114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5166 
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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Working to Integrate 
Networks Guaranteeing Member Access Now Act’’ or the 
‘‘WINGMAN Act’’. 
SEC. 2. PROVISION OF ACCESS TO CASE-TRACKING INFOR-
MATION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 59 of title 38, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘§ 5906. Access of certain congressional employees to 
veteran records 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—(1) The Secretary shall provide 
to each veteran who submits a claim for benefits under 
the laws administered by the Secretary an opportunity to 
permit a covered congressional employee employed in the 
office of the Member of Congress representing the district 
where the veteran resides to have access to all of the 
records of the veteran in the databases of the Veterans 
Benefits Administration. 
‘‘(2) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, 
upon receipt of permission from the veteran under para-
graph (1), the Secretary shall provide read-only access to 
such records to such a covered congressional employee in 
a manner that does not allow such employee to modify 
the data contained in such records or in any part of a 
database of the Veterans Benefits Administration.
‘‘(3) A Member of Congress may designate not more 
than two employees of the Member as covered congres-
sional employees. 
‘‘(b) COVERED CONGRESSIONAL EMPLOYEES.—(1) 
In this section, a covered congressional employee is a per-
manent, full-time employee of a Member of Congress— 
‘‘(A) whose responsibilities include assisting the 
constituents of the Member with issues regarding de-
partments or agencies of the Federal Government; 
‘‘(B) who satisfies the criteria required by the 
Secretary for recognition as an agent or attorney 
under this chapter; and 
‘‘(C) who is designated by a Member of Con-
gress as a covered congressional employee for pur-
poses of this section. 
‘‘(2) The Secretary may not impose any requirement 
other than the requirements under paragraph (1) before 
treating an employee as a covered congressional employee 
for purposes of this section. 
‘‘(c) NONRECOGNITION.—A covered congressional 
employee may not be recognized as an agent or attorney 
under this chapter. 
‘‘(d) LIMITATION ON USE OF FUNDS.—None of the 
amounts made available to carry out this section may be 
used to design, develop, or administer any training for
purposes of providing training to covered congressional 
employees. 
‘‘(e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—(1) No 
additional funds are authorized to be appropriated to 
carry out this section. This section may only be carried 
out using amounts otherwise authorized to be appro-
priated. 
‘‘(2) For the period of fiscal years 2017 through 
2020, not more than $10,000,000 may be made available 
to carry out this section. 
‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
‘‘(1) The term ‘database of the Veterans Bene-
fits Administration’ means any database of the Vet-
erans Benefits Administration in which the records 
of veterans relating to claims for benefits under the 
laws administered by the Secretary are retained, in-
cluding information regarding medical records, com-
pensation and pension exams records, rating deci-
sions, statements of the case, supplementary state-
ments of the case, notices of disagreement, Form– 
9, and any successor form. 
‘‘(2) The term ‘Member of Congress’ means a 
Representative, a Senator, a Delegate to Congress, 
or the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico.’’.
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 
at the beginning of such chapter is amended by adding 
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: 
Clerk.
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5166 
AN ACT 
Amend title 38, United States Code, to permit vet-
erans to grant access to their records in the 
databases of the Veterans Benefits Administra-
tion to certain designated congressional employ-
ees, and for other purposes.