Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS -- (Senate - June 07, 2007)

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By Mr. FEINGOLD:

S. 1569. A bill to establish a pilot program on the provision of legal services to assist veterans and members of the Armed Forces receive health care, benefits and services, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, today I am introducing the Veterans Advocacy Act of 2007. This bill would create a grant program for organizations providing pro bono legal representation to servicemembers and veterans to ensure that they receive the health care and benefits to which they are entitled.

The men and women of the Armed Services have served this Nation honorably and deserve the best health care and benefits available. However, as recent revelations about the extent of bureaucratic delays at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center demonstrate, these brave individuals face a series of hurdles as they navigate the health care and disability compensation processes. Many of them are forced to turn to their representatives in Congress for help cutting through the red tape. I have heard from many military personnel and veterans who are frustrated with the system or unaware of Federal health care and other benefits for which they may be eligible. I regret that the system too often makes the burden of proving that a condition is related to military service nearly insurmountable. Our men and women in uniform deserve the benefit of the doubt, and should not have to fight the Department of Defense or the Department of Veterans Affairs for benefits that they have earned through their service to our Nation.

Numerous reports have detailed the range of administrative and legal hurdles injured servicemembers will face when they return home. Service members returning with unprecedented rates of post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, and traumatic brain injury, TBI, will struggle to get the medical records they need to file benefits claims. Those with severe TBI that does not show up on brain scans will have an even harder time establishing that they need compensation. Those with profound TBI may be prematurely relegated to care in a nursing home when, with proper assistance, they may be fully capable of living independent lives in the community. The Government Accountability Office reported that over 75 percent of servicemembers who screen positive for PTSD will not be referred to a mental health professional. Members of the Guard and Reserves face additional hurdles to gain access to military doctors. This is unacceptable.

I commend my colleagues for their support of increased funding for the military and veterans' health care systems in the 2007 emergency supplemental. However, I am concerned that unless veterans have independent advocates to ensure that they are receiving top notch care and that they are aware of the benefits to which they are entitled, these additional funds may be mismanaged. Last November, the Government Accountability Office reported that for the last two years the Department of Veterans Affairs has not expended all the funds allocated for mental health initiatives. My bill would ensure that service members and veterans who have trouble accessing the care to which they are entitled will have an advocate outside the chain of command who can negotiate with the Departments to ensure proper care.

In addition to helping ensure that service members and veterans receive top notch care, my bill would help service members and veterans overcome legal barriers to obtaining benefits. During the Veterans' Affairs Committee's hearing on benefits legislation, Meredith Beck of the Wounded Warrior Project summarized the problem as follows: ``In many of the cases we have seen, the creation of new benefits wasn't needed to aid the service member, rather, the wounded warrior just needed to have the existing benefits systems better explained and untangled in order to understand what was available to them.''

Fortunately, service members and veterans benefit from the services of a nationwide system of veterans and military service organizations. However, the system is simply overwhelmed. It will be further inundated when the over 170,000 servicemembers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan return home. I want to be clear that the purpose of this legislation is to supplement the existing network of advocates to ease the caseload of overburdened service officers and allow them to spend more time per case helping veterans and service members.

Congress has a responsibility to simplify the system and ensure that it gives service members and veterans the benefit of the doubt when they seek assistance for service-connected disabilities. It is my hope that the majority of veterans will not need legal representation. But the reality is that many veterans face unnecessary delays and appeals of legitimate compensation claims that could be avoided if there were enough advocates to ensure that every veteran's case is carefully developed from the beginning. Several judges of the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims have described the importance of ensuring that veterans have legal representation throughout the claim process. Judge Holdaway summarized the need as follows:

If you get lawyers involved at the beginning, you can focus in on what is this case about. I think you would get better records, you would narrow the issue, there would be screening . . . I think if we had lawyers involved at the beginning of these cases, it would be the single most fundamental change for the better that this system could have.

While the need for legal representation in complicated cases is clear, I do not believe that veterans should have to pay for legal representation just to get the benefits they earned through their service. I have been troubled when I have heard that service members are seeking expensive legal assistance to help them overcome daunting administrative and legal hurdles. Fortunately, there are legal service organizations and attorneys who are willing to provide assistance to these service members and veterans free of charge. The purpose of this bill is to help these organizations get the training they need to help veterans and service members.

The bill would establish a pilot program of one-year grants to organizations that have experience serving veterans or persons with disabilities. The Veterans Administration will be charged with appointing a committee to disburse the grants. The committee shall be composed of veterans and military service officers, veterans and disability legal service attorneys, and representatives of the Department of Veterans Affairs employees and the Department of Defense. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs will be required to submit a report to Congress on the number of individuals served and the kinds of assistance they received as a result of the pilot program.

In order to avoid adding to our country's sizable debt, the $1 million cost of this program is taken from the $3 billion appropriated to the defense health program by the 2008 supplemental spending bill. The grant program will help ensure that these funds are spent wisely.

Veterans and military service organizations that currently employ attorneys will be eligible to receive the grants either to provide legal services at no charge or to provide training to other pro bono attorneys. The bill will also help servicemembers and veterans access the services of the federally funded and mandated protection and advocacy system for persons with disabilities. This system has lawyers in every state who are trained to help people with disabilities obtain the benefits, health care and services they need to live independent lives. These attorneys are uniquely qualified to, for example, ensure that veterans with PTSD are properly diagnosed and treated and to prevent those with TBI from being placed in nursing homes when they are capable of living in the community. Many veterans have been seeking out their assistance but the system is currently overwhelmed. I have included a description of the assistance that the protection and advocacy systems have been providing veterans. This bill would help foster collaboration between lawyers with expertise in veterans' law and those with expertise in disability law.

I commend my colleagues who have offered bills to increase funding for the care of service members and veterans, to expand necessary benefits and to ensure that our military and veterans health care systems offer the best care available. In order to ensure that service members and veterans are able to capitalize on these important reforms, they need independent advocates who can help them cut through the red tape. My bill would help expand the cadre of experienced advocates who will do just that. The bill has been endorsed by the National Organization of Veterans Advocates, the Vietnam Veterans of America and the Protection and Advocacy System's National Disability Rights Network.

I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill and supporting material be printed in the Record.

There being no objection, material was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

S. 1569

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