VA gets dedicated fraud officer to protect veterans from scams
H.R. 1663 — VSAFE Act of 2025 · Filed by Ken Calvert (R-CA) · 13 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 27, 2025 · Passed chamber
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What it does
This bill creates a new Veterans Scam and Fraud Evasion Officer position within the Department of Veterans Affairs to coordinate fraud prevention, educate veterans and employees, operate a fraud hotline and website, and work across federal agencies to protect veterans from scams and identity theft. The position sunsets in 2030, and the bill also extends a pension payment deadline by two months.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is establishing a dedicated federal officer and coordination mechanism to prevent and respond to fraud targeting veterans—a straightforward public-safety and consumer-protection measure with no private beneficiaries or market implications.
- Section 3 extends a pension payment deadline from January 31, 2033 to March 31, 2033 under 38 U.S.C. § 5503(d)(7)—unrelated to fraud prevention.
What the text implies
- The VSAFE Fraud Hotline and VSAFE.gov website are referenced as existing resources but their current scope, staffing, and effectiveness are not detailed in the bill—the officer's success depends on the adequacy of these pre-existing tools.
- The bill requires coordination with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, IRS, DOJ, and other agencies but does not establish binding interagency agreements or appropriations—effectiveness depends on voluntary cooperation and existing agency capacity.
- The sunset clause (September 30, 2030) means the position terminates in five years unless Congress reauthorizes it; veterans may lose this centralized resource if reauthorization is not prioritized.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Veterans and their families gain a dedicated federal resource for fraud prevention, education, and reporting, with coordination across agencies to improve protection against scams targeting a vulnerable population. The position is time-limited (sunsets 2030) and does not increase overall VA staffing, so it reallocates existing resources to a public-safety function.
Named in the bill
Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Scam and Fraud Evasion Officer, VSAFE Fraud Hotline, VSAFE.gov, Office of Inspector General, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Internal Revenue Service, Department of Justice, Department of Defense, Social Security Administration
Where it stands
13 cosponsors: 13 Republicans.
- Feb 27, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Feb 27, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Veterans' Affairs and Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs”
- Jun 11, 2025 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Subcommittee Hearings Held”
- Jul 23, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Jul 23, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by Voice Vote”
- Jan 20, 2026 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H937-938)”
- Jan 20, 2026 — 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
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 4 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $509,800 in lobbying spend. A filing names 139 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Ken Calvert, the sponsor, reported $1,368,100 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Disabled American Veterans — $310,451 on 2 filings
- Paralyzed Veterans of America — $199,349 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 21, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,733 characters) on Jun 10, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 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 2026-10-20.
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