A new law will secure a stronger voice for veterans, caregivers, families, and survivors in how the VA delivers care and benefits.

The Veterans Experience Office (VEO), created in 2015, helps VA beneficiaries navigate the department’s complex health care and benefits systems. Over the past decade, the office has improved veteran trust in VA services through better digital access, more responsive feedback channels, and more accountability across the department.

MOAA supported standalone legislation, first introduced in the 118th Congress, to make this office permanent. A Senate bill signed Aug. 14 by the president includes this provision, known as the Improving Veterans’ Experience Act.

By codifying the VEO, Congress ensures its permanence within the VA and strengthens its authority: The office is now formally housed in the VA Office of the Secretary, led by a chief veterans experience officer, with clear mandates to oversee metrics, policies, and feedback-driven improvements across the department.

[RELATED: VA Hospital Ratings Show Gains, But Challenges Remain]

MOAA welcomes this legislation’s passage, which guarantees that veterans’ voices will continue to drive efforts to expand access and enhance the quality of VA services.

Why This Law Matters to Veterans 

• Reliable Veteran Feedback Loop: With the VEO now embedded in law, veterans’ voices will continually inform how care and benefits are delivered.
  
  
• Improved Navigation of VA Services: From streamlined hotlines to better digital platforms like VA.gov, this codification reinforces initiatives making VA engagement simpler and more effective.
  
  
• Stronger Oversight and Policy Impact: Regular reporting from the VEO ensures accountability and helps shape more responsive VA policy.

What’s Next: MOAA’s Ongoing Advocacy

While codifying the VEO marks an important milestone, MOAA continues to push for multiple reforms that would strengthen the VA health care system. Key bills are listed below; links in some of the listings will allow you to reach out to your lawmakers via our Legislative Action Center and urge them to move these pieces of legislation forward:

• Veterans Caregiver Reeducation, Reemployment, and Retirement (3R) Act (H.R. 2148 and S. 879): Provides job training, professional relicensure support, retirement planning, and bereavement counseling to family caregivers who are enrolled in VA’s Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC), which will assist them after their caregiving duties conclude.
  
  
• Veterans’ Assuring Critical Care Expansions to Support Servicemembers (ACCESS) Act (H.R. 740 and S. 275): Expands residential rehabilitation treatment program for veterans with mental health and substance use disorders, particularly in geographic areas where VA services are limited or not available. Also enhances veterans’ access to community care.
  
  
• Improving Veteran Access to Care Act (S. 607): Requires the VA to establish an interdisciplinary patient team to modernize scheduling, coordinate services, and cut wait times.
  
  
• Servicemembers and Veterans Empowerment and Support Act (H.R. 2576 and S. 1245): Strengthens health care and benefits for survivors of military sexual trauma and assault.
  
  

• Veterans Accessibility Advisory Committee Act (S. 1383): Creates an independent advisory body to improve accessibility for veterans with disabilities.
  
  

Your voice makes a difference — and MOAA’s advocacy is strongest when members, friends, and partners speak up together. Help us advance these priorities to improve VA health care, and keep up with the latest on these and other MOAA advocacy efforts by registering at our Legislative Action Center.