IIB 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 512 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 14, 2017 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

AN ACT 

To amend title 38, United States Code, to permit veterans 

to grant access to their records in the databases of 

the Veterans Benefits Administration to certain designated congressional employees, 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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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Working to Integrate 

3 Networks Guaranteeing Member Access Now Act’’ or the 

4 ‘‘WINGMAN Act’’. 

5 SEC. 2. PROVISION OF ACCESS TO CASE-TRACKING INFOR6 MATION. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 59 of title 38, United 

8 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol9 lowing: 

10 ‘‘§ 5906. Access of certain congressional employees to 

11 veteran records 

12 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—(1) The Secretary shall provide 

13 to each veteran who submits a claim for benefits under 

14 the laws administered by the Secretary an opportunity to 

15 permit a covered congressional employee employed in the 

16 office of the Member of Congress representing the district 

17 where the veteran resides to have access to all of the 

18 records of the veteran in the databases of the Veterans 

19 Benefits Administration. 

20 ‘‘(2) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, 

21 upon receipt of the permission from the veteran under 

22 paragraph (1), the Secretary shall provide read-only ac23 cess to such records to such a covered congressional em24 ployee in a manner that does not allow such employee to 

25 modify the data contained in such records or in any part 

26 of a database of the Veterans Benefits Administration. 


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1 ‘‘(3) A Member of Congress may designate not more 

2 than two employees of the Member as covered congres3 sional employees. 

4 ‘‘(b) REQUIREMENTS.—The Secretary may not im5 pose any requirement other than the requirements speci6 fied under subsection (e)(1) before treating an employee 

7 as a covered congressional employee for purposes of this 

8 section. 

9 ‘‘(c) NONRECOGNITION.—A covered congressional 

10 employee may not be recognized as an agent or attorney 

11 under this chapter. 

12 ‘‘(d) LIMITATION ON USE OF FUNDS.—None of the 

13 amounts made available to carry out this section may be 

14 used to design, develop, or administer any training for 

15 purposes of providing training to covered congressional 

16 employees. 

17 ‘‘(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

18 ‘‘(1) The term ‘covered congressional employee’ 

19 means a permanent, full-time employee of a Member 

20 of Congress— 

21 ‘‘(A) whose responsibilities include assist22 ing the constituents of the Member with issues 

23 regarding departments or agencies of the Fed24 eral Government; 


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1 ‘‘(B) who satisfies the criteria required by 

2 the Secretary for recognition as an agent or at3 torney under this chapter; and 

4 ‘‘(C) who is designated by the Member of 

5 Congress as a covered congressional employee 

6 for purposes of this section. 

7 ‘‘(2) The term ‘database of the Veterans Bene8 fits Administration’ means any database of the Vet9 erans Benefits Administration in which the records 

10 of veterans relating to claims for benefits under the 

11 laws administered by the Secretary are retained, in12 cluding information regarding medical records, com13 pensation and pension exams records, rating deci14 sions, statements of the case, supplementary state15 ments of the case, notices of disagreement, Form– 

16 9, and any successor form. 

17 ‘‘(3) The term ‘Member of Congress’ means a 

18 Representative, a Senator, a Delegate to Congress, 

19 or the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico.’’. 

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

21 at the beginning of such chapter is amended by adding 

22 at the end the following new item: 

‘‘5906. Access of certain congressional employees to veteran records.’’. 

23 (c) NO AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—No 

24 additional funds are authorized to be appropriated to 

25 carry out this section or the amendments made by this 


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1 section. This section and such amendments may only be 

2 carried out using amounts otherwise authorized to be ap3 propriated, of which, during the period of fiscal years 

4 2018 through 2021, not more than $10,000,000 may be 

5 obligated or expended for such purpose. 

Passed the House of Representatives February 13, 

2017. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


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