{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=31E2B730-7A25-4211-B3D1-AF11681867C3", "Boozman Urges Support for Bills to Ensure Timely Death Certification of Veterans, Strengthen VA Fraud Prevention Efforts", "2025-12-12", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", "boozman", "https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases", "scraper", "Click here to watch Boozman\u2019s exchanges with the hearing witnesses.\n\nWASHINGTON\u2014The U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans\u2019 Affairs held a hearing to consider pending legislation including a measure authored by U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) to help expedite the process of certifying a veteran\u2019s passing and minimize or avoid delays in conveying benefits owed to their loved ones, as well as a bill to establish a Veterans Scam and Fraud Evasion Officer at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)\n\nBoozman, a senior member of the committee, welcomed the department\u2019s support and feedback on the Veterans Burial Timeliness and Death Certificate Accountability Act including proactive steps it is taking to prevent delays in issuing death certificates.\n\n\u201cFamilies of veterans have suffered delays in certifying their loved ones\u2019 passing as long as eight weeks. This creates difficulties for the families to receive death benefits, burial honors, and forces local governments to maintain possession of the veteran\u2019s body,\u201d Boozman said.\n\n\u201cThe VA supports [this bill], absolutely,\u201d said Acting Assistant Under Secretary for Health for Clinical Services, Veterans Health Administration, Dr. Thomas O\u2019Toole. \u201c[Certification] is greatly facilitated if that patient has been seen recently. We recently stood up an office and put out a directive as well as training for all our VA clinicians that\u2019s intended to clarify and codify all those processes internally.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe work with many sources of information for first notice of death because we want to make sure that the survivors receive their benefits in the most timely manner. We\u2019ve reduced our inventory of Dependency and Indemnity Compensation claims dramatically, working on getting those timely benefits to survivors,\u201d said Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Benefits, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Margarita Devlin.\n\nBoozman also raised the significant difficulties former servicemembers face after falling victim to a scam and pointed to legislation he supports as an effective solution to help them navigate the aftermath \u2014 the Veterans Scam and Fraud Evasion (VSAFE) Act.\n\n\u201cVeterans are uniquely targeted by scammers to exploit access to their benefits,\u201d Boozman said. \u201cI\u2019m proud to be an original cosponsor of the VSAFE Act. The adverse things that can happen as a result of the scams and, then too, not being able to get a death certificate in a timely fashion \u2014 we do need to correct that because it really does put people in difficult situations.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=31E2B730-7A25-4211-B3D1-AF11681867C3"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.879862044006586, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}