U.S. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) is supporting a bipartisan bill that aims to stifle predatory practices used by claim sharks, which spam government lines with auto-dialers to collect information about benefits for America’s military veterans.
The congressman on March 26 cosponsored the Veterans Benefits Information Protection Act, H.R. 8120, with bill sponsor U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH) to amend current law by prohibiting auto-dialers from making calls to a telephone number assigned to a federal department or agency.
“Our veterans should never be targeted by bad actors trying to profit off their hard-earned benefits — many at great cost to veterans and their families,” Rep. Bacon said. “The Veterans Benefits Information Protection Act takes a commonsense approach to crack down on predatory practices and protect veterans from exploitation.”
Currently, unaccredited claims representatives, or claim sharks, are not subject to standards of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). They avoid regulatory oversight and as a result, may engage in predatory and unethical practices that target veterans and rob them of their VA benefits.
Federal laws and regulations prohibit anyone from assisting a veteran in the preparation, presentation, or prosecution of a VA benefit claim, or charging a fee for this assistance, without accreditation from the VA.
However, the VA and other federal agencies are limited in enforcing existing law because explicit criminal penalties were stripped from statute nearly two decades ago, resulting in a rise of unaccredited claims representatives, according to a bill summary provided by the lawmakers.
H.R. 8120 would help safeguard veterans’ personal information, protect VA claims support, and ensure veterans remain in control of their earned benefits.
“My legislation would prohibit the use of robocallers to spam government lines to shield veterans from this predatory practice,” said Rep. Pappas. “I will continue to combat these predatory practices, reign in claim sharks, and safeguard the benefits our veterans have earned.”
The measure is supported by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the New Hampshire Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Military Officers Association of America, The American Legion, the National Association of County Veteran Service Officers, and the National Organization of Veterans’ Advocates.