CRUISE Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The CRUISE Act changes how the Department of Veterans Affairs pays automobile sellers under the VA automobile-assistance program for certain disabled veterans. It requires payments under 38 U.S.C. 3902 to comply with the Prompt Payment Act standard in 31 U.S.C. 3903(a). If a payment is not processed within 30 days, VA must publish the number of days required to process that payment.
The bill also requires VA to centralize the seller-payment process in VA Central Office and to develop a process for accurately tracking and resolving payments due to sellers that remain outstanding for more than 90 days. The practical goal is to make reimbursement timelier and more predictable for dealers and other sellers that provide vehicles to eligible disabled veterans.
Who Benefits and How
Automobile sellers providing vehicles for disabled veterans benefit from prompt-payment compliance, public reporting of delays, and a 90-day tracking process for unresolved payments. Disabled veterans using VA automobile assistance benefit indirectly because sellers may be more willing to participate when payment delays are visible and centrally managed. VA automobile assistance program administrators benefit from a clearer centralized process and aging-payment tracking. Congressional veterans oversight staff benefit from published delay information that can be used to monitor VA performance.
Who Bears the Burden and How
VA Central Office payment staff must centralize the payment workflow, meet prompt-payment standards, publish delayed processing times, and track seller payments outstanding longer than 90 days. VA field offices may lose decentralized control over payment handling. VA data and finance staff must maintain systems capable of identifying overdue seller payments. Federal taxpayers may bear administrative costs for the new tracking and publication process.
Key Provisions
- Requires VA automobile-assistance seller payments to comply with federal prompt-payment rules.
- Requires VA to publish the processing time for any payment not processed within 30 days.
- Requires seller-payment processing to be centralized in VA Central Office.
- Requires VA to track and resolve seller payments outstanding for more than 90 days.
- Provides disabled-veteran automobile sellers more transparency and accountability around VA reimbursement delays.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to centralize automobile-assistance seller payments in VA Central Office, follow federal prompt-payment rules, publish processing delays over 30 days, and track and resolve payments to sellers outstanding longer than 90 days.
Key Policy Areas
Veterans, Federal Payments, Program Administration
Primary Purpose
Requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to centralize automobile-assistance seller payments in VA Central Office, follow federal prompt-payment rules, publish processing delays over 30 days, and track and resolve payments to sellers outstanding longer than 90 days.
Policy Domains
House resolution provisions
Identified Gains
- Automobile sellers providing vehicles for disabled veterans
- Disabled veterans using VA automobile assistance
- VA automobile assistance program administrators
- Congressional veterans oversight staff
Identified Costs
- VA Central Office payment staff
- VA field offices
- VA finance staff
- Federal taxpayers
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
ReportedOrdered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute …
Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held
Subcommittee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held
Forwarded by Subcommittee to Full Committee by Voice Vote.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity.
Referred to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
Mr. Barrett introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Disabled veterans using VA automobile assistance, VA Central Office payment staff, VA automobile assistance program administrators
Positive-direction: Disabled veterans using VA automobile assistance
Negative-direction: VA Central Office payment staff, VA automobile assistance program administrators
Automobile sellers providing vehicles for disabled veterans
Congressional veterans oversight staff
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "secretary"
- → Secretary of Veterans Affairs
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology