Sponsors (9)
The bill improves non-emergency VA caller experience and call-center responsiveness with wait-time notices and callbacks but requires taxpayer-funded implementation, may reallocate VA resources, and explicitly excludes emergency/crisis lines from the protections.
Veterans who call covered VA customer-service lines will be told expected wait times and offered a callback when holds exceed 10 minutes, reducing time spent on hold and lowering the burden of staying on the line.
VA call centers will be required to target an average caller wait time of 10 minutes or less, which should improve call-center performance and may free VA staff to handle more inquiries and improve overall service quality.
Emergency department phone lines and the toll-free veterans hotline are excluded from these protections, so callers to crisis or emergency lines will not receive wait-time notifications or callbacks and may remain on hold.
VA staff and resources could be shifted or strained to meet the 10-minute average wait-time target, potentially diverting attention from other VA services and creating operational stress.
Implementing automated wait-time announcements and callback features will require upfront IT, contracting, and operational costs funded by taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires VA to add wait-time announcements and automatic callback offers for customer service phone lines and to reduce average wait times to 10 minutes within one year.
Introduced November 10, 2025 by Ken Calvert · Last progress November 10, 2025
Requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to put an automated caller system on each VA customer service phone line within one year that tells callers an expected wait time and automatically offers a callback if the wait will exceed 10 minutes. Directs the VA to issue guidance and take steps so the average wait on covered lines is no more than 10 minutes. Certain lines—specifically the toll-free veterans hotline and emergency department lines at VA health care facilities—are excluded.