For your area
De-identified, aggregated findings for the state, district, or region an office is responsible for.
Oversight Portal
Evidence for the people who can fix it — and where to start.
A planned portal where Congress and other oversight bodies can see de-identified findings for their own area, so they know what specifically needs to be corrected instead of guessing.
PlannedNot available yet.
The problem
Oversight can’t fix what it can’t see.
The systems that care for veterans, service members, and first responders are siloed and sprawling. The people responsible for overseeing them often don’t know what specifically needs correcting, or where. The individual stories that show the problems are private — and they should stay private.
Behind The 22 sits in between. We see patterns across many people’s de-identified histories and turn them into findings that don’t reveal anyone.
What the portal will show
Findings for your area, and what to focus on.
Red flags and their root causes
Which warning signs keep recurring, and the root cause each one points to. See examples.
Where to focus first
What could be corrected, so attention goes to specific problems rather than general concern.
Traceable to sources
Findings tie back to public documentation, such as inspector general reports, court decisions, and agency policy, so they can be checked.
What it will never show
No individual’s records. Ever.
- Names, case details, or documents from anyone’s profile
- Anything that would let a person be picked out of the data
Small numbers can point to a person
In a small area, even aggregated counts can sometimes identify someone. We’ll set minimum-size rules for what an area view can show, and publish them before the portal opens.
Nothing in the portal is a claim about any individual person’s cause of injury, illness, or death. It’s a documented pattern across many independently sourced cases and records.
Why area matters
When federal tools run out, states can act.
Veterans’ claims help shows the gap. Federal law says only VA-accredited attorneys, claims agents, and veterans service organizations may be paid to help with disability claims. But Congress repealed the criminal penalties for unaccredited people who charge in 2006, and VA’s main enforcement tool has been a cease-and-desist letter, according to MOAA. The result is a claims-support market that can look like the wild west.
Ohio shows what a state can try. Lawmakers there have proposed two bills — H.B. 708 and H.B. 961 — to regulate unaccredited claims companies. As of late September 2026, reporting said neither had moved. The Congressional Research Service reported in July 2026 that numerous states have enacted legislation to regulate the practice, and that those laws have led to litigation in federal court (CRS). States are where this kind of gap can get addressed, and where an area-level view is most useful: it shows an office what is happening in its own backyard.
We’re citing this as an example of why an area view matters, not as an endorsement of any bill.
Who it’s for
Congress and other oversight bodies.
Members of Congress and their staff, and other oversight offices, such as state legislatures and inspectors general. We’ll publish how access works before the portal opens.
Working on oversight, and want to tell us what you’d need to see? Email research@behindthe22.com.