Sponsors
Introduced March 21, 2025 by Mark Takano · Last progress March 21, 2025
The bill increases proactive outreach and government transparency to help surviving family members learn about and claim VA benefits, at the cost of added administrative expense, privacy and intrusiveness concerns, and the risk that improved data won’t produce better access without adequate implementation and funding.
Surviving spouses, children, and parents will receive proactive, regular (quarterly) outreach—supported by 5–10 new call-center FTEs and referrals to the Office of Survivors Assistance and recognized VSOs/agents—making it more likely they learn about and file for VA survivor benefits.
Veteran survivors and stakeholders will get more government transparency because VA must collect and report demographic data on survivor-benefit recipients and assess the Office of Survivors Assistance, enabling Congress and advocates to monitor equity and target resources.
Burial-eligible survivors in underserved demographic groups will receive focused education about burial benefits, increasing awareness of eligibility and likely uptake of burial assistance.
Survivors (spouses, parents, children) may be reluctant to provide voluntary demographic data and VA’s efforts to locate contact information could raise privacy concerns, reducing data completeness and increasing distrust.
Collecting/reporting new demographic data and conducting quarterly outreach (including funding 5–10 FTEs and communications) will increase administrative costs borne by taxpayers and could divert VA resources if not separately funded.
Frequent, repeated outreach (quarterly) may burden grieving survivors or be perceived as intrusive despite an opt-out option, creating emotional distress or reluctance to engage.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Requires VA to collect voluntary survivor demographic data, identify underserved groups, and expand proactive outreach (quarterly contact) and call-center staffing to assist survivors.
Requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to collect voluntary demographic data from survivors who receive certain VA survivor benefits, use that data to identify underserved groups, and report findings in annual benefits reporting. It also expands and formalizes proactive outreach to surviving eligible dependents after a covered individual’s death, including quarterly contact until a benefits claim is filed, specified outreach content, and creation of 5–10 VA call-center positions to carry out outreach. Timelines include starting data collection within 180 days of enactment and deadlines for outreach plans and resourcing assessments.