§325 Veterans experience office 11 So in original. Probably should be “Veterans Experience Office”.

Summary

Creates a Veterans Experience Office inside the Department of Veterans Affairs and a head called the Chief Veterans Experience Officer, who the Secretary picks, reports to the Secretary, and runs the office. The Office must set the strategy and rules for how the Department measures and improves veterans’ and beneficiaries’ customer experience. It must coordinate with other VA parts, require those parts to send regular customer-experience reports, collect veteran-sourced data for use in policy, give outreach and engagement advice (including for people who do not use benefits), and review the helpfulness of websites and other customer-facing info. Each year the Chief Veterans Experience Officer must give a data summary to the Secretary, and the Secretary must send an annual report to Congress within 180 days of receiving it. That report must show service-specific and demographic data, reasons people do not use benefits (including eligibility, lack of awareness, technology or time barriers, and other reasons), and ideas to fix those problems. The Office must have needed staff and access to information but may not get personal identifiable information without the person’s consent. Other VA units may pay for services at cost if it does not hurt their work. The Office cannot add extra full-time jobs, must follow the Privacy Act, and its authorities end on September 30, 2028.