{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senate-passes-tuberville-legislation-to-help-defrauded-veterans/", "Senate Passes Tuberville Legislation to Help Defrauded Veterans", "2025-11-20", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AL", "Tommy Tuberville", "T000278", "www.tuberville.senate.gov", "tuberville", "https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Today, the U.S. Senate passed U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and U.S. Senator John Boozman\u2019s (R-AR) Veteran Fraud Reimbursement Act to simplify the legal process for veterans who have been defrauded of their benefits. The legislation allows the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) to reimburse victims of fraud without forcing them to jump through unnecessary, bureaucratic hoops. Passage of this legislation builds on Senator Tuberville\u2019s efforts to make targeted changes on behalf of veterans, including with his Supporting Families of the Fallen Act and legislation to streamline post-9/11 GI Bill benefits that have been signed into law.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019d like to believe we live in a country where no one would take advantage of our veterans, but sadly it does happen,\u201d said Senator Tuberville. \u201cThis bill attempts to help right that wrong by ensuring veterans with disabilities are made financially whole if they are defrauded of their benefits. It\u2019s my priority to find ways to make the government work better for our veterans, and this bill is a small step toward doing just that. I\u2019m glad to see the Senate pass the Veteran Fraud Reimbursement Act, and hope that the President will act quickly to sign this critical bill for our veterans into law.\u201d\n\nBACKGROUND:\n\nIn January 2021, Congress enacted the Johnny Isakson and David P. Roe, M.D. Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act. The bill included a provision meant to improve the VBA fiduciary program, which helps deliver benefits to veterans who cannot otherwise manage their finances. Unfortunately, one unintended consequence of the provision is that all cases of benefits misuse now require what is known as an internal negligence determination by VBA before a veteran who is a victim of fraud can be made financially whole.\n\nIn a July 21, 2021 report, the VA Office of the Inspector General (OIG) highlighted the significant wait times defrauded veterans in the VA fiduciary program face due to the universal negligence determination requirement. Some veterans even died before seeing their reimbursements. The Veteran Fraud Reimbursement Act will right this wrong by allowing the VBA to conduct a statistically valid analysis of the misuse cases to determine the rate and nature of negligence on the part of the VBA. The negligence determination would ultimately become a part of a quality assurance measure conducted after the affected veteran had been reimbursed.\n\nThe full text of the legislation is available here.\n\nSenator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans\u2019 Affairs, HELP and Aging Committees.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "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.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senate-passes-tuberville-legislation-to-help-defrauded-veterans/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4868052676320076, "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"}