Department of Veterans Affairs April 1, 2021 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veterans Health Administration (VHA) will facilitate a tribal consultation session to receive attendees' feedback regarding the information and documentation that VA may utilize for identification of veterans who are members of an Indian tribe.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) proposes to amend its adjudication regulations concerning the nature of evidence that VA will accept as proof of military service and character of discharge. In the past, VA only accepted original service documents, copies of service documents issued by the service department or by a public custodian of records, or photocopies of service documents if they were certified to be true copies of documents acceptable to VA by an accredited agent, attorney or service organization representative who had successfully completed VA-prescribed training on military records. This proposed change would allow VA to accept uncertified copies of service documents as evidence of military service if VA is satisfied that the documents are free from alteration. The intended effect of this amendment is to streamline and improve the timeliness of adjudication and claims processing for VA benefitswithout compromising program integrity.