The bill
Fraud Reduction And Uncovering Deception (FRAUD) in VA Disability Exams Act
HR. 5723, 119th Congress.
Sponsored by
Rep. Takano, Mark [D-CA-39]
ID: T000472
Follow the money
The bill
HR. 5723, 119th Congress.
The sponsor
Every bill has someone who introduced it. That name is where the paper trail starts.
The money
25 itemised contributions to this sponsor, pulled from FEC filings.
The alignment
This bill's text tracks the "Introduction" section, p. 682-684 of the Mandate for Leadership.
Track this bill's progress through the legislative process
Latest Action
Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by Voice Vote.
May 13, 2026
📍 Current Status
Next: The bill will be reviewed by relevant committees who will debate, amend, and vote on it.
1. Introduction: A member of Congress introduces a bill in either the House or Senate.
2. Committee Review: The bill is sent to relevant committees for study, hearings, and revisions.
3. Floor Action: If approved by committee, the bill goes to the full chamber for debate and voting.
4. Other Chamber: If passed, the bill moves to the other chamber (House or Senate) for the same process.
5. Conference: If both chambers pass different versions, a conference committee reconciles the differences.
6. Presidential Action: The President can sign the bill into law, veto it, or take no action.
7. Became Law: If signed (or if Congress overrides a veto), the bill becomes law!
(sigh) Oh joy, another bill that's about as effective as a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. Let's dissect this farce.
**Main Purpose & Objectives:** The FRAUD Act (because who doesn't love an acronym?) claims to reduce and uncover deception in VA disability exams. How noble. Its primary objective is to identify and report instances of fraud related to disability benefit questionnaire forms. Wow, what a bold move – trying to prevent people from lying about their disabilities. I'm sure this will be a game-changer.
**Key Provisions & Changes to Existing Law:** The bill amends title 38 of the United States Code by adding a new section (5322) that requires the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to:
1. Implement a process to identify fraudulent activity in disability benefit questionnaire forms. 2. Establish a recurring audit of these forms. 3. Inform individuals suspected of submitting false information.
Oh, and it also gives the Inspector General some extra authority to investigate suspected fraud. Because, you know, that's not already their job.
**Affected Parties & Stakeholders:** Veterans (or rather, those who claim to be veterans), the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Office of the Inspector General. And, of course, the politicians who get to pretend they're doing something about "waste, fraud, and abuse" in government programs.
**Potential Impact & Implications:** This bill is a classic case of "legislative theater." It's designed to make lawmakers look like they're taking action against corruption, while actually accomplishing very little. The provisions are vague, and the enforcement mechanisms are weak. It's a paper tiger, meant to appease voters who think the government should be doing more to prevent waste.
In reality, this bill will likely lead to:
* More bureaucratic red tape for legitimate veterans trying to access benefits. * Increased costs for audits and investigations that may not yield significant results. * A false sense of security among lawmakers and voters, thinking they've actually addressed a problem.
Diagnosis: This bill is suffering from a bad case of " Politician's Disease" – a condition characterized by an excessive need for self-aggrandizement, a lack of actual policy substance, and a healthy dose of hypocrisy. Treatment involves a strong dose of skepticism, a pinch of cynicism, and a healthy disregard for the spin doctors in Washington.
Rep. Takano, Mark [D-CA-39]
Congress 119 • 2024 Election Cycle
No committee contributions found
Hub layout: Politicians in center, donors arranged by type in rings around them.
Showing 54 nodes and 25 connections (59 secondary connections hidden)
Total contributions: $81,900
Showing top 20 donors by contribution amount
This bill shows semantic similarity to the following sections of the Project 2025 policy document.
