House Passes Pappas’s Legislation to Protect Veterans from VA Errors

Today the House passed legislation introduced by Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01), who serves as the Chair of Oversight and Investigations for the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, to reform the VA's debt collection process causing undue financial hardship for veterans.

Pappas introduced the SHIELD Act along with Congressman Max Rose (NY-11), following an alarming hearing that found the VA overpayment system generated and then collected $1.6 billion in debt from veterans in the last fiscal year.

These overpayments are a result of mistakes in disability payouts, changes in eligibility, or simple accounting errors which have resulted in financial difficulties for hundreds of thousands of veterans, especially for those living on fixed incomes. The Stopping Harm and Implementing Enhanced Lead-time for Debts for Veterans Act, or SHIELD for Veterans Act, seeks to remedy these alarming findings.

"Many veterans rely on their earned benefits to make ends meet," said Chairman Pappas. "It is unacceptable that the VA's mistakes or inefficiencies are hurting the men and women they are supposed to serve. I am proud to pass the SHIELD for Veterans Act which takes critical steps to reform the VA and ensure we are making good on the promises we have made to our veterans."

The SHIELD for Veterans Act will:

• Prevent VA from collecting any overpayment that was a result of a delay in processing by VA;

• Require that VA provide notice of any overpayment and its plan to recollect such payment at least 90 days in advance of beginning collection;

• Require VA to notify veterans of their right to dispute overpayment or to request a waiver of the debt;

• Require VA to submit a report to Congress within 180 days detailing its plan to improve the notification of overpayments and communication with veterans who receive overpayment.

Pappas has been leading the fight to overhaul the VA's debt collection process since he was elected to serve as the Chair of Oversight and Investigations for the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. Pappas led an investigative hearing, a bipartisan letter calling on the VA to change the VA overpayment system. Additionally, the VA heeded Pappas's call to suspend VA debt collections during the ongoing public health emergency.

You can watch his floor speech here, and read the remarks as prepared below:

M_ Speaker

I rise in support of H.R. 5245, TheStopping Harm and Implementing Enhanced Lead-time for Debts for Veterans Act – or SHIELD for Veterans Act. I introduced this bill with my colleague, Congressman Rose, to fix some major problems directly affecting veterans.

Last year New Hampshire veteran Jeff Varney contacted my office for assistance. Jeff, like thousands of other veterans across the country, is facing tremendous financial hardship due to VA errors.

Jeff was in disbelief when the VA informed him that he needed to repay years of benefit overpayments because of an apparent error that VA made decades ago.

So after a lifetime of service, and through no fault of his own, Jeff was told he's on the hook for more than $11,000 even though no VA produced no accounting of how these debts were accrued.

Unfortunately, Jeff is not alone in this experience. Too many veterans are badly surprised when they receive letters saying they owe money to the VA.Sometimes these debts reach thousands of dollars.

During hearings held by the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee during the past year, we heard from Veteran Service Organizations about the pain and hardship these surprises may bring.

Last fiscal year the VA collected $1.6 billion in debt from veterans. These debts often result from mistakes in disability payouts, changes in eligibility, or simple accounting errors, placing an undue, unexpected financial burden on our veterans.

It is long past the time to clean up this persistent problem.

That is why today I am asking my colleagues to support the SHIELD for Veterans Act, which reforms the VA debt collection process and ensures we are making good on the promises we have made to our veterans.

The SHIELD Act prevents the VA from collecting overpayments that came as a result of their own delays in processing, and requires the VA to provide our veterans notice of an overpayment and their plan for collecting it.

It also requires VA to notify veterans of their ability to dispute the overpayment or request a waiver. Under this bill, VA will issue a report to Congress on a plan to improve communications with veterans around the debt issue.

The last thing veterans like my constituent Jeff need is to be hounded by debt collectors -- especially if he's done everything right.

This is a bipartisan, common sense bill, and I want to thank the majority and minority staff of the O&I subcommittee for their work. Thank you to Ranking Member Bergman and Congressman Bost in particular for helping make this bill better.

It is simply unacceptable that VA's mistakes or inefficiencies are hurting the men and women they are supposed to serve. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back.