The full House of Representatives this week passed H.R. 7342, the Veterans Accessibility Advisory Committee Act of 2024, a bipartisan bill that would, if passed by the U.S. Senate and signed into law by the President, require VA to create an advisory committee to address accessibility of the Department’s benefits, services, and facilities for veterans and employees with sight loss and other disabilities in the areas of mobility, hearing, and cognitive functions.

Because of known opposition and expected efforts by VA to subvert the process in the Senate and kill the bill, S. 2516, BVA will send out a Call-To-Action next week urging blind and low vision veterans to contact their Senators via CiviClick, a platform that will simultaneously launch on the BVA website.

The bills in both chambers have been championed by BVA since last February when Representative David Valdao (R-CA-21), alongside lead cosponsor Representative Morgan McGarvey (D-KY-3), introduced the House bill to allow, through the proposed committee, direct and regular communications with the VA Secretary on behalf of disabled veterans who are far too often getting left behind in accessing the information, benefits, and services they’ve earned.

Representative Valdao said that the advisory committee will ensure that veterans with disabilities, including blind and visually impaired veterans, have a seat at the table in providing feedback directly to the Secretary of the VA.

If enacted, H.R. 7342 would require the advisory committee to be composed of 15 disabled veterans, experts, employees, and veteran service organization representatives, according to a bill summary provided by Representative Valadao’s Washington office. 

The committee would provide informal consultations and advice to the VA Secretary and other VA officials, as well as formal reports. The bill would also abolish an inactive or defunct VA advisory committee to control the growth of such advisory committees and ensure that resources are being allocated properly, the summary says.

The U.S. Senate received the approved House bill for consideration on Sept. 18. Readers of BVA Happenings should be on the alert for the CiviClick Constant Contact Call-To-Action to be issued next week.