38 U.S.C. § 7731 — Establishment

(a) Program. The Secretary^* must operate a quality-assurance program in the Veterans Benefits Administration. It may use one quality-assurance division or separate entities for each principal organizational element, called “services.”

(b) Standards. Each quality-assurance entity must meet generally applicable government standards for independence and internal controls when reviewing government performance and results.

(c) Assessment and data. (1) For the three years beginning on enactment of the Veterans’ Benefits Improvement Act of 2008, the Secretary must contract with an independent third party to assess the program. (2) The assessment must evaluate (A) employee work quality and accuracy using statistically valid samples of employees and work; (B) each regional office’s performance; (C) disability-rating accuracy under section 1155; (D) consistency of ratings among regional offices using specific-disability samples; and (E) employee and manager performance. (3) The Secretary must create automated gathering and production of data to monitor and assess trends in those matters. (4)(A) Beginning six months after enactment, for each disability-compensation^* claim submitted on or after that date, the Secretary must retain, monitor, and accessibly store the data in (B), and develop a demographic baseline. (B) The data includes, for each claimant’s claim, (i)(I) the claimant’s State^* of residence when submitted, (II) the Secretary’s decision on the claim and each claimed issue, and (III) the responsible regional office and Department^* employee; (ii) the claimant’s current State; and (iii) other data the Secretary considers appropriate to monitor decision accuracy and consistency. (5) This subsection does not require replacing the quality-assurance program that existed the day before this subsection was enacted.