H.R. 2828: VA DATA Act of 2025 (119th Congress) Bill Summary

This legislation, known as the **VA DATA Act of 2025**, aims to establish restrictions on how the United States Department of Government Efficiency (often referred to as DOGE) and special Government employees can access and use data related to veterans. The key provisions of the bill include:

Restrictions on Access

The Secretary of Veterans Affairs is prohibited from granting access to any veteran’s data held by the Department of Veterans Affairs to the Administrator of the DOGE. This means that DOGE will not have access to sensitive information concerning veterans.

Restrictions on Usage

Special Government employees are not allowed to access or extract veteran data for personal or commercial benefits. Specifically, they cannot:

Use the data for commercial gain.
Utilize the data for any purpose not authorized by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Termination of Access

When a special Government employee's service ends, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs is responsible for ensuring that:

All veteran data in their possession is returned to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
They do not retain any copies of the veteran data.

Definitions

For clarity, the bill defines several key terms:

Special Government Employee: Defined as per section 202(a) of title 18, United States Code.
Veteran’s Data: This includes personal health information, personal identifying information, and financial information pertaining to individual veterans.
Personal Health Information: Any information related to a veteran's health or medical treatment, as well as billing information related to such treatment.
Personal Identifying Information: Information that could identify a veteran, such as name, Social Security number, and other personal details.

Purpose of the Bill

The bill aims to enhance the protection of veterans' personal information by strictly controlling who can access such data and under what circumstances. The underlying goal is to ensure that veterans’ data remains confidential and is not misused by governmental entities.