Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Flexibility and Oversight Act”.
Flexibility and Oversight Act
A BILL
To amend title 38, United States Code, to authorize the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to transfer funds among certain scholarship and debt reduction programs.
Sec. 2 Transfer authority among certain programs
In general—
Transfer authority— Subchapter IV of chapter 76 of title 38, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new section:
“7637. Transfer authority
“(a) Authority—Subject to subsection (b), the Secretary of Veterans Affairs may transfer funds made available to the Secretary to carry out a covered program between that covered program and another covered program. Funds so transferred shall be merged with and be available for the same purposes as the funds to which transferred.
“(b) Certification—The Secretary may make a transfer under subsection (a) if—
“(1) the Secretary determines that such transfer will improve the quality of service provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs to veterans;
“(2) the Secretary notifies Congress of such determination and justification for such transfer; and
“(3) a period of 30 days has elapsed following the date of such notification.
“(c) Effect—A transfer made from one account to another under the authority of this section shall be deemed to increase the amount authorized for the account to which the amount is transferred by an amount equal to the amount transferred.
“(d) Covered program defined—In this section, the term covered program means any of the following:
“(1) The Department of Veterans Affairs Health Professional Scholarship Program under subchapter II of this chapter.
“(2) The Department of Veterans Affairs Employee Incentive Scholarship Program under subchapter VI of this chapter.
“(3) The Department of Veterans Affairs Education Debt Reduction Program under subchapter VII of this chapter.
“(4) The education debt reduction program under section 7903 of this title.”
Clerical amendment— The table of sections at the beginning of such chapter is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 7636 the following new item:
Reports— Section 7632 of such title is amended by adding at the end the following paragraph:
“(8) During the 10-year period beginning on March 1, 2016, an evaluation of the efficacy of the programs in increasing the quality of health care provided to veterans, opportunities for improvement, and other matters the Secretary determines appropriate.”