The Veterans' Administration's Proposed Amendment to Title 38 U.S.C. 3301

Proposed legislation to amend Title 38 U.S.C. 3301 would permit the disclosure of names, addresses, and other information maintained by the Veterans Administration (VA) to commercial credit bureaus. The purpose of this information is to allow VA to use consumer reporting agencies in its debt collection process. Many debts result from overpayments by the Federal Government. When amounts owed the Federal Government are not paid, or payment is late, the Government is deprived of the current use of funds, its losses due to bad debts increase, and its administrative workload goes up. The proposed revisions would permit VA to adopt two commercial debt collection practices: reporting debts to credit bureaus and using credit bureau debtor locator services. Currently, VA collects debts through its Centralized Accounts Receivable System (CARS) located in St. Paul, Minnesota. GAO supports the need to amend 38 U.S.C. 3301 to allow disclosure of veterans' names, addresses, and debt information to consumer reporting agencies. These disclosures are consistent with revisions to the Federal Claims Collection Standards.