[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3504 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3504

 To provide for a 2 percent rescission of unobligated funds previously 
 appropriated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 
    to be used by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to hire claims 
                              processors.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 31, 2009

Mr. Miller of Florida introduced the following bill; which was referred 
to the Committee on Appropriations, and in addition to the Committee on 
 Veterans' Affairs, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
  Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
           within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To provide for a 2 percent rescission of unobligated funds previously 
 appropriated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 
    to be used by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to hire claims 
                              processors.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``VA Case Backlog Alleviation and 
Economic Stimulus Act of 2009''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) During recent testimony in front of the Committee on 
        Veterans' Affairs, officials from the Department of Veterans 
        Affairs stated that there are approximately 140,000 cases in 
        the Department claims adjudication system that have been 
        pending for over 125 days without a decision.
            (2) The Department of Veterans Affairs continually 
        maintains an unacceptably large backlog of veterans' cases.
            (3) The Department of Veterans Affairs should never 
        maintain a backlog of more than 50,000 cases which have been 
        unresolved for more than 125 days.
            (4) The Department of Veterans Affairs was appropriated 
        $1,357,000,000 for fiscal year 2009 for compensation and 
        pension claims processors.
            (5) The Department of Veterans Affairs has seen an increase 
        of 1,800 people to help with compensation and pension claims 
        processing since 2008.
            (6) Public Law 111-5, the American Recovery and 
        Reinvestment Act of 2009, appropriated $787,000,000,000 in 
        stimulus spending.
            (7) A large majority of the stimulus funding has not been 
        obligated as of the date of the enactment of this Act.

SEC. 3. RESCISSION OF 2 PERCENT OF UNOBLIGATED STIMULUS FUNDS.

    (a) Rescission.--Effective on the date of the enactment of this 
Act, there are hereby rescinded 2 percent of the total amount of the 
unobligated balances of the discretionary appropriations made available 
by division A of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 
(Public Law 111-5).
    (b) Use of Funds.--Amounts subject to the rescission under 
subsection (a) shall be available to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs 
to hire Department of Veterans Affairs claims processors.
    (c) Assignment of Claims Processors.--In hiring claims processors 
pursuant to subsection (b), the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall 
ensure that such processors are assigned proportionately to each State 
according to the percentage of veterans residing in that State.

SEC. 4. REPORT TO CONGRESS.

    Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this 
Act, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall submit to the Committees 
on Veterans' Affairs of the Senate and House of Representatives a 
report on the transfer of stimulus funds to the Department of Veterans 
Affairs pursuant to section 3 and the status of the backlog of claims 
for benefits under the laws administered by the Secretary.
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