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![handle is hein.congrecreports/crptxaanc0001 and id is 1 raw text is: AUTHENTICATEO
U.S. GOVERNMENT
INFORMATION
Gp
Calendar No. 166
115TH CONGRESS REPORT
1st Session SENATE 115-126
VETERANS APPEALS IMPROVEMENT AND
MODERNIZATION ACT OF 2017
JULY 10, 2017.-Ordered to be printed
Mr. ISAKSON, from the Committee on Veterans' Affairs,
submitted the following
REPORT
[To accompany S. 1024]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Veterans' Affairs (hereinafter, Committee),
to which was referred the bill (S. 1024) to amend title 38, United
States Code (hereinafter, U.S.C.), to reform the rights and proc-
esses relating to appeals of decisions regarding claims for benefits
under the laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs,
and for other purposes, having considered the same, reports favor-
ably thereon with an amendment in the nature of a substitute and
recommends that the bill, as amended, do pass.
INTRODUCTION
On May 3, 2017, Chairman Isakson introduced S. 1024, the pro-
posed Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act of
2017. S. 1024 would restructure the appeals process within the De-
partment of Veterans Affairs (hereinafter, VA) consistent with a
proposal developed by VA and stakeholders; would require VA to
submit to Congress and the Government Accountability Office
(hereinafter, GAO) a comprehensive plan for processing appeals
that are pending before the new appeals system takes effect (here-
inafter, legacy appeals) and implementing the new appeals sys-
tem; would authorize VA to test facets of the new system before it
takes effect; and would require VA periodically to publish on its
website data regarding processing legacy appeals and appeals in
the new system. Senators Baldwin, Blumenthal, Daines, Hassan,
Kaine, King, Tester, and Udall are original cosponsors. Senators
69-010](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.congrecreports/crptxaanc0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)