Sponsors (5)
The bill centralizes and aims to improve veterans' economic opportunity and transition services through a new administration and senior leadership (increasing coordination, IT focus, and transparency) but creates near‑term administrative costs, implementation risks, potential delays, and governance limits that could temporarily disrupt services or fail to legally lock in budget protections.
Veterans: Establishes a dedicated VA Economic Opportunity and Transition Administration (VEOTA) and a senior official to centralize and coordinate economic opportunity and transition services, improving access to employment/benefits programs and service coordination.
Veterans and VA staff: Requires a merit-based, Senate‑confirmed Under Secretary with IT expertise and a stakeholder commission to recommend candidates, which should improve program leadership, modernization and stakeholder input.
Federal employees: Preserves existing collective bargaining rights and agreements for VA employees transferred into the new administration, protecting represented workers' employment terms during the reorganization.
Veterans, federal employees, and state partners: Stand‑up and transfer of functions to a new administration could cause short‑term disruption, administrative complexity, and diversion of staff time, temporarily confusing responsibilities and slowing service delivery.
Taxpayers: Creating and staffing a new Under Secretary office and an entire administration will increase federal administrative costs.
Veterans and taxpayers: The 'sense of Congress' discouraging budget/FTE changes is non‑binding, so it may not prevent future funding or staffing reductions.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Creates VEOTA within Title 38, establishes an Under Secretary to lead it, preserves employee labor rights, and requires certification before transferring services.
Introduced April 30, 2025 by James E. Banks · Last progress April 30, 2025
Creates a new Veterans Economic Opportunity and Transition Administration (VEOTA) inside Title 38 of the U.S. Code to centralize and manage veterans’ economic opportunity and transition services. It sets up a presidentially appointed, Senate‑confirmed Under Secretary to lead VEOTA, preserves current labor rights for staff moved into the new administration, and requires reports and a written certification before transferring service‑providing functions to VEOTA. The bill sets effective dates (an October 1 start tied to the first fiscal year after enactment and a specific October 1, 2025 effective date for the Under Secretary provision), directs the Secretary to form a commission to recommend candidates when vacancies are expected, and conditions transfers on certifications that services will not be disrupted and are ready to move.