Title: Restoring Benefits to Defrauded Veterans Act
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security

Summary:
Restoring Benefits to Defrauded Veterans Act
This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to pay certain reissued benefits (i.e., benefits that were misused by a fiduciary) to a beneficiary's estate in situations where a beneficiary predeceases a payment.
The VA must pay such benefits to an individual or entity in the following order: the estate of the beneficiary, a successor fiduciary serving the beneficiary when the beneficiary died, or the next inheritor determined by a court of competent jurisdiction.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5966 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 5966

   To amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of 
  Veterans Affairs to repay the estates of deceased beneficiaries for 
 certain benefits paid by the Secretary and misused by fiduciaries of 
                          such beneficiaries.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 12, 2021

 Mr. Trone (for himself and Mr. Emmer) introduced the following bill; 
        which was referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of 
  Veterans Affairs to repay the estates of deceased beneficiaries for 
 certain benefits paid by the Secretary and misused by fiduciaries of 
                          such beneficiaries.

    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 ``Restoring Benefits to Defrauded 
Veterans Act''.

SEC. 2. REPAYMENT BY THE SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS OF ESTATES OF 
              DECEASED BENEFICIARIES FOR CERTAIN BENEFITS PAID BY THE 
              SECRETARY AND MISUSED BY FIDUCIARIES.

    Section 6107 of title 38, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) by redesignating subsections (c) and (d) as subsections 
        (d) and (e), respectively;
            (2) by inserting after subsection (b) the following new 
        subsection (c):
    ``(c) Reissuance of Amounts in the Case of a Deceased 
Beneficiary.--(1) If a beneficiary described in subsection (a) 
predeceases a payment under subsection (a) or (b), the Secretary shall 
pay such benefits, subject to paragraph (2), to an individual or entity 
in the following order:
    ``(A) The estate of the beneficiary.
    ``(B) A successor fiduciary serving the beneficiary when the 
beneficiary died.
    ``(C) The next inheritor determined by a court of competent 
jurisdiction.
    ``(2) The Secretary may not make a payment under this subsection to 
a fiduciary who misused benefits of the beneficiary.''; and
            (3) in subsection (e), as redesdignated, by striking 
        ``subsection (a) or (b)'' and inserting ``this section''.
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