Privacy Policy

Thank you for visiting the web site of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Protecting the personal privacy of individuals who use the Internet is a priority of the Committee.  As Committee Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity to describe to you the policies the Committee has put in place to safeguard your privacy. 

The Committee's Internet privacy policy is essentially as follows:  The web site collects no personal information about you when you visit the site unless you choose to provide that information to the Committee during your visit so that the Committee may respond to an issue you have raised.

Information Collected and Stored Automatically

More broadly, the U.S. Senate collects aggregate data about visits to Senate web sites, such as statistics that show which parts of each web site were visited the most. The following information is also collected when you visit any U.S. Senate web site: The domain from which you access the Senate web site, the date and time of your visit, the pages you visit, and the address of the web site, if any, that provided the link from which you reached the Senate site. This information is gathered only for the purpose of enabling the Senate to improve the online service provided to visitors to Senate web sites.  Again, no individual identifying or personal information (such as your name) is automatically gathered when you visit any Senate web site.  The Committee web site does not use 'cookies' or other means to track your visit to this site in any way. To learn more about the Senate's Internet security and privacy policy online, please go to this address: http://www.senate.gov/security.html.

If You Send the Committee Personal Information

This web site will not collect any personal information when you visit the site unless you choose to provide that information to the Committee. The web site has an online web form that you can use to contact the Committee by sending an electronic mail message expressing your views or concerns.  To send an e-mail to the Committee, the online web form asks you for your name, address, e-mail address, and, if you wish, your home or work telephone numbers. The Committee may use this information provided by you to respond to the matter about which you expressed your views. This information may be shared with Committee staff so they can help the Committee in responding to your message.

If you are requesting help with an individual problem you are having with VA, the Committee encourages you to send or email your request to your home-state Senator, who is in a better position to assist you.  The Committee does not have the resources to assist the many individuals who contact the Committee, and Committee staff therefore refers casework to an individual's home-state Senator.

When a veteran raises an issue appropriate for Committee oversight activities, the Committee may address the oversight issue, which may result in some action on an individual case.  In such instances, it may be may be necessary for the Committee  to share personal information with VA or another governmental agency. 

Information submitted to the Committee, electronic or otherwise, is not subject to release by this office under the Freedom of Information Act or the Privacy Act. A discussion of your rights under these laws can be found at http://www.firstgov.gov/Topics/Reference_Shelf/FOIA.shtml. Other than when needed: 1) to carry out the Committee's oversight responsibilities; 2) in the course of a legal proceeding or authorized law enforcement investigation or emergency posing an imminent risk to public safety; or, 3) to provide assistance with casework by the home-state Senator, the Committee will share no personal information communicated through the Committee's web site with any outside organization or individual.

Committee staff may tabulate comments received through the Committee's web site concerning legislation and government policy issues so that that the Committee may be more fully informed about the views expressed by veterans and others writing on their behalf. From time to time, the Committee comes across a comment made by a writer, or a situation described by a writer in an e-mail message (as well as postal mail, phone calls, and faxes) that makes a point of such general interest that I would like to refer to it in a speech, or include it in the Congressional Record, or make some other use of it, either in connection with debate in the Senate or by sharing it with VA.  Committee staff make every effort in such instances to contact the author first. If you intend your message to be confidential, and would prefer that it not be used in such a way, please feel free to advise the Committee of your preference in the message, so the Committee can respect your wishes and see that your views are held entirely within the Committee offices.

Links to Other Sites

The Committee's  web site has links to other useful sites on the Internet, including sites for VA and veterans' services organizations.   If you follow any link that takes you to a location that does not include 'senate.gov' in the address, you will have left the Senate web server and you will need to refer to that site's own privacy policy.

Site Security

For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this Government computer system employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. Anyone using this system expressly consents to such monitoring. Any abuse or unauthorized use of this system could be subject to penalty.


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