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Calling on Secretary of Veterans Affairs to Address Severe Claims Backlog
Posted by Randy | June 11, 2012

Today, I called on Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki to address the underlying causes of the severe claims backlog plaguing the Veterans Benefits Administration.

In spite of considerable efforts to reverse this negative trend, the Department of Veterans Affairs has seen its claims backlog jump from just 390,000 at the beginning of 2009 to over 904,000 at the end of May. Our nation’s veterans have made extraordinary sacrifices, and they are deserving of far more expeditious and accurate claims decisions from the Department of Veterans Affairs.  In some cases our veterans have been forced to wait for months or years to get an adjudicated claims decision – this is simply unacceptable and an egregious breach of faith with those who have served our nation honorably.

In a letter to Secretary Shinseki, I expressed concern that the Department of Veterans Affairs’ actions thus far have not rolled back the enormous claims backlog that has ballooned over the last three years. “Considering that claims receipts are expected to reach 1.25 million in 2013, prompt, substantive action is required to both critically assess and address the root causes of the claims backlog and more importantly implement meaningful reform to the claims processing system,” I wrote.  The full text of the letter is available here.

Current claims backlog figures from the Department of Veterans Affairs are available here.

To read more information on my work on behalf of veterans, please visit my website here.

Comments
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  • Thomas G commented on 6/11/2012
    Obviously the department is overwhelmed and having been involved with government finance operations in the past, the answer is simple congressman. There are not enough workers because of years of attacks on the personnel budgets. It is noteworthy that the republican party during your tenure, for the first time in 50 years refused to allow veterans groups to address the congress on Veterans Day where issues like this are elevated. I see no mention of any measure to acknowledge the need for funding in this inquiry. When you see an explosion of claims of this magnitude resources become an obvious solution. Now, could you please explain why you have done nothing at all since last September to bring the President's Jobs proposal up for a vote? Never in my lifetime have I seen such a lazy congress, even worse than the famous 'Do Nothing Congress.'
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