II 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1295 

To amend title 38, United States Code, to require the Secretary of Veterans 

Affairs to provide veterans with notice, when veterans electronically file 

claims for benefits under laws administered by the Secretary, that relevant services may be available from veterans service organizations, and 

for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 15, 2013 

Mr. BROWN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

A BILL 

To amend title 38, United States Code, to require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide veterans with notice, when veterans electronically file claims for benefits 

under laws administered by the Secretary, that relevant 

services may be available from veterans service organizations, 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, 

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•S 1295 IS

1 SECTION 1. NOTICE TO VETERANS FILING CLAIMS ELEC2 TRONICALLY OF AVAILABILITY OF SERVICES 

3 FROM VETERANS SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS. 

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subchapter I of chapter 51 of title 

5 38, United States Code, is amended by inserting after sec6 tion 5103A the following new section: 

7 ‘‘§ 5103B. Notice to claimants filing claims electroni8 cally of availability of services from vet9 erans service organizations 

10 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—(1) To the degree practicable, 

11 the Secretary shall, during and as part of any electronic 

12 filing process established by the Secretary for the filing 

13 of applications for benefits under laws administered by the 

14 Secretary— 

15 ‘‘(A) notify each claimant, or a representative 

16 of the claimant, who is filing an application for a 

17 benefit under a law administered by the Secretary 

18 using such electronic filing process that services may 

19 be available to the claimant from veterans service or20 ganizations with respect to the application or the 

21 benefit for which the claimant is applying; and 

22 ‘‘(B) provide such claimant or representative 

23 with a list of veterans service organizations that pro24 vide such services. 

25 ‘‘(2) When providing a list of veterans service organi26 zations to a claimant or representative under paragraph 

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•S 1295 IS

1 (1), the Secretary shall include contact information for 

2 each veterans service organization and, whenever applica3 ble, the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for the Internet 

4 website of each organization. 

5 ‘‘(b) COLLABORATION.—To the degree practicable, 

6 the Secretary shall collaborate with veterans service orga7 nizations in carrying out this section. 

8 ‘‘(c) VETERANS SERVICE ORGANIZATION DE9 FINED.—In this section, the term ‘veterans service organi10 zation’ means any organization recognized by the Sec11 retary for the representation of veterans under section 

12 5902 of this title.’’. 

13 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 

14 at the beginning of chapter 51 of such title is amended 

15 by inserting after the item relating to section 5103A the 

16 following new item: 

‘‘5103B. Notice to claimants filing claims electronically of availability of services 

from veterans service organizations.’’. 

Æ 

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