Would Letting Certified Congressional Employees Access VA Health Records Help With Managing Cases? (H.R. 5166)

What is H.R. 5166?

(Updated July 17, 2019)

This bill — known as the WINGMAN Act — would require the Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) to give an accredited, permanent Congressional employee read-only access to a veteran’s case records in the electronic Veterans Benefits Administration claims records. Currently such access is only given to a person acting as the veteran’s attorney.

The VA would ensure that the Congressional employee wouldn’t be allowed to modify data in the system, and the employee must be certified by the VA to be granted access. Members of Congress who choose to have an employee certified would be required to pay the cost of certification from their official budget.

Argument in favor

Letting Congressional employees access VA health records would ensure that veterans’ voices are heard and give Congress better insight into delays and problems occurring at the VA.

Argument opposed

The VA already has established lines of communication with Congress and staffers, there’s no need to give Congressional employees direct access to VA health records to deal with cases.

Impact

Veterans; Congressional employees; and the VA.

Cost of H.R. 5166

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.

Additional Info

In-Depth: Sponsoring Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) introduced this bill to streamline the VA claims process by giving Congressional staffers the ability to process the claims of veterans they represent:

“The interaction between the VA and congressional constituent advocates should be seamless.  It is unacceptable that weeks or months pass by before advocates are able to receive the files they’ve requested from the VA to help veterans… This is a commonsense bill that will inevitably increase the speed at which benefit claims are processed. We owe it to our nation’s veterans to give them the best quality care we can and not make them wait months for the benefits they most desperately need.”

This legislation was passed by the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee on a voice vote and has the support of 136 bipartisan cosponsors in the House, including 96 Republicans and 40 Democrats.

Media:

• Sponsoring Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) Press Release
  
• Ripon Advance