Every Veteran Counts Act of 2021
Bill: H.R.5295 | Sponsor: Rep. Brownley, Julia (D-CA)
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security

Summary:
Every Veteran Counts Act of 2021
This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to establish and maintain a database of specified demographics (e.g., age) of veterans. The data must be in a machine-readable format and anonymized to protect sensitive personal information.
The VA must provide access to the database on a publicly accessible website that is updated at least once a year.
Additionally, the VA must report on the progress, challenges, performance, and opportunities of implementing its data strategy. The report must be made available on the VA's open data website in a machine-readable format.

To amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of 
Veterans Affairs to maintain demographic information regarding veterans 
and publish such information on a website of the Department of Veterans 
                                Affairs.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Every Veteran Counts Act of 2021''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Department of Veterans Affairs is responsible for 
        providing a variety of benefits and services to more than 
        19,000,000 living veterans.
            (2) Pursuant to section 527 of title 38, United States 
        Code, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs has conducted the 
        National Survey of Veterans to assess the needs and sentiments 
        of a statistically valid sample of all veterans.
            (3) The Secretary has conducted this National Survey of 
        Veterans in the late 1970s, 1987, 1993, 2001, and 2010.
            (4) The last survey conducted in 2010 included veterans and 
        other beneficiary groups, such as members of the Armed Forces 
        serving on active duty, members of the reserve components of 
        the Armed Forces, military spouses, and surviving spouses of 
        such veterans and members.
            (5) The 2010 survey included information on demographics, 
        awareness and utilization of benefits, health status, military 
        service, and employment.
            (6) These surveys provide valuable information on the 
        veteran population to the Secretary, Congress, Federal, State, 
        and local governments, academic institutions, and various non-
        governmental organizations that serve veterans.
            (7) This information is used to inform policymaking efforts 
        and to ensure the needs of the ever-changing veteran population 
        are met.
            (8) However, since 2010, the statutory framework for data 
        collection has substantially evolved, notably with the 
        Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (Public Law 
        115-435), the Data Act (Public Law 113-139), and the Geospatial 
        Data Act (subtitle F of title VII of Public Law 115-254), known 
        collectively as the ``Evidence Act'', building on previously 
        enacted laws.
            (9) Further, the Department, through the National Center 
        for Veterans Analysis and Statistics, has leveraged the vast 
        amount of data generated within the Department and collected by 
        other Federal partners to improve population-based descriptive, 
        statistical, and predictive analytic products to support the 
        Secretary and in evidence-based policymaking, facilitate 
        innovative and collaborative research, and empower modern 
        business intelligence applications.
            (10) The Department has been a consistent leader in the 
        Federal Open Data program and offers a platform for scaling 
        access to useful data and insight to external stakeholders.
            (11) Notwithstanding these recent advances, opportunities 
        exist to strengthen the capability of the Department to develop 
        and disseminate actionable insights into the veteran population 
        through--
                    (A) developing enterprise-focused management and 
                improvements in the quality of administrative data 
                collected by the Department through its delivery of 
                benefits and services;
                    (B) increased access to data collected by other 
                Federal entities through more flexible and efficient 
                information sharing policies;
                    (C) increased use of publicly available and 
                commercially generated data; and
                    (D) maturing data management of the Department.
            (12) In line with the Evidence Act, it is incumbent upon 
        the Secretary to regularly engage with key stakeholders, 
        including Congress, veterans service organizations, advocacy 
        groups, and open government groups to--
                    (A) enhance the open data program of the 
                Department; and
                    (B) improve development and dissemination of 
                relevant data assets and analytic products to provide 
                more current, accurate, and useful insights on veterans 
                and their families.
            (13) It is necessary for the Department to collect, 
        collate, and analyze all available data on veteran 
        demographics, and to share this data with Congress and other 
        stakeholders on an ongoing basis, in an easily digestible 
        format, to direct outreach and align policy with the needs of 
        the changing veteran population.

SEC. 3. DEMOGRAPHIC DATA OF VETERANS: COLLECTION; RETENTION; 
              PUBLICATION.

