II 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2656 

To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to report biennially on actions 

taken to address areas of concern that led to the inclusion of veterans 

health care in the High Risk List of the Government Accountability 

Office, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

APRIL 12, 2018 

Mr. YOUNG (for himself and Ms. KLOBUCHAR) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

A BILL 

To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to report biennially on actions taken to address areas of concern that 

led to the inclusion of veterans health care 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 2018’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. BIENNIAL REPORT BY SECRETARY OF VETERANS 

2 AFFAIRS ON ACTIONS TAKEN TO ADDRESS 

3 AREAS OF CONCERN THAT LED TO INCLU4 SION OF VETERANS HEALTH CARE IN THE 

5 HIGH RISK LIST OF THE GOVERNMENT AC6 COUNTABILITY OFFICE. 

7 (a) BIENNIAL REPORT REQUIRED.—No later than 

8 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act and 

9 in each session of Congress thereafter in which the High 

10 Risk List of the Government Accountability Office pub11 lished in that session includes health care furnished under 

12 laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, 

13 the Secretary shall submit to Congress, the appropriate 

14 committees of Congress, and the Comptroller General of 

15 the United States a report on the actions taken by the 

16 Secretary and the progress made by the Secretary in im17 plementing the High Risk Action Plan of the Department 

18 of Veterans Affairs to address the areas of concern that 

19 led to the designation of such health care as high risk by 

20 the Comptroller General in the most recently published 

21 High Risk List. 

22 (b) CONTENTS.—Each report submitted under sub23 section (a) shall include, for the period covered by the pe24 riod, the following: 

25 (1) The corrective measures and specific steps 

26 necessary for addressing root causes identified in the 


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1 High Risk Action Plan for removal from the high2 risk designation, including the progress of the Sec3 retary in implementing those measures and steps. 

4 The specific measures and steps shall— 

5 (A) address each root cause; 

6 (B) identify resources to implement correc7 tive actions, including funding, stakeholders, 

8 technology, and the senior officials responsible 

9 for implementing the corrective actions and re10 porting results; 

11 (C) identify metrics that can be used to as12 sess progress and assign responsibility for 

13 tracking progress, including the mechanism 

14 that will be used to keep senior leadership in15 formed about progress made or challenges en16 countered; 

17 (D) list key outcomes and goals that dem18 onstrate progress in addressing the concerns; 

19 and 

20 (E) establish timeframes with overall and 

21 interim milestones. 

22 (2) The progress of the Secretary in addressing 

23 the five criteria for removal from the High Risk List 

24 for each of the areas of concern identified by the 

25 Comptroller General. 


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1 (3) An explanation and course of action for 

2 each failure to fully adopt the Comptroller General’s 

3 criteria 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.—No later than 120 

10 days after the date of the enactment of this Act and not 

11 less frequently than once each year thereafter, the Sec12 retary of Veterans Affairs shall submit to Congress, the 

13 appropriate committees of Congress, and to the Comp14 troller General of the United States a report on implemen15 tation of recommendations of the Comptroller General 

16 that pertain 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. REPORT BY COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE 

2 UNITED STATES ON ACTIONS TAKEN BY SEC3 RETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS TO ADDRESS 

4 AREAS OF CONCERN THAT LED TO INCLU5 SION OF VETERANS HEALTH CARE IN THE 

6 2017 HIGH RISK LIST OF THE GOVERNMENT 

7 ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE. 

8 (a) REPORT REQUIRED.—No later than one year 

9 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comp10 troller General of the United States shall submit to Con11 gress and the appropriate committees of Congress a report 

12 on the implementation, the actions taken, and the progress 

13 made by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs in imple14 menting the High Risk Action Plan of the Department 

15 of Veterans Affairs to address the areas of concern that 

16 led to the designation of health care furnished under laws 

17 administered by the Secretary as high risk by the Comp18 troller General in the High Risk List published by the 

19 Comptroller General in 2017. 

20 (b) CONTENTS.—The report submitted under para21 graph (1) shall include the following: 

22 (1) An evaluation of the progress of the Sec23 retary in implementing corrective measures and spe24 cific steps for addressing root causes identified in 

25 the High Risk Action Plan for removal of veterans 

26 health care from the High Risk List. 


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1 (2) An evaluation of the progress of the Sec2 retary in addressing the five criteria for removal 

3 from the High Risk List for each of the areas of 

4 concern identified by the Comptroller General. 

5 (3) An evaluation of the Secretary’s expla6 nations and courses of action for each failure to fully 

7 adopt the Comptroller General’s criteria for removal 

8 from the High Risk List. 

9 SEC. 5. APPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CONGRESS DE10 FINED. 

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

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

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

14 House of Representatives. 

Æ 


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