Congresswoman Cheri Bustos Continues Fight To Cut Down On Unacceptable VA Claims Backlog

Statement

Today, Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (IL-17) continued her fight to cut down on the Veterans Affairs (VA) claims backlog by supporting a bipartisan bill (H.R. 2189) that would establish within the VA a commission or task force to evaluate the backlog of veterans' disability claims, to analyze possible improvements to the claims process and to submit to the VA Secretary remedies and solutions for reducing the backlog.

"The brave veterans who put their lives on the line for us deserve nothing but the best when they return home from overseas, and that is why action must be taken now to cut down on the shamefully long VA claims wait times," said Congresswoman Cheri Bustos. "The bill I supported today will help expedite VA claims to make sure our heroes get the care and treatment they earned and deserve in the timeliest manner possible."

Over the last six months, VA backlog claims have been reduced by over 30%, or 190,000 claims. However, there are still currently over 700,000 disability claims pending, with over 400,000 in the backlog.

In May, Bustos announced support for H.R. 2088, a bill that would require the VA to launch a pilot program to establish Claims Adjudication Centers of Excellence (CoE) that would focus on processing claims for the ten most complex and time consuming medical conditions that affect our nation's veterans. The pilot outlined in this legislation would utilize the highest performing VA regional offices to adjudicate claims with the most difficult medical conditions, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury. This would encourage the VA to specialize some claims processing by condition, reduce the time it takes to adjudicate these time consuming conditions within each claim, and decrease the error rates on difficult claims.

Last month, Bustos led a group of 37 members of the U.S. House of Representative in calling for veterans to be protected in the event of a politically induced government shutdown. In a letter sent to President Obama, Bustos and her colleagues requested that the President protect the benefits and resources our nation has promised to our veterans by deeming certain U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employees as "essential" in the event that Congress fails to come together and prevent a government shutdown.

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