The VA CVE appears to have survived a Congressional effort to strip the CVE of its verification function.

In May, the House of Representatives included a provision in the 2015 NDAA that would have required the CVE to transfer SDVOSB verification to the SBA.  But after negotiations with the Senate, the House passed a new version of the 2015 NDAA last week–and the new version omits the verification transfer provision.

Under the original House-passed NDAA, the VA would have been required to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding within 180 days, under which the VA would ultimately transfer control and administration of the SDVOSB verification program to the SBA.  The original House-passed NDAA also required the VA to immediately begin using the SBA’s definition of a SDVOSB instead of the VA’s separate definition.

Neither provision survived negotiations with the Senate.

Last week, the House passed a revised version of the 2015 NDAA on a vote of 300 – 119.  The revised NDAA does not require the CVE to transfer verification to the SBA, nor does it require the VA to forego its own SDVOSB definition in favor of the SBA’s.  According to Congressional newspaper The Hill, the revised House bill is expected to be approved by the Senate.

Assuming that the revised version of the NDAA passes the Senate and is signed into law, the CVE has dodged a major bullet.  Although the CVE remains unpopular with some service-disabled veterans, almost everyone who has regularly dealt with the CVE concedes that the CVE’s performance and processes have improved significantly in recent months.  That being the case, the CVE may not face any similar existential threats in the near future–but that remains to be seen.