II

104TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 1751

To amend title 38, United States Code, to revise the procedures for providing

claimants and their representatives with copies of Board of Veterans’

Appeals decisions and to protect the right of claimants to appoint veterans service organizations as their representatives in claims before the

Department of Veterans Affairs.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MAY 13, 1996

Mr. SIMPSON (by request) 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 revise the procedures for providing claimants and their representatives

with copies of Board of Veterans’ Appeals decisions and

to protect the right of claimants to appoint veterans

service organizations as their representatives in claims

before the Department of Veterans Affairs.

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

3 SECTION 1. PROVISION OF COPIES OF BOARD OF VETER4 ANS’ APPEALS DECISIONS.

5 (a) PROVIDING THE DECISIONS.—Section 7104(e) of

6 title 38, United States Code, is amended by—
2

S 1751 IS

1 (1) striking out ‘‘mail’’ and inserting in lieu

2 thereof ‘‘send’’; and

3 (2) adding at the end of the subsection the fol4 lowing: ‘‘For the purposes of this subsection, the

5 Board may send a copy of its written decision by

6 any means reasonably calculated to provide the

7 claimant and the claimant’s authorized representa8 tive (if any) with a copy of the decision within the

9 same time a copy of the decision sent by first-class

10 mail would be expected to reach them.’’

11 (b) BEGINNING OF THE APPEAL PERIOD.—Section

12 7266(a)(1) of title 38, United States Code, is amended

13 by—

14 (1) striking out ‘‘person’’ and inserting in lieu

15 thereof ‘‘claimant’’;

16 (2) striking out ‘‘mailed’’ and inserting in lieu

17 thereof ‘‘sent’’; and

18 (3) inserting ‘‘to the claimant’s authorized rep19 resentative or, if none, to the claimant’’ following

20 ‘‘title’’.

21 SEC. 2. APPOINTMENT OF A VETERANS SERVICE ORGANI22 ZATION AS A CLAIMANT’S REPRESENTATIVE.

23 (a) POWER OF ATTORNEY NAMING A VETERANS

24 SERVICE ORGANIZATION.—Section 5902 of title 38, Unit25 ed States Code, is amended by—
3

S 1751 IS

1 (1) redesignating subsection (c) as subsection

2 (d); and

3 (2) inserting the following new subsection (c):

4 ‘‘(c)(1) Unless a claimant specifically indicates his or

5 her desire to appoint only a recognized representative of

6 an organization listed in or approved under subsection (a)

7 of this section, the Secretary may, for any purpose, treat

8 a claimant’s power of attorney naming such an organiza9 tion, a specific office of such an organization, or a recog10 nized representative of such an organization as an ap11 pointment of the entire organization.

12 ‘‘(2) Whenever the Secretary is required or permitted

13 to notify a claimant’s representative, and the claimant has

14 named in a power of attorney an organization listed in

15 or approved under subsection (a) of this section, a specific

16 office of such an organization, or a recognized representa17 tive of such an organization without specifically indicating

18 a desire to appoint only a recognized representative of the

19 organization, the Secretary shall notify the organization

20 at the address designated by the organization for the pur21 pose of receiving each kind of notification.’’.

22 (b) APPLICABILITY.—The amendments made by this

23 section apply to any power of attorney filed with the De-
4

S 1751 IS

1 partment of Veterans Affairs regardless of the date of its

2 execution.

Æ