— 649 — Department of Veterans Affairs approaches and technology tools that currently exist in the private sector could be employed to improve existing VBA activities. This problem is most pronounced in the disability claims process, which needs more and better management attention focused on streamlining the procedures involved in processing claims and administering benefits. The VA must improve timeliness of claim adjudication and benefits delivery: Veterans want the VBA to provide timely responses to requests for benefits support, render empathetic customer service and understandable explanations of those benefits, and deliver those benefits without frustrating delays (weeks, not months). l Identify performance targets for benefits, report publicly on actual performance each quarter, and use these metrics to drive consistent improvement. l Develop a new pilot “Express 30” commitment for a veteran’s first fully developed disability compensation claim and organize the VBA to complete the first claim in 30 days. l Hire more private companies to perform disability medical examinations. Delays in completing the examinations could be eliminated with more external capacity. l Increase automation. Hiring additional staff to process claims is costly, is inflexible, and has yielded mixed results. Attempting to change laws and regulations simply to adjudicate claims would be a herculean effort given their complexity. The best way to provide benefits faster and more accurately is by using technology to perform most of the work. Technology currently exists in the private sector, but the VBA lacks the expertise to use it. This would be more of an organizational challenge than a technology hurdle. l Reduce improper payment and fraud. About $500 million is improperly paid out each year. Better tools, training, and management could reduce this substantially, but rule changes at the departmental level would be needed. Budget The VA’s Schedule for Rating Disabilities (VASRD) has assigned disability ratings to a growing number of health conditions over time; some are tenuously related or wholly unrelated to military service. The further growth in presumptive service-connected medical conditions pursued by Congress and Veteran Service Organizations, begun with Agent Orange and most recently for Burn Pits/Airborne — 650 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise Toxins, has led to historic increases in mandatory VBA spending in recent years. The VA has a time-phased plan to reassess the VASRD and its ratings for com- pensation, but this internal process can be slow and laborious, requires Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approvals, and can become politically charged both in Congress and with VSOs. l The next Administration should explore how VASRD reviews could be accelerated with clearance from OMB to target significant cost savings from revising disability rating awards for future claimants while preserving them fully or partially for existing claimants. l The VBA’s Information Technology top-line budget should be reexamined and reassessed in light of the need for expanded automation across the enterprise. l Traditionally, VHA captures the large majority of VA IT funding. The VBA needs to make the case for a larger IT budget with clear requirements to support that request. Personnel l Pursue reforms of the Human Capital Management process and operations within the VBA to build a more blended workforce with more contractors to process claims. This would free federal employees to perform other duties and be involved solely with the final decision to award benefits. l Improve the VBA acquisition workforce. The VBA needs more world-class contractor support. Currently, few of the top companies have contracts with the VBA, and the VBA needs to conduct more outreach to the private sector through senior leader engagement and industry conferences. l To identify more effective and efficient ways to complete claims, establish a knowledge exchange program with top-tier private-sector companies that do similar work. The VBA is fundamentally a financial services organization. A significant amount of its work has a private-sector analogue that could be leveraged to improve service to veterans. l For most of its existence, the VBA has been a risk-averse, insular, paper-based organization, implementing technology only over the past decade. This insularity has led to a predominantly “build it ourselves” approach, partly because VBA staff has limited experience or insight into current private- sector tools and methods and partly because the VBA struggles to compete
— 649 — Department of Veterans Affairs approaches and technology tools that currently exist in the private sector could be employed to improve existing VBA activities. This problem is most pronounced in the disability claims process, which needs more and better management attention focused on streamlining the procedures involved in processing claims and administering benefits. The VA must improve timeliness of claim adjudication and benefits delivery: Veterans want the VBA to provide timely responses to requests for benefits support, render empathetic customer service and understandable explanations of those benefits, and deliver those benefits without frustrating delays (weeks, not months). l Identify performance targets for benefits, report publicly on actual performance each quarter, and use these metrics to drive consistent improvement. l Develop a new pilot “Express 30” commitment for a veteran’s first fully developed disability compensation claim and organize the VBA to complete the first claim in 30 days. l Hire more private companies to perform disability medical examinations. Delays in completing the examinations could be eliminated with more external capacity. l Increase automation. Hiring additional staff to process claims is costly, is inflexible, and has yielded mixed results. Attempting to change laws and regulations simply to adjudicate claims would be a herculean effort given their complexity. The best way to provide benefits faster and more accurately is by using technology to perform most of the work. Technology currently exists in the private sector, but the VBA lacks the expertise to use it. This would be more of an organizational challenge than a technology hurdle. l Reduce improper payment and fraud. About $500 million is improperly paid out each year. Better tools, training, and management could reduce this substantially, but rule changes at the departmental level would be needed. Budget The VA’s Schedule for Rating Disabilities (VASRD) has assigned disability ratings to a growing number of health conditions over time; some are tenuously related or wholly unrelated to military service. The further growth in presumptive service-connected medical conditions pursued by Congress and Veteran Service Organizations, begun with Agent Orange and most recently for Burn Pits/Airborne
Policy matches are calculated using semantic similarity between bill summaries and Project 2025 policy text. A score of 60% or higher indicates meaningful thematic overlap. This does not imply direct causation or intent, but highlights areas where legislation aligns with Project 2025 policy objectives.