Skip to content
CIVIC HERALD
HR 3132 · 119th Congress · HouseOther

CHOICE for Veterans Act of 2025

In plain language: This bill allows accredited attorneys and claims agents to charge regulated, contingency-based fees to help veterans file initial VA benefit claims, while establishing criminal penalties for unauthorized consultants who charge for claims assistance. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) must notify claimants about free representation from recognized service organizations and provide tools to look up accredited agents or report illegal fees. To guard against exploitation, the measure prohibits fees for active-duty personnel and standard presumptive conditions, bans the sale of veterans' personal data, and extends existing payment caps on certain Medicaid-covered nursing home pensions through April 2032.

Provisional: our plain-language summary, pending review.

Provisionalunreviewed: impact, issue tags, provisions, stakeholders, summary
People affected—The text applies broadly to VA claimants, accredited agents, attorneys, and non-accredited claims preparers, but does not specify numerical counts.
Fiscal magnitude—CBO cost estimate published (H.R. 3132, Certified Help Options in Claims Expertise for Veterans Act of 2025, 2025-06-20); dollar figure pending review extraction — see receipt
Reach62provisional · pending reviewrigor: heuristic llm
Your matchSign in →See how this matches your values.

Issues

What this bill touches.

Market protections+55Sentencing & corrections−35Personal data & privacy+40Federal vs. state/local+45Ethics & oversight+45

The sign shows the bill's direction on each issue (+ toward, − away); the number is its magnitude. Color never encodes good or bad, and never party.

Who it affects

Who it helps · who it burdens.

Who it helps

  • Veterans and VA benefit claimantsGains access to public directories of accredited representatives, notices of free help options from recognized veterans organizations, protections against upfront or excessive fees, bans on fees for active-duty or presumptive claims, and protections against the sale of personal data.provisional
  • Applicants for VA claims agent or attorney recognitionReceive automatic one-year conditional recognition if the VA does not complete review within 180 days, gain access to an on-demand online knowledge test, and cannot be disqualified solely for having previously charged initial claim fees or working for a nonprofit.provisional

Who it burdens

  • Accredited VA claims agents and attorneysSubject to contingency-only fee restrictions, fee caps, prohibitions on fees for active-duty or presumptive claims, bans on data sales and overseas call center use, higher continuing legal education requirements, and penalties up to $50,000 for rule violations.provisional
  • Unauthorized individuals charging fees for VA claims assistanceFaces criminal penalties, including fines and up to one year in prison, for soliciting, contracting for, charging, or receiving unauthorized fees to help individuals with VA claims.provisional
  • Medicaid-covered veterans residing in nursing homesSubject to a multi-month extension (through April 30, 2032) of the statutory limit reducing monthly VA pension payments for certain Medicaid-covered nursing home residents.provisional

Who backs it

  • Fee-charging accredited claims agents and attorneysPays an administrative assessment of up to $500 collected by the VA and deposited into a revolving fund to finance the administration of the representative recognition program.provisional

Dollar-level funding (FEC sector totals) is coming in a later phase.

What it does

The provisions, in plain language.

  1. Requires the VA to notify unrepresented claimants that free help is available from recognized veterans organizations, and to maintain an online public directory of accredited representatives and a portal to report unauthorized fee chargers.

    Sec. 2(a)provisional

  2. Establishes an application process for claims agents and attorneys, automatically granting one-year conditional recognition if the VA takes longer than 180 days to review an application, and prohibits disqualifying applicants solely for having previously charged fees for initial claims.

    Sec. 3(a)(1)(A)provisional

  3. Prohibits accredited agents and attorneys from charging fees for active-duty claims, presumptive service-connected disabilities, or self-caused supplemental claim delays, and forbids restricting a claimant's right to end representation before a decision.

    Sec. 3(a)(1)(B)provisional

  4. Expands grounds for suspending or banning representatives to include privacy violations, selling veteran data, receiving fees for referring claimants to affiliated medical providers, or using overseas call centers.

    Sec. 3(a)(2)provisional

  5. Restricts fee agreements on initial and supplemental claims to contingency-based arrangements payable only after a favorable decision, caps allowable fees, requires standard disclosures of free alternatives, and requires installment payment options when fees exceed past-due awards.

    Sec. 3(a)(3)provisional

  6. Imposes criminal penalties of fines, up to one year in prison, or both for soliciting, charging, or receiving unauthorized fees for assisting with VA claims.

    Sec. 4(a)provisional

  7. Establishes a $50,000 fine, revocation of recognition, and a multi-year ban from practicing before the VA for any conditionally recognized representative who violates VA rules.

    Sec. 4(a)provisional

  8. Preempts state laws that conflict with representation rights established under the Act.

    Sec. 7provisional

How your members of Congress line up

Loading your members of Congress…

Timeline

How it moved.

  1. May 6, 2025Ordered to be Reported by the Yeas and Nays: 12 - 11.
  2. May 1, 2025Introduced in House
  3. May 1, 2025Introduced in House

The original text

Read it for yourself.

Read the original text →

Sources & provenance

Congress.govrefreshed 9 days ago

Checking your session…