[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3087 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3087

  To amend title 38, United States Code, to establish a deadline for 
 decisions with respect to claims for benefits under laws administered 
     by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 26, 2009

 Mr. Butterfield introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
                   the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend title 38, United States Code, to establish a deadline for 
 decisions with respect to claims for benefits under laws administered 
     by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) As of May 18, 2009, the pending workload for pension 
        and compensation claims was 725,051, and of this total, 146,565 
        or 20.2 percent of such claims had been pending for more than 
        180 days (the criteria used by the Department of Veterans 
        Affairs for backlog).
            (2) The claims backlog of the Department of Veterans 
        Affairs was 803,000 on January 5, 2009, and the backlog hit 
        915,000 on May 4, 2009, a staggering 14 percent increase in 
        four months.
            (3) The issue of backlogs has become so dire that veterans 
        now wait an average of six months to receive disability 
        benefits and as long as four years for their appeals to be 
        heard in cases where their benefits were denied.
            (4) The importance of receiving timely benefit decisions is 
        evidenced by the fact that the suicide rates among veterans in 
        January and February of 2009 were higher than the number of 
        combat deaths in war zones during that same time period.
            (5) The four step process for a veteran to get a ``local 
        determination'' with respect to the veteran's claim for 
        benefits currently does not have a time period in which the 
        determination is required to be made.
            (6) Section 5108 of title 38, United States Code, provides, 
        ``When there is an approximate balance of positive and negative 
        evidence regarding any issue material to the determination of a 
        matter, the Secretary shall give the benefit of the doubt to 
        the claimant.''.

SEC. 2. DEADLINE FOR DECISIONS WITH RESPECT TO CLAIMS FOR BENEFITS 
              UNDER LAWS ADMINISTERED BY THE SECRETARY OF VETERANS 
              AFFAIRS.

    (a) Deadline for Decisions.--Section 5104 of title 38, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new 
subsection:
    ``(c) The Secretary shall make a decision with respect to each 
claim for benefits under the laws administered by the Secretary, and 
notify the claimant of such decision, by not later than 18 months after 
the date on which the claim is submitted to the Secretary. Any claim 
for which the Secretary has not made a decision by the deadline under 
the preceding sentence shall be automatically approved.''.
    (b) Applicability.--
            (1) In general.--Subsection (c) of section 5104 of title 
        38, United States Code, shall apply with respect to a claim 
        submitted on or after the date of the enactment of this Act.
            (2) Claims submitted before date of enactment.--
                    (A) Deadline.--By not later than 18 months after 
                the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 
                Veterans Affairs shall--
                            (i) make a decision with respect to each 
                        claim for benefits under the laws administered 
                        by the Secretary that is submitted before the 
                        date of the enactment of this Act; and
                            (ii) provide notice of such decision to the 
                        claimant who submitted the claim.
                    (B) Automatic approval of delayed claims.--Any 
                claim covered by subparagraph (A) for which the 
                Secretary does not make a decision by the deadline 
                under that subparagraph shall be automatically 
                approved.

SEC. 3. TASKFORCE ON CLAIMS PROCESS.

    The Inspector General of the Department of Veterans Affairs shall 
establish a taskforce to monitor the process by which claims for 
benefits under the laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans 
Affairs are decided. Such taskforce shall be responsible for ensuring 
that such claims--
            (1) are not denied arbitrarily so as to avoid 
        responsibility for the cost of the claim; and
            (2) are decided in an appropriate manner.
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