S.Amdt. 1509

SA 1509. Mr. HELLER (for himself and Mr. Casey) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed to amendment SA 1463 proposed by Mr.
McCain to the bill H.R. 1735, to authorize appropriations for fiscal
year 2016 for military activities of the Department of Defense and for
military construction, to prescribe military personnel strengths for
such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on
the table; as follows:

At the end of subtitle G of title X, add the following:

SEC. 1085. INCREASED COOPERATION BETWEEN THE DEPARTMENT OF
DEFENSE AND THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
TO IMPROVE PROCESSING OF CLAIMS FOR VETERANS
BENEFITS.

(a) Procedures.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the
Secretary of Defense shall jointly develop and implement
procedures to improve the timely provision to the Secretary
of Veterans Affairs of such information as the Secretary
requires to process claims submitted to the Secretary for
benefits under laws administered by the Secretary.
(2) Timely provision.--The procedures developed and
implemented under paragraph (1) shall ensure that the
information provided to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs is
provided to the Secretary not later than 30 days after the
date on which the Secretary requests the information.
(b) Annual Reports.--Not less frequently than once each
year, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall submit to
Congress a report on--
(1) the requests for information made by the Secretary
during the most recent one-year period for information from
the Secretary of Defense required by the Secretary of
Veterans Affairs to process claims submitted to the Secretary
for benefits under laws administered by the Secretary; and
(2) the timeliness of responses to such requests.
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