Reintroducing The BRAVE Act

Floor Speech

* Mr. SARBANES. Madam Speaker, I rise today to reintroduce the Benefit Rating Acceleration for Veterans Entitlements Act of 2009 or BRAVE Act. The BRAVE Act will cut through unnecessary red tape so that our most disabled veterans receive the benefits they deserve. It would make a common sense change to allow veterans receiving a rating of total disability from the Veterans Administration to also receive Social Security disability benefits without going through a separate and duplicative medical evaluation process, a process that can take years to navigate.

* In early 2007, when I was first elected to Congress, a veteran-constituent contacted my staff to obtain assistance with his application for social security disability benefits. This veteran had already received a 100 percent disability rating from the Veterans Administration but had been waiting for more than a year to be approved for benefits at the Social Security Administration.

* The Social Security Act states that disability means the ``inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment.'' By regulation, the Veterans Administration defines total or 100 percent disability as ``any impairment of mind or body which is sufficient to render it impossible for the average person to follow a substantially gainful occupation.'' Despite the fact that these definitions are virtually the same, many veterans including my constituent endure two complicated and time consuming processes to prove the same condition.

* The Commission on Veteran's Disability Benefit found that only 61 percent of those granted Individual Unemployability and 54 percent of those rated totally disabled by the Veterans Administration are receiving Social Security Disability Insurance. The Commission further explained that ``it is apparent that that either these veterans do not know to apply for SSDI or are being denied the insurance.'' The Veterans Disability Benefits Commission concluded that ``increased outreach should be made and better coordination between VA and Social Security should result in increased mutual acceptance of decisions.''

* It is for these reasons that I first introduced the BRAVE Act, with broad bipartisan support, in the 110th Congress. The legislation was supported by a range of veteran service organizations including the American Legion, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and the Paralyzed Veterans of America. The bill is all the more important at a time when we face significant increases in Social Security applications as a result of the aging baby boomer generation and as veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan come home.

* Madam Speaker, our Nation's veterans don't deserve a bureaucratic runaround when they return home. I hope my colleagues will join me in support of the BRAVE Act.

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