II 

114TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5166 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

NOVEMBER 30, 2016 

Received 

AN ACT 

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 permission from the veteran under para22 graph (1), the Secretary shall provide read-only access to 

23 such records to such a covered congressional employee in 

24 a manner that does not allow such employee to modify 

25 the data contained in such records or in any part of a 

26 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) COVERED CONGRESSIONAL EMPLOYEES.—(1) 

5 In this section, a covered congressional employee is a per6 manent, full-time employee of a Member of Congress— 

7 ‘‘(A) whose responsibilities include assisting the 

8 constituents of the Member with issues regarding de9 partments or agencies of the Federal Government; 

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

11 Secretary for recognition as an agent or attorney 

12 under this chapter; and 

13 ‘‘(C) who is designated by a Member of Con14 gress as a covered congressional employee for pur15 poses of this section. 

16 ‘‘(2) The Secretary may not impose any requirement 

17 other than the requirements under paragraph (1) before 

18 treating an employee as a covered congressional employee 

19 for purposes of this section. 

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

21 employee may not be recognized as an agent or attorney 

22 under this chapter. 

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

24 amounts made available to carry out this section may be 

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


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1 purposes of providing training to covered congressional 

2 employees. 

3 ‘‘(e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—(1) No 

4 additional funds are authorized to be appropriated to 

5 carry out this section. This section may only be carried 

6 out using amounts otherwise authorized to be appro7 priated. 

8 ‘‘(2) For the period of fiscal years 2017 through 

9 2020, not more than $10,000,000 may be made available 

10 to carry out this section. 

11 ‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

12 ‘‘(1) The term ‘database of the Veterans Bene13 fits Administration’ means any database of the Vet14 erans Benefits Administration in which the records 

15 of veterans relating to claims for benefits under the 

16 laws administered by the Secretary are retained, in17 cluding information regarding medical records, com18 pensation and pension exams records, rating deci19 sions, statements of the case, supplementary state20 ments of the case, notices of disagreement, Form– 

21 9, and any successor form. 

22 ‘‘(2) The term ‘Member of Congress’ means a 

23 Representative, a Senator, a Delegate to Congress, 

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


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

2 at the beginning of such chapter is amended by adding 

3 at the end the following new item: 

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

Passed the House of Representatives November 29, 

2016. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


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