Lawmakers propose to establish AI guardrails for VA in FY27 funding

Proposed amendments to the fiscal year 2027 funding bill for the Department of Veterans Affairs include several measures seeking to limit the use of decisional or unapproved artificial intelligence tools by the agency. 

The House Rules Committee is set to hold a hearing on the VA funding proposal and proposed amendments Tuesday afternoon. The FY27 funding package passed out of the House Appropriations Committee last month. 

Separate proposals offered by Reps. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., and James Walkinshaw, D-Va., specifically call for additional oversight of VA’s uses of AI to ensure they are being deployed appropriately. Although both proposed amendments may not make it into the final funding package voted on by the full House, they signal lingering lawmaker unease about the VA’s use of the emerging capabilities to augment department operations.

Gosar’s measure would block VA funding from being used “to make a final determination with respect to the approval or denial of a claim for disability compensation under the laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs using artificial intelligence.”

VA has used AI and automation to speed up its processing of veterans benefits claims, although some lawmakers and veteran service organizations have expressed concern about officials ceding too much of their decisionmaking authority to the technologies. The agency has stressed that humans always make the final claims decisions and that the AI tools act as more of an automated information retrieval system.

Gosar spokesman Anthony Foti said the congressman’s amendment would “establish a clear safeguard within the VA disability claims process” to ensure that human reviewers always make the final decisions, adding that Gosar “believes it is important to establish appropriate guardrails before these technologies are relied upon for consequential adjudicative decisions.”

Even though VA is already leveraging some AI tools to speed up benefits processing, the agency is looking to further expand its suite of claims-focused technologies. VA’s 2025 AI use case inventory, which was released in January, included 28 instances of the technologies being leveraged for claims processing, with the majority of these examples still listed as being in the pre-deployment phase. 

“Disability determinations often involve nuanced medical evidence, individualized circumstances, and credibility assessments that require human judgment and oversight,” Foti said. “The amendment is designed to ensure that AI serves as a support tool — not as the final decision-maker — in matters directly impacting veterans’ healthcare access, financial stability, and earned benefits.”

Walkinshaw’s amendment, meanwhile, looks to address uses of the emerging capabilities that may be operating without agency oversight. 

Within 180 days of the funding bill’s enactment, Walkinshaw’s proposal would require VA to submit a report to relevant congressional committees detailing “the use of unapproved artificial intelligence models or artificial intelligence-powered applications, also known as ‘’shadow AI’’, within information technology networks of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and any cybersecurity risks and data exposure vulnerabilities introduced by such use.”

These ‘shadow’ uses of AI often entail employees using technology not approved by the agency to conduct work and that operate outside of traditional restrictions.

Walkinshaw’s office was not able to immediately respond to a request for comment.