House bill would prioritize legally experienced candidates for Board of Veterans’ Appeals

Ms. Brownley (for herself and Mr. Grijalva) introduced H.R. 659, the "Veterans Law Judge Experience Act of 2025," on Jan. 23, 2025; the measure was referred to the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and was later printed and placed on the Union Calendar (Union Calendar No. 263).

The bill would add a new paragraph to subsection (a) of 38 U.S.C. § 7101A directing the Chairman of the Board of Veterans’ Appeals to give priority, when recommending individuals to the Secretary to serve as members of the Board, to candidates who have "three or more years of legal professional experience in areas that pertain to the laws administered by the Secretary." The statutory text included in the bill does not further define which legal practice areas qualify beyond the phrase in the bill.

The printed document records additional sponsors and procedural notes dated Sept. 26, 2025, listing Mr. Soto, Mrs. Ramirez and Mr. Garcia of California as additional sponsors and indicating the bill was committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed. No committee actions, hearings, votes, or amendments beyond the text in the printed bill are recorded in this document.

Because the text is the introduced bill, there is no recorded vote or formal Board appointment action in this document; the next step according to the text is referral to committee. The bill’s operative change is limited to the Chairman’s recommendation process; it does not itself appoint members or change appointment authority in this text.

The bill identifies the short title as the "Veterans Law Judge Experience Act of 2025" and explicitly amends title 38 of the United States Code. The bill does not specify implementation deadlines, funding, or appropriations related to the change in recommendation priority.