    (a) In General.--Subchapter II of chapter 5 of title 38, United 
States Code, is amended by inserting after section 527, the following 
new section:
``Sec. 528. Demographic data of veterans: collection; retention; 
              publication.
    ``(a) Database.--(1) The Secretary shall collect demographic data 
of veterans (from any source of such data available to the Secretary, 
including the National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics of 
the Department, the Bureau of the Census, and the Social Security 
Administration) and maintain a database of such data.
    ``(2) Data collected and maintained under paragraph (1) shall 
include the following:
            ``(A) Sex.
            ``(B) Gender identity, disaggregated by--
                    ``(i) male;
                    ``(ii) female;
                    ``(iii) cisgender;
                    ``(iv) transgender;
                    ``(v) gender diverse;
                    ``(vi) nonbinary; and
                    ``(vii) combinations of clauses (i) through (vi).
            ``(C) Age.
            ``(D) Educational level.
            ``(E) Race and ethnicity, disaggregated by--
                    ``(i) membership in an Indian tribe (as defined in 
                section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and 
                Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304)); and
                    ``(ii) the same major race groups as the decennial 
                censuses.
            ``(F) Sexual orientation, disaggregated by--
                    ``(i) heterosexual;
                    ``(ii) lesbian;
                    ``(iii) gay;
                    ``(iv) bisexual; and
                    ``(v) queer.
            ``(G) Household makeup, including marital status and number 
        of dependents.
            ``(H) Gross income and sources of income.
            ``(I) Housing status, disaggregated by--
                    ``(i) renter;
                    ``(ii) homeowner; or
                    ``(iii) residing in a home owned or rented by 
                another person.
            ``(J) Employment status, disaggregated by--
                    ``(i) employed;
                    ``(ii) seeking employment; and
                    ``(iii) self-employed.
            ``(K) History of service in the Armed Forces, disaggregated 
        by--
                    ``(i) Armed Force;
                    ``(ii) regular or reserve component;
                    ``(iii) service in a combat theater of operations 
                or war zone;
                    ``(iv) service during a period of war;
                    ``(v) whether a veteran is a former prisoner of 
                war;
                    ``(vi) whether the veteran was exposed to dead, 
                dying, or wounded people during active military, naval, 
                air, or space service;
                    ``(vii) whether the veteran was exposed to 
                environmental hazards during active military, naval, 
                air, or space service; and
                    ``(viii) whether the veteran experienced military 
                sexual trauma (as that term is defined in section 1166 
                of this title).
            ``(L) Whether the veteran is enrolled in the patient 
        enrollment system under section 1705 of this title.
            ``(M) Whether the veteran has received a disability rating 
        from under section 1155 of this title.
            ``(N) Location of the veteran's residence, disaggregated 
        by--
                    ``(i) rural or urban setting;
                    ``(ii) distance to a facility of the Department; 
                and
                    ``(iii) whether the veteran has access to broadband 
                service.
            ``(O) Any other information the Secretary determines 
        appropriate.
    ``(b) Data Retention Standards.--Demographic data in the database 
under subsection (a) shall be--
            ``(1) anonymized to prevent the release of sensitive 
        personal information (as that term is defined in section 5727 
        of this title); and
            ``(2) machine readable.
    ``(c) Website.--The Secretary shall maintain a publicly accessible 
website of the Department that provides access to the database under 
subsection (a). The Secretary shall update such website not less 
frequently than once each year.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections at the beginning of 
such chapter is amended by inserting, after the item relating to 
section 527, the following new item:

``528. Demographic data of veterans: collection; retention; 
                            publication.''.
    (c) Implementation Date.--The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall 
carry out section 528 of such title, as added by this section, not 
later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.

SEC. 4. REPORT ON DATA STRATEGY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS.

    (a) Report Required.--Not later than one year after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall submit 
to Congress a report describing the progress, challenges, performance, 
and opportunities of implementing the data strategy of the Department 
of Veterans Affairs.
    (b) Elements.--The report under this section shall include the 
following:
            (1) Qualitative and quantitative progress towards 
        strengthening data management of the Department, including 
        business and mission impact enabled by management of data as a 
        strategic asset.
            (2) Recommendations of the Secretary regarding legislation 
        that may accelerate data management maturity of the Department.
            (3) Progress and results in cataloging and inventorying 
        data assets of the Department and using such assets to 
        support--
                    (A) internal evidence-based policymaking; and
                    (B) ethical and appropriate dissemination of 
                statistical aggregates, data-driven analysis, and open 
                data.
            (4) Progress in implementing requirements under chapter 35 
        of title 44, United States Code (commonly known as the 
        ``Paperwork Reduction Act''), and related data quality efforts 
        to support strategic management of data collected by the 
        Department.
            (5) Efforts to move towards a rules-based, transparent, 
        Department-wide approach to management, integration, and 
        sharing of, and access to, data.
            (6) Recommendations of the Secretary regarding adjustments 
        to data requirements of the Department.
            (7) Information sharing agreements and outstanding 
        requirements with other Federal entities, including gaps best 
        addressed by the addition of survey questions to an existing 
        Federal survey instrument.
            (8) Progress on recently enacted public laws, Executive 
        orders, Presidential memoranda, and outstanding recommendations 
        of the Comptroller General of the United States or an inspector 
        general as it pertains to veteran population-based data 
        collection, quality, integration, sharing, interoperability, 
        and analytics within the scope of improving and ensuring equity 
        in services to veterans, their families, and other 
        beneficiaries.
            (9) A discussion of current risk assessments regarding data 
        breaches and information security (as those terms are defined 
        in section 5727 of title 38, United States Code) of the 
        Department.
            (10) Priority data requirements of the Department, 
        identified through consultation with the following entities:
                    (A) The Committee on Veterans' Affairs of the 
                Senate and the Committee on Veterans' Affairs of the 
                House of Representatives.
                    (B) The Congressional Budget Office.
                    (C) Veterans service organizations.
                    (D) The Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans of 
                the Department.
                    (E) The Advisory Committee on Women Veterans of the 
                Department.
                    (F) The Advisory Committee on Homeless Veterans of 
                the Department.
    (c) Publication.--Not later than 30 days after submitting the 
report under this section, the Secretary shall publish such report on 
the open data website of the Department, with all metrics and data 
included in a machine readable format.
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