I 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5938 

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 

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. 

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 ‘‘Veterans Serving Vet3 erans Act of 2018’’. 

4 SEC. 2. RECRUITMENT DATABASE. 

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

6 and Quality Employment Act (Public Law 115–46; 38 

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

8 (1) In subsection (a)— 

9 (A) in the matter proceeding paragraph 

10 (1), by striking ‘‘a single database’’ and insert11 ing ‘‘and maintain a single searchable database, 

12 to be known as the ‘Department of Defense and 

13 Veterans Affairs Recruitment Database’ ’’; 

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

15 and inserting a semicolon; 

16 (C) in paragraph (2), by striking the pe17 riod at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

18 (D) by adding after paragraph (2) the fol19 lowing new paragraph: 

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

21 paragraph (1) and paragraph (2), the following in22 formation: 

23 ‘‘(A) The military occupational specialty or 

24 skill that corresponds to the position, as deter25 mined by the Secretary, in consultation with the 

26 Secretary of Defense. 


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1 ‘‘(B) Each qualified member of the Armed 

2 Forces who may be recruited to fill the position 

3 before such qualified member of the Armed 

4 Forces has been discharged and released from 

5 active duty.’’. 

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

7 (d) as subsections (g), (h), and (i), respectively. 

8 (3) By inserting after subsection (a) the fol9 lowing new subsections: 

10 ‘‘(b) ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.—Subject to sub11 section (c), the database established under subsection (a) 

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

13 Armed Forces, the following information: 

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

15 qualified member of the Armed Forces. 

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

17 the Armed Forces is expected to be discharged and 

18 released from active duty. 

19 ‘‘(3) Each military occupational specialty cur20 rently or previously assigned to the qualified member 

21 of the Armed Forces. 

22 ‘‘(c) ELECTION NOT TO BE LISTED.—A qualified 

23 member of the Armed Forces may elect in writing not to 

24 be listed in the database. 


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1 ‘‘(d) AVAILABILITY.—Information in the database 

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

3 Department to the extent the Secretary determines appro4 priate. 

5 ‘‘(e) EXPEDITED HIRING PROCEDURES.—The Sec6 retary shall implement direct hiring and appointment pro7 cedures for vacant positions listed in the database estab8 lished under subsection (a) for qualified members of the 

9 Armed Forces who apply for such positions. 

10 ‘‘(f) RELOCATION BONUS.—The Secretary may au11 thorize a relocation bonus, in an amount determined ap12 propriate by the Secretary and subject to the same limita13 tions as in the case of the authority provided under section 

14 5753 of title 5, to any qualified member of the Armed 

15 Forces who has accepted a position listed in the database 

16 established under subsection (a).’’. 

17 (4) In subsection (h)(1), as redesignated in 

18 paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘subsection (b)’’ and in19 serting ‘‘subsection (g)’’. 

20 (5) In subsection (i), as redesignated in para21 graph (2), by striking ‘‘of this Act’’ and inserting 

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

23 annually thereafter’’. 


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1 (6) By adding after subsection (i), as redesig2 nated in paragraph (2), the following new sub3 section: 

4 ‘‘(j) QUALIFIED MEMBER OF THE ARMED FORCES

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

6 the Armed Forces’ means a member of the Armed 

7 Forces— 

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

9 and 

10 ‘‘(2) who has been determined by the Secretary, 

11 in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, to 

12 have a military occupational speciality that cor13 responds to a vacant position described in subsection 

14 (a).’’. 

15 (b) DEADLINE.—The Secretary of Veterans Affairs 

16 shall establish the database under section 208 of the VA 

17 Choice and Quality Employment Act (Public Law 115– 

18 46; 38 U.S.C. 701 note), as amended by this section, not 

19 later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of 

20 this Act. 

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 18:37 Jun 04, 2018 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5938.IH 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 who the Sec19 retary determines served as a basic health care technician 

20 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. 

Æ 


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