This Act directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to study the feasibility of using distributed ledger technology to enhance the security, transparency, and efficiency of veterans' benefits processing.
Nancy Mace
Representative
SC-1
The Veterans Affairs Distributed Ledger Innovation Act of 2025 directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to study the feasibility of using distributed ledger technology—a secure, shared digital record system—to improve the delivery and security of veterans' benefits. This study must assess how this technology could enhance claims processing, reduce fraud, and increase accountability within the VA system. The resulting report will outline findings, potential benefits and risks, and recommend next steps, including any necessary legislative changes.
VA Mandates One-Year Study on Using Blockchain Tech to Secure Veteran Benefits and Cut Down on Fraud
The Veterans Affairs Distributed Ledger Innovation Act of 2025 is a straight-shot mandate: it requires the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to spend the next year studying whether they can use cutting-edge “distributed ledger technology”—what most people call blockchain—to overhaul how veteran benefits are managed. This isn't about launching a new system tomorrow; it’s about figuring out if secure, shared digital records can make the VA’s processes faster, more transparent, and less prone to fraud.
The Digital Overhaul: Securing Your Claims
At its core, this bill is exploring how to bring the VA’s record-keeping into the 21st century using technology that’s already common in the finance and supply chain worlds. The study is specifically tasked with looking at whether distributed ledger technology (DLT) can make benefit claims clearer, easier to track, and more trustworthy. Think of DLT as a super-secure digital ledger where every step of a benefit decision is logged and verified by a network, making it nearly impossible to tamper with. For a veteran waiting on a disability claim, this could mean seeing exactly where their application is, who touched it last, and why a decision was made, adding a layer of transparency that the current system often lacks.
Targeting Waste and Increasing Accountability
One of the biggest drivers for this study is fraud, waste, and abuse. The bill directs the VA to determine if DLT can cut down on fake or wrong claims because the system can verify things better. For taxpayers, this is a potential win: better data integrity means fewer dollars lost to bad actors. For the VA staff, the bill suggests DLT could increase accountability by securely logging who handles claims and when. The idea is that if the system is transparent and immutable—meaning the records can’t be easily erased or changed—it becomes much harder for activity to slip through the cracks.
The Next Steps: Experts and the Clock
The VA Secretary isn’t doing this alone. The bill requires them to consult with experts in DLT, representatives from veterans service organizations (VSOs), and other federal agencies already using this tech. This is crucial because integrating a complex technology like DLT into a massive, legacy system like the VA’s is a huge undertaking. The Secretary has one year to report back to Congress with their findings. This report must detail the feasibility, the potential upsides and downsides, and—most importantly—suggest specific pilot programs or initiatives. If the study gives a green light, this report will be the blueprint for how the VA moves forward, potentially recommending specific legislative or administrative changes needed to implement the tech in areas like insurance and benefits payments. This study is the first step toward a more secure, transparent, and hopefully less frustrating experience for veterans navigating the benefits system.