Congresswoman Brown Grateful for Service of VA Secretary Shinseki

Statement

"As a senior member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, I am disappointed in the resignation of VA Secretary Shinseki. While he felt he would have been a distraction going forward to resolve the issues brought to light by Phoenix, I feel Secretary Shinseki was the person most capable of fixing these issues. I am grateful for his service both as a soldier and a veteran.

Since being sworn in as the seventh Secretary of Veterans Affairs in 2009, Secretary Shinseki has brought reform and a new way of thinking to the VA. As a former Chief of Staff of the Army, Secretary Shinseki knew what the young men and women protecting our freedoms overseas were going though and wanted to make sure they did not have to fight a bureaucracy to get the services they earned.

The young men and women coming back and the veterans from previous wars shared more than battlefield wounds when they returned home, they shared a difficulty in getting care and benefits for their signature wounds. For the Vietnam veterans, it was exposure to Agent Orange; for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, it was Traumatic Brain Injury.

Secretary Shinseki made the decision in 2009 to establish service connection for Vietnam Veterans with three specific illnesses that, based on the latest scientific evidence, have been associated with exposure to the herbicides referred to as Agent Orange - Parkinson's disease, ischemic heart disease, and B-cell leukemias.

This was the right thing to do for Vietnam Veterans and, thanks to this decision, Veterans who served in Vietnam during the war and who have one of the "presumptive" illnesses do not have to face another hurdle and prove an association between their illness and their military service. Thanks to this quick and decisive action VA has granted more than 160,000 retroactive claims associated with these three presumptive conditions, and awarded more than $4.5 billion in retroactive benefits, with an average retroactive benefit payment of nearly $27,000.
Under Secretary Shinseki, the VA continues to expand and improve its mental health programs, adding more than 3800 mental health professionals to its clinical staff. As part of VA's 2012 hiring initiative, VA has hired 1,600 mental health clinicians for newly created positions and 800 Peer Specialists and Peer Apprentices.

Since 2009, Congress has increased the mental health care budget by 42 percent and VA has treated 1.4 million Veterans with specialty mental health services in fiscal year 2013 (FY13) alone. Under Secretary Shinseki's leadership, the VA has expanded access to mental health services with longer clinic hours, telehealth capability to deliver services, and standards that mandate rapid access to mental health services.

In July 2010, VA published a historic change to its rules, streamlining the process and paperwork needed by combat Veterans to pursue a claim for disability pay for PTSD.

After Secretary Shinseki made it easier for those claiming Agent Orange and PTSD injuries, the claims backlog had major increases. With his work to have overtime and sharing of records, the claims backlog has been reduced by more than 50% in the past 14 months. The VA has shown an unwavering commitment to improving the delivery of benefits to Veterans. With input from all of it veteran partners, the VA created and is implementing a comprehensive plan to end the Veterans disability benefits claims backlog.

When Secretary Shinseki took office, he set a goal of ending Veterans homelessness by 2015. The VA, along with local, state, and federal partners has decreased the number of homeless Veterans on a given night by 24 percent since 2010 and are continuing to work to keep bringing this number down.

The VA provides quality and timely healthcare and benefits to our veterans. We have a duty to make sure that all those who have defended this country when called upon receive the care they have earned through their service. The VA is better for Secretary Shinseki's service to our veterans.

As the first President of the United States, George Washington stated:

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their country.'"

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