To amend title 38, United States Code, to improve the repayment by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs of benefits misused by a fiduciary, and for other purposes.
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMs. Hirono (for herself, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Gallego, and Mr. …
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Veteran Fraud Reimbursement Act of 2025 strengthens protections for veterans when someone entrusted to manage their benefits (called a "fiduciary") steals or misuses those funds. Under current law, whether veterans get reimbursed depends on whether the VA was negligent in appointing the fiduciary. This bill removes that condition: the VA must now repay misused benefits to veterans regardless of VA negligence.
Who Benefits and How
Veterans and their families are the primary beneficiaries. When a fiduciary steals their benefits, veterans will now be guaranteed reimbursement from the VA. Previously, reimbursement was conditional on proving VA negligence, leaving many victims without recourse. The bill also ensures that if a veteran dies before receiving repayment, their surviving family members can still receive the owed funds.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Department of Veterans Affairs takes on additional financial responsibility, as they must now reimburse all cases of fiduciary misuse rather than only those involving VA negligence. Fraudulent fiduciaries face increased accountability, as the VA is required to make good-faith efforts to recoup misused funds from them. The VA must also establish new oversight methods for determining negligence, though they cannot delay veteran repayments while making these determinations.
Key Provisions
- Mandatory reimbursement: The VA must pay veterans (or their successor fiduciary) an amount equal to benefits misused by a fiduciary, without requiring proof of VA negligence.
- Recoupment requirement: The VA must make good-faith efforts to recover misused funds from the fiduciary and pass any recovered amounts to the veteran.
- Survivor protections: If a veteran dies before being repaid, the funds go to eligible family members under existing VA succession rules (excluding the fiduciary who committed the fraud).
- No delays for oversight: The VA cannot withhold reimbursement while determining whether its own negligence contributed to the misuse.
- Cap on repayment: Total reimbursement cannot exceed the actual amount misused by the fiduciary.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
Amends the law to improve the repayment process when veterans' benefits are misused by a fiduciary, ensuring that beneficiaries receive their rightful payments and establishing oversight for negligence.
Policy Domains
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_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