Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, and I will commend the chairman of the committee for his efforts on this.

This legislation not only provides the necessary funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs' operation, but it also sets a clear priority of addressing the massive problems at hand at the VA. We have read the recent news article saying we are aware as a Congress of all the problems that we are seeing in the VA. For too long, the heroes that have served this country have been mistreated, overlooked, or flat-out ignored by the VA. When these brave men and women signed up to defend our Nation, they were promised to be taken care of when they returned home. However, today we see less than adequate care--doctor's visit wait times stretching months and, in some cases, years, and hundreds of thousands of backlog benefit cases.

The incident the gentleman from North Carolina just talked about is prevalent all across this land in every congressional district, including mine. Mr. Chairman, when I talk to the veterans back home in my district, I hear loss of confidence in a government that promised to be there for them. I hear from war veterans who are just plain giving up on the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The latest report on VA claims from April 28, 2014, shows there are almost 600,000 pending claims with over 300,000 considered backlogged that have been pending for over 125 days. Mr. Chairman, that is 125 days without an answer or resolution that these veterans will never get back.

Just in my office, we have seen a multitude of cases that demonstrate the current ongoing crisis at the VA. One Korean war veteran has been working with my office on a Decision Review Officer review for over 18 months now. This is a decision process that was supposed to be quicker than a Board of Veterans' Appeal in Washington. After waiting for more than a year for a meeting before his appeal, he couldn't wait any longer and just asked for the decision to be with the information that was at hand. While he is still waiting for an answer, I am praying for a resolution for that veteran.

We have seen other instances where we were able to send documentation on behalf of constituents to various Veterans Administration offices, for the very same offices to turn around months later and ask for the same information again. Is this any way to treat the men and women who sacrificed their lives to defend the very freedoms our country enjoys?

Thankfully, this legislation we are considering today makes a stride in the right direction by concentrating efforts to end the current backlog; holding the VA offices accountable through office performance measurements, not just awarding bonuses for someone when the facilities are in need of some attention, we will say; and increasing medical services for veterans, and that is the most important part.

This bill prioritizes the timely and accurate exchange of medical data, updating the VA health records system, and ensuring the system is operable with the Department of Defense.

This is not a silver bullet, Mr. Chairman, and we still have a long way to go to get the VA clicking and ticking again, but I hope we can use that momentum to continue working towards fulfilling the promises made to our veterans and improving the lives of our Nation's heroes. They deserve it.

May God bless our Nation's troops and veterans, and may God continue to bless the United States of America.

I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source