I 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6353 
To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide for the availability 
of prompts and services of certain Department of Veterans Affairs toll- 
free telephone numbers and business lines in Spanish, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 23, 2020 
Mr. KHANNA (for himself, Mr. CISNEROS, Mr. COOK, and Mr. HURD of 
Texas) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Veterans’ Affairs 
A BILL 
To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide for 
the availability of prompts and services of certain De-
partment of Veterans Affairs toll-free telephone numbers 
and business lines in Spanish, 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 ‘‘Increasing Access for 
Veterans and Their Survivors Act of 2020’’. 
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SEC. 2. AVAILABILITY OF PROMPTS AND SERVICES OF DE-
PARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS TOLL- 
FREE TELEPHONE NUMBERS IN SPANISH. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 270 days after the 
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Veterans 
Affairs shall ensure that the covered toll-free telephone 
number of the Department of Veterans Affairs includes— 
(1) a Spanish prompt; and 
(2) the functionality of directing callers who are 
connected to each business telephone line of the De-
partment to a Department employee who is able to 
speak Spanish fluently or to a translation service to 
provide assistance. 
(b) SPANISH PROMPT.—The Spanish prompt re-
quired by subsection (a) shall include— 
(1) the option to hear routing options in Span-
ish, including descriptions of the business telephone 
lines of the Department to which callers may be 
transferred to in order to obtain information or as-
sistance; and 
(2) the option to speak to an employee who 
speaks Spanish and who will provide the same qual-
ity of assistance as that available to callers in 
English. 
(c) TRANSLATION SERVICE PROTOCOL.—If the Sec-
retary provides assistance through a translation service 
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under subsection (a)(2), the Secretary shall establish a 
fact sheet and protocol outlining the appropriate protocol 
to use the translation service. 
(d) COVERED TOLL-FREE NUMBER.—For purposes 
of this section, the covered toll-free telephone number of 
the Department is (800) 827-1000 or any telephone num-
ber that is used to provide the same or similar functions. 
(e) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 90 days 
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 
shall submit to the Committees on Veterans’ Affairs of 
the Senate and House of Representatives a report on the 
status of implementing this section. Such report shall in-
clude— 
(1) the status of the implementation of the re-
quirements of this section; 
(2) the date on which the implementation of the 
requirements of this section is expected to be com-
pleted; and 
(3) a description of any additional support or 
resources needed to implement such requirements. 
Æ 
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