S 3388 United States Senate · 117th Congress

Veterans Benefits Improvement Act of 2021

The Veterans Benefits Improvement Act of 2021 makes several key changes to improve veterans' benefits processing. It creates an internship program for law students at the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Section 101) and establishes a pilot honors program to recruit legal professionals (Section 102). The bill requires the VA to publish disability benefit forms (Section 201) and mandates that contractors communicate with veterans' power of attorney representatives (Section 203). It also allows veterans to consent to electronic notifications of decisions (Section 302) and facilitates contractor access to tax information for claims processing (Section 303). These provisions directly affect veterans seeking benefits, VA staff, and contractors working with the VA.

Issues: ✓ Veterans

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Dec 2021

Committee Review

Dec 2022

Senate Passage

Dec 2022

House Passage

President

Introduced Dec 14, 2021 Last action Dec 21, 2022

Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the Senate by voice vote (no roll call recorded).

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Dec 19, 2022

Upper · Passed

Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent. (text of amendment in the nature of a substitute: CR S7326-7327)

upper

Dec 19, 2022

Upper · Passed

Passed/agreed to in Senate: Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent.

upper

Dec 6, 2022

Upper · Passed

Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Reported by Senator Tester without amendment. Without written report.

upper

Dec 15, 2021

Upper · Passed

Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably.

upper

Dec 14, 2021

Committee

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

upper

Dec 14, 2021

Introduced

Introduced in Senate

upper

1 primary · 1 co-sponsor