Sponsors (14)
The bill keeps veterans' benefits flowing and creates a centralized, better-resourced VA fraud-response pathway in the near term, but does so without new staffing, raises privacy and complexity risks, and leaves the program time-limited unless Congress acts again.
Veterans continue receiving pension payments through the bill's temporary extension (avoiding an interruption) and the VA can keep administering those payments without immediate legislative reauthorization.
Veterans, families, caregivers, and survivors gain a single VA point of contact (VSAFE) plus strengthened fraud-detection tools and standardized VA response procedures, making it easier to report scams and get consistent help.
Veterans and victims of fraud benefit from increased coordination between VA, the VA OIG, and other federal agencies, which can streamline investigations and improve victim assistance.
VA staff and existing programs will absorb new responsibilities without additional authorized staffing (FTEs), which could strain employees and slow implementation of fraud-response improvements.
Collecting and analyzing fraud metrics and identity-protection actions requires handling sensitive personal data, creating privacy and data-security risks for veterans and other vulnerable beneficiaries.
The program includes a statutory sunset (September 30, 2030), creating uncertainty that could end centralized fraud support and coordination unless Congress renews the authority.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Establishes a VA Veterans Scam and Fraud Evasion Officer to centralize prevention/response and extends a pension-related statutory date to March 31, 2033.
Introduced February 27, 2025 by Ken Calvert · Last progress January 26, 2026
Creates a Veterans Scam and Fraud Evasion Officer in the Department of Veterans Affairs to serve as the central point of contact for preventing, reporting, and responding to scams targeting veterans and their families, and to direct them to resources, training, and enterprise guidance. The new office will coordinate with the VA Inspector General and multiple federal agencies, promote a hotline and public website, develop analytics and training, and must operate without increasing VA full-time employee authorizations; the authority sunsets on September 30, 2030. Also makes a narrow change to extend an existing statutory date that limits certain pension payments by replacing "January 31, 2033" with "March 31, 2033," thereby extending the applicable payment cutoff date by two months.