II 

112TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3052 

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

Affairs to provide veterans, when such veterans electronically file claims 

for benefits under laws administered by the Secretary, with notice that 

relevant services may be available to the veterans from veterans service 

organizations, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 9, 2012 

Mr. BROWN of Ohio 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, when such 

veterans electronically file claims for benefits under laws 

administered by the Secretary, with notice that relevant 

services may be available to the veterans 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 3052 IS

1 SECTION 1. PROVISION BY SECRETARY OF VETERANS AF2 FAIRS OF NOTICE TO VETERANS ELECTRONI3 CALLY FILING CLAIMS OF AVAILABILITY OF 

4 SERVICES FROM VETERANS SERVICE ORGA5 NIZATIONS. 

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

7 38, United States Code, is amended by inserting after sec8 tion 5103A the following new section: 

9 ‘‘§ 5103B. Notice to claimants filing claims electroni10 cally of availability of services from vet11 erans service organizations 

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

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

14 filing process established by the Secretary for the filing 

15 of applications by claimants for benefits under laws ad16 ministered by the Secretary— 

17 ‘‘(A) notify each claimant or the claimant’s rep18 resentative, if any, who is filing an application for a 

19 benefit under a law administered by the Secretary 

20 using such electronic filing process, that services 

21 may be available to the claimant from veterans serv22 ice organizations with respect to the claimant’s ap23 plication or the benefit for which the claimant is ap24 plying; and 


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1 ‘‘(B) provide such claimant or claimant’s rep2 resentative with a list of veterans service organiza3 tions that provide such services. 

4 ‘‘(2) When providing a list of veterans service organi5 zations to a claimant or claimant’s representative under 

6 paragraph (1), the Secretary shall include contact infor7 mation for each veterans service organization and, when8 ever applicable, the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for 

9 the Internet website of each organization. 

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

11 the Secretary shall collaborate with veterans service orga12 nizations in carrying out this section. 

13 ‘‘(c) VETERANS SERVICE ORGANIZATION DE14 FINED.—In this section, the term ‘veterans service organi15 zation’ means any organization recognized by the Sec16 retary for the representation of veterans under section 

17 5902 of this title.’’. 

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

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

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

21 following new item: 

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

from veterans service organizations.’’. 

Æ 


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