA Choice and 20 Quality Employment Act (Public Law 115–46; 38 U.S.C. 21 701 note), as amended by section 2 of this Act, or to carry 22 out section 3 of this Act. Such sections shall be carried 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:11 Feb 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H846.IH H846 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •HR 846 IH out using amounts otherwise authorized to be appro- 1 priated for such purpose. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:11 Feb 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H846.IH H846 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS