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 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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Department of Vet5 erans Affairs Oversight Enhancement Act of 2019’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. BIENNIAL REPORT BY SECRETARY OF VETERANS 

2 AFFAIRS ON ACTIONS TAKEN TO ADDRESS 

3 AREAS OF CONCERN IN THE HIGH RISK LIST 

4 OF THE GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OF5 FICE. 

6 (a) BIENNIAL REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than 

7 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and 

8 in each session of Congress thereafter in which the High 

9 Risk List of the Government Accountability Office pub10 lished in that session includes areas of concern relating 

11 to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Secretary of 

12 Veterans Affairs shall submit to the appropriate commit13 tees of Congress and the Comptroller General of the 

14 United States a report on the actions taken by the Sec15 retary and the progress made by the Secretary in imple16 menting the High Risk Action Plan of the Department 

17 of Veterans Affairs to address such areas of concern iden18 tified by the Comptroller General in the most recently pub19 lished High Risk List. 

20 (b) CONTENTS.—Each report submitted under sub21 section (a) shall include, for the period covered by the re22 port, the following: 

23 (1) The corrective measures and specific steps 

24 necessary for addressing root causes identified in the 

25 High Risk Action Plan for removal from the high26 risk designation, including the progress of the SecVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:57 Jan 31, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H698.IH H698

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1 retary in implementing those measures and steps. 

2 The specific measures and steps shall— 

3 (A) address each root cause; 

4 (B) identify resources to implement correc5 tive actions, including funding, stakeholders, 

6 technology, and the senior officials responsible 

7 for implementing the corrective actions and re8 porting results; 

9 (C) identify metrics that can be used to as10 sess progress and assign responsibility for 

11 tracking progress, including the mechanism 

12 that will be used to keep senior leadership in13 formed about progress made or challenges en14 countered; 

15 (D) list key outcomes and goals that dem16 onstrate progress in addressing the concerns; 

17 and 

18 (E) establish timeframes with overall and 

19 interim milestones. 

20 (2) The progress of the Secretary in addressing 

21 the five criteria for removal from the High Risk List 

22 for each of the areas of concern identified by the 

23 Comptroller General. 


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1 (3) An explanation and course of action for 

2 each failure to fully adopt the criteria of the Comp3 troller General for removal from the High Risk list. 

4 SEC. 3. ANNUAL REPORT BY SECRETARY OF VETERANS AF5 FAIRS ON IMPLEMENTATION OF CERTAIN 

6 RECOMMENDATIONS OF COMPTROLLER GEN7 ERAL OF THE UNITED STATES PERTAINING 

8 TO DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS. 

9 (a) ANNUAL REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than 

10 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and 

11 not less frequently than once each year thereafter, the Sec12 retary of Veterans Affairs shall submit to the appropriate 

13 committees of Congress and to the Comptroller General 

14 of the United States a report on the implementation of 

15 recommendations of the Comptroller General that pertain 

16 to the Department of Veterans Affairs. 

17 (b) CONTENTS.—Each report submitted under sub18 section (a) shall include, for the period covered by the re19 port, the following: 

20 (1) The progress of the Secretary in imple21 menting all open priority recommendations of the 

22 Comptroller General for the Department of Veterans 

23 Affairs. 

24 (2) An explanation for each instance where the 

25 Secretary has decided not to implement, or has not 


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1 fully implemented, an open priority recommendation 

2 of the Comptroller General for the Department. 

3 (3) Courses of action for the Secretary to im4 plement open priority recommendations of the 

5 Comptroller General, including— 

6 (A) resources to implement corrective ac7 tions, including funding, stakeholders, tech8 nology, and the senior officials responsible for 

9 implementing the corrective actions and report10 ing results; 

11 (B) metrics that can be used to assess 

12 progress and assign responsibility for tracking 

13 progress, including the mechanism that will be 

14 used to keep senior leadership informed about 

15 progress made or challenges encountered; 

16 (C) key outcomes and goals that dem17 onstrate progress in addressing the concerns; 

18 and 

19 (D) timeframes with overall and interim 

20 milestones. 

21 (c) SUPPLEMENT AND NOT SUPPLANT CURRENT RE22 PORT REQUIREMENTS.—The requirements of this section 

23 shall supplement and not supplant the requirements of 

24 section 720 of title 31, United States Code. 


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1 SEC. 4. APPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CONGRESS DE2 FINED. 

3 In this Act, the term ‘‘appropriate committees of 

4 Congress’’ means the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs of 

5 the Senate and the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs of the 

6 House of Representatives. 

Æ 


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