IIB 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5938 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 25, 2018 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

AN ACT 

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 (Public Law 115–46; 38 

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

10 (1) In subsection (a)— 

11 (A) in the matter proceeding paragraph 

12 (1), by striking ‘‘a single database’’ and insert13 ing ‘‘and maintain a single searchable database 

14 (to be known as the ‘Departments of Defense 

15 and 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 pe19 riod 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 00:35 Jul 26, 2018 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5938.RFS 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 

7 active duty.’’. 

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

9 (d) 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 

20 released 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 

25 shall be available to offices, officials, and employees of the 


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1 Department of Veterans Affairs to the extent the Sec2 retary of 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 es6 tablished under subsection (a) without regard to the provi7 sions of subchapter I of chapter 33 of title 5, United 

8 States Code. 

9 ‘‘(e) RELOCATION BONUS.—The Secretary may au10 thorize a relocation bonus, in an amount determined ap11 propriate by the Secretary and subject to the same limita12 tions as in the case of the authority provided under section 

13 5753 of title 5, to any qualified member of the Armed 

14 Forces who has accepted a position listed in the database 

15 established under subsection (a).’’. 

16 (4) In subsection (g)(1), as redesignated in 

17 paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘subsection (b)’’ and in18 serting ‘‘subsection (g)’’. 

19 (5) In subsection (h), as redesignated in para20 graph (2), by striking ‘‘of this Act’’ and inserting 

21 ‘‘of the Veterans Serving Veterans Act of 2018, and 

22 annually thereafter’’. 

23 (6) By adding after subsection (h), as redesig24 nated in paragraph (2), the following new sub25 section: 


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1 ‘‘(i) QUALIFIED MEMBER OF THE ARMED FORCES

2 DEFINED.—In this section, the term ‘qualified member of 

3 the Armed Forces’ means a member of the Armed 

4 Forces— 

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

6 ‘‘(2) who elects to be listed in the database es7 tablished under subsection (a); and 

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

9 in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, to 

10 have a military occupational speciality that cor11 responds to a vacant position described in subsection 

12 (a).’’. 

13 (b) IMPLEMENTATION PLAN.—Not later than 180 

14 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec15 retary of Veterans Affairs shall submit to the Committees 

16 on Veterans’ Affairs of the House of Representatives and 

17 the Senate a plan to implement, including a timeline, sec18 tion 208 of the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act 

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

20 by this section. 

21 SEC. 3. INTERMEDIATE CARE TECHNICIAN TRAINING PRO22 GRAM. 

23 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of Veterans 

24 Affairs shall implement a program to train and certify covVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:35 Jul 26, 2018 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5938.RFS H5938

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1 ered veterans to work as intermediate care technicians in 

2 the Department of Veterans Affairs. 

3 (b) LOCATIONS.— 

4 (1) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall es5 tablish centers at medical facilities of the Depart6 ment selected by the Secretary for the purposes of 

7 carrying out the program under subsection (a). 

8 (2) SELECTION OF MEDICAL FACILITIES.—In 

9 selecting a medical facility of the Department under 

10 this subsection to serve as a center, the Secretary 

11 shall consider— 

12 (A) the experience and success of the facil13 ity in training intermediate care technicians; 

14 and 

15 (B) the availability of resources of the fa16 cility to train intermediate care technicians. 

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

18 the term ‘‘covered veteran’’ means a veteran whom the 

19 Secretary determines served as a basic health care techni20 cian while serving in the Armed Forces. 

21 SEC. 4. NO AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

22 No additional funds are authorized to be appro23 priated to carry out section 208 of the VA Choice and 

24 Quality Employment Act (Public Law 115–46; 38 U.S.C. 

25 701 note), as amended by section 2 of this Act, or to carry 


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

2 out using amounts otherwise authorized to be appro3 priated for such purpose. 

4 SEC. 5. NO ADDITIONAL FUNDS AUTHORIZED. 

5 No additional funds are authorized to be appro6 priated to carry out the requirements of this Act and the 

7 amendments made by this Act. Such requirements shall 

8 be carried out using amounts otherwise authorized to be 

9 appropriated. 

Passed the House of Representatives July 24, 2018. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


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