II 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2654 

To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to conduct outreach to veterans 

regarding the effect of certain delayed payments by the Secretary, to 

require the Secretary to submit to Congress an annual report regarding 

such delayed payments, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 24, 2014 

Ms. LANDRIEU introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 

referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

A BILL 

To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to conduct 

outreach to veterans regarding the effect of certain delayed payments by the Secretary, to require the Secretary 

to submit to Congress an annual report regarding such 

delayed payments, 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, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Veterans’ Credit Pro5 tection Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. OUTREACH TO VETERANS REGARDING EFFECT OF 

2 DELAYED PAYMENTS BY VETERANS INTE3 GRATED SERVICE NETWORKS. 

4 (a) OUTREACH.— 

5 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Veterans 

6 Affairs shall conduct outreach, including through na7 tional and local veterans service organizations, to in8 form veterans of how to resolve credit issues caused 

9 by a delayed payment. 

10 (2) ABILITY TO REPORT ISSUES.—The Sec11 retary shall establish a toll-free telephone number 

12 for veterans to report credit issues described in 

13 paragraph (1) to the Veterans Integrated Service 

14 Networks of the Department of Veterans Affairs. 

15 (b) ANNUAL REPORT.— 

16 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year 

17 after the date of the enactment of this Act, and not 

18 less frequently than annually thereafter, the Sec19 retary shall submit to Congress a report on the ef20 fectiveness of each Veterans Integrated Service Net21 work in providing timely payment of a proper invoice 

22 by the required payment date during both the five23 year period preceding the date of the report and the 

24 one-year period preceding such date. 


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1 (2) ELEMENTS.—Each report required by para2 graph (1) shall include, for each period covered by 

3 the report, the following: 

4 (A) The number of veterans who contacted 

5 the Secretary regarding a delayed payment that 

6 negatively affected, or will potentially negatively 

7 affect, the credit of the veteran. 

8 (B) The total amount of interest penalties 

9 paid by the Secretary under section 3902 of 

10 title 31, United States Code, by reason of a de11 layed payment. 

12 (C) The number of proper invoices sub13 mitted, listed in a table for each quarter and 

14 fiscal year of each such period that includes the 

15 following: 

16 (i) The total amount owed by the Sec17 retary under the proper invoices. 

18 (ii) The payment status of each prop19 er invoice, as of the date of the report. 

20 (iii) The period that elapsed until 

21 each proper invoice was paid, including an 

22 explanation of any delayed payment. 

23 (D) Such comments made by medical pro24 viders regarding delayed payments to such medVerDate Mar 15 2010 04:10 Jul 29, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2654.IS S2654

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1 ical providers that the Secretary has received 

2 and considers relevant. 

3 (E) An identification of the Veterans Inte4 grated Service Network with the least number 

5 of delayed payments and the Veterans Inte6 grated Service Network with the most number 

7 of delayed payments. 

8 (F) A description of the best practices that 

9 a Veterans Integrated Service Network can 

10 carry out to provide timely payment of a proper 

11 invoice, including a plan for underperforming 

12 Veterans Integrated Service Networks to im13 prove such timely payments. 

14 (c) COMPTROLLER GENERAL STUDY.— 

15 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Comptroller General of 

16 the United States shall conduct a study that as17 sesses the effectiveness of each Veterans Integrated 

18 Service Network in providing timely payment of a 

19 proper invoice by the required payment date. 

20 (2) SUBMITTAL.—The Comptroller General 

21 shall submit to Congress a report on the study con22 ducted under paragraph (1), including the total 

23 amount of interest penalties paid by the Secretary 

24 under section 3902 of title 31, United States Code, 

25 by reason of a delayed payment. 


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1 (d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

2 (1) DELAYED PAYMENT.—The term ‘‘delayed 

3 payment’’ means a proper invoice that is not paid by 

4 the Secretary of Veterans Affairs until after the re5 quired payment date. 

6 (2) PROPER INVOICE.—The term ‘‘proper in7 voice’’ has the meaning given that term in section 

8 3901(a) of title 31, United States Code. 

9 (3) REQUIRED PAYMENT DATE.—The term ‘‘re10 quired payment date’’ means the date that payment 

11 is due for a contract pursuant to section 3903(a) of 

12 title 31, United States Code. 

13 (4) VETERANS SERVICE ORGANIZATION.—The 

14 term ‘‘veterans service organization’’ means an orga15 nization recognized by the Secretary for the rep16 resentation of veterans under section 5902 of title 

17 38, United States Code. 

Æ 


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