VA must tell vets about free help and warn about fees.
H.R. 1578 — Veterans Claims Education Act of 2025 · Filed by Scott Peters (D-CA) · 9 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 25, 2025 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
The bill makes the VA tell vets they can get free help. The VA must keep an online list of approved helpers that vets can search. The VA must post warnings about fees on its websites. Agents and lawyers may charge high fees. The VA must review how it approves helpers and report back within 180 days. A technical change extends a pension payment deadline to March 31, 2032.
Who it affects
Vets filing claims learn about free help and fee risks. Vets can find approved helpers through an online list. It becomes easier for vets to find real, often free, help.
One thing to notice
The bill requires the VA to warn vets about fees and post a list. It does not control how much agents and lawyers can charge.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
9 cosponsors: 5 Democrats, 4 Republicans.
- Feb 25, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Feb 25, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Veterans' Affairs and Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs”
- Apr 9, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Subcommittee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- May 19, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 75”
- May 19, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H2133-2134)”
- May 19, 2025 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Bost moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
4 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 7 reports from Dec 2025 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $909,800 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 81 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 72% of bills with any report.
Scott Peters, who sponsored the bill, received $1,174,750 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Cornell University — $360,000 in 1 report
- Disabled American Veterans — $310,451 in 2 reports
- Paralyzed Veterans of America — $199,349 in 2 reports
- Ree Medical LLC — $40,000 in 2 reports
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- approved helpers — People the VA says can help vets file claims.
- agents — People who help vets with claims and may charge fees.
- online list — A searchable website where vets can find approved helpers.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,460 characters) on Jul 2, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 21, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-23.
“VA must tell vets about free help and warn about fees.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr1578/simple Report an error