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Union Calendar No. 674 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5938 

[Report No. 115–871] 

To amend the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act to direct the Secretary 

of Veterans Affairs to establish a vacancy and recruitment database 

to facilitate the recruitment of certain members of the Armed Forces 

to satisfy the occupational needs of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 

to establish and implement a training and certification program for 

intermediate care technicians in that Department, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 23, 2018 

Miss GONZA ́LEZ-COLO ́N of Puerto Rico introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

JULY 24, 2018 

Additional sponsor: Mr. COFFMAN

JULY 24, 2018 

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole 

House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 

[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 

[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on May 23, 2018] 


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A BILL 

To amend the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act to 

direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a 

vacancy and recruitment database to facilitate the recruitment of certain members of the Armed Forces to 

satisfy the occupational needs of the Department of Veterans Affairs, to establish and implement a training and 

certification program for intermediate care technicians 

in that Department, and for other purposes. 


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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 ‘‘Veterans Serving Vet5 erans Act of 2018’’. 

6 SEC. 2. RECRUITMENT DATABASE. 

7 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—Section 208 of the VA Choice 

8 and Quality Employment Act of 2017 (Public Law 115– 

9 46; 38 U.S.C. 701 note) is amended as follows: 

10 (1) In subsection (a)— 

11 (A) in the matter proceeding paragraph (1), 

12 by striking ‘‘a single database’’ and inserting 

13 ‘‘and maintain a single searchable database (to 

14 be known as the ‘Departments of Defense and 

15 Veterans Affairs Recruitment Database’)’’; 

16 (B) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘; and’’ 

17 and inserting a semicolon; 

18 (C) in paragraph (2), by striking the period 

19 at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

20 (D) by adding after paragraph (2) the fol21 lowing new paragraph: 

22 ‘‘(3) with respect to each vacant position under 

23 paragraphs (1) and (2)— 

24 ‘‘(A) the military occupational specialty or 

25 skill that corresponds to the position, as deterVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:11 Jul 25, 2018 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H5938.RH H5938

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1 mined by the Secretary, in consultation with the 

2 Secretary of Defense; and 

3 ‘‘(B) each qualified member of the Armed 

4 Forces who may be recruited to fill the position 

5 before such qualified member of the Armed 

6 Forces has been discharged and released from ac7 tive duty.’’. 

8 (2) By redesignating subsections (b), (c), and (d) 

9 as subsections (f), (g), and (h), respectively. 

10 (3) By inserting after subsection (a) the fol11 lowing new subsections: 

12 ‘‘(b) ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.—Subject to sub13 section (c), the database established under subsection (a) 

14 shall include, with respect to each qualified member of the 

15 Armed Forces, the following information: 

16 ‘‘(1) The name and contact information of the 

17 qualified member of the Armed Forces. 

18 ‘‘(2) The date on which the qualified member of 

19 the Armed Forces is expected to be discharged and re20 leased from active duty. 

21 ‘‘(3) Each military occupational specialty cur22 rently or previously assigned to the qualified member 

23 of the Armed Forces. 

24 ‘‘(c) AVAILABILITY.—Information in the database shall 

25 be available to offices, officials, and employees of the DeVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:11 Jul 25, 2018 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H5938.RH H5938

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1 partment of Veterans Affairs to the extent the Secretary of 

2 Veterans Affairs determines appropriate. 

3 ‘‘(d) EXPEDITED HIRING PROCEDURES.—The Sec4 retary shall hire qualified members of the Armed Forces 

5 who apply for vacant positions listed in the database estab6 lished under subsection (a) without regard to the provisions 

7 of subchapter I of chapter 33 of title 5, United States Code. 

8 ‘‘(e) RELOCATION BONUS.—The Secretary may au9 thorize a relocation bonus, in an amount determined appro10 priate by the Secretary and subject to the same limitations 

11 as in the case of the authority provided under section 5753 

12 of title 5, to any qualified member of the Armed Forces who 

13 has accepted a position listed in the database established 

14 under subsection (a).’’. 

15 (4) In subsection (g)(1), as redesignated in para16 graph (2), by striking ‘‘subsection (b)’’ and inserting 

17 ‘‘subsection (g)’’. 

18 (5) In subsection (h), as redesignated in para19 graph (2), by striking ‘‘of this Act’’ and inserting ‘‘of 

20 the Veterans Serving Veterans Act of 2018, and annu21 ally thereafter’’. 

22 (6) By adding after subsection (h), as redesig23 nated in paragraph (2), the following new subsection: 


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1 ‘‘(i) QUALIFIED MEMBER OF THE ARMED FORCES DE2 FINED.—In this section, the term ‘qualified member of the 

3 Armed Forces’ means a member of the Armed Forces— 

4 ‘‘(1) described in section 1142(a) of title 10; 

5 ‘‘(2) who elects to be listed in the database estab6 lished under subsection (a); and 

7 ‘‘(3) who has been determined by the Secretary, 

8 in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, to have 

9 a military occupational speciality that corresponds to 

10 a vacant position described in subsection (a).’’. 

11 (b) IMPLEMENTATION PLAN.—Not later than 180 days 

12 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 

13 of Veterans Affairs shall submit to the Committees on Vet14 erans’ Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Sen15 ate a plan to implement, including a timeline, section 208 

16 of the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act of 2017 

17 (Public Law 115–46; 38 U.S.C. 701 note), as amended by 

18 this section. 

19 SEC. 3. INTERMEDIATE CARE TECHNICIAN TRAINING PRO20 GRAM. 

21 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of Veterans Af22 fairs shall implement a program to train and certify cov23 ered veterans to work as intermediate care technicians in 

24 the Department of Veterans Affairs. 

25 (b) LOCATIONS.— 


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1 (1) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall estab2 lish centers at medical facilities of the Department se3 lected by the Secretary for the purposes of carrying 

4 out the program under subsection (a). 

5 (2) SELECTION OF MEDICAL FACILITIES.—In se6 lecting a medical facility of the Department under 

7 this subsection to serve as a center, the Secretary shall 

8 consider— 

9 (A) the experience and success of the facility 

10 in training intermediate care technicians; and 

11 (B) the availability of resources of the facil12 ity to train intermediate care technicians. 

13 (c) COVERED VETERAN DEFINED.—In this section, the 

14 term ‘‘covered veteran’’ means a veteran whom the Sec15 retary determines served as a basic health care technician 

16 while serving in the Armed Forces. 

17 SEC. 4. NO AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

18 No additional funds are authorized to be appropriated 

19 to carry out section 208 of the VA Choice and Quality Em20 ployment Act of 2017 (Public Law 115–46; 38 U.S.C. 701 

21 note), as amended by section 2 of this Act, or to carry out 

22 section 3 of this Act. Such sections shall be carried out using 

23 amounts otherwise authorized to be appropriated for such 

24 purpose. 


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Union Calendar No. 674 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5938 

[Report No. 115–871] 

A BILL 

To amend the VA Choice and Quality Employment 

in that Department, and for other purposes. cation program for intermediate care technicians establish and implement a training and certifineeds of the Department of Veterans Affairs, to the Armed Forces to satisfy the occupational facilitate the recruitment of certain members of establish a vacancy and recruitment database to Act to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to 

JULY 24, 2018 

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Comand ordered to be printed mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, 


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