[House Hearing, 113 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
HEARING TO RECEIVE LEGISLATIVE
PRESENTATION OF THE DISABLED AMERICAN VETERANS (DAV)
=======================================================================
JOINT HEARING
with
The United States Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs
before the
COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014
__________
Serial No. 113-53
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs
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Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.fdsys.gov
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COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
JEFF MILLER, Florida, Chairman
DOUG LAMBORN, Colorado MICHAEL H. MICHAUD, Maine, Ranking
GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida, Vice- Member
Chairman CORRINE BROWN, Florida
DAVID P. ROE, Tennessee MARK TAKANO, California
BILL FLORES, Texas JULIA BROWNLEY, California
JEFF DENHAM, California DINA TITUS, Nevada
JON RUNYAN, New Jersey ANN KIRKPATRICK, Arizona
DAN BENISHEK, Michigan RAUL RUIZ, California
TIM HUELSKAMP, Kansas GLORIA NEGRETE McLEOD, California
MIKE COFFMAN, Colorado ANN M. KUSTER, New Hampshire
BRAD R. WENSTRUP, Ohio BETO O'ROURKE, Texas
PAUL COOK, California TIMOTHY J. WALZ, Minnesota
JACKIE WALORSKI, Indiana
DAVID JOLLY, Florida
Jon Towers, Staff Director
Nancy Dolan, Democratic Staff Director
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY (EO)
BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont, Chairman
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West RICHARD BURR, North Carolina,
Virginia Ranking Member
PATTY MURRAY, Washington JONNY ISAKSON, Georgia
SHERROD BROWN, Ohio MIKE JOHANNS, Nebraska
JON TESTER, Montana JERRY MORAN, Kansas
MARK BEGICH, Alaska JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut DEAN HELLER, Nevada
MAZIE HIRONO, Hawaii
Pursuant to clause 2(e)(4) of Rule XI of the Rules of the House, public
hearing records of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs are also
published in electronic form. The printed hearing record remains the
official version. Because electronic submissions are used to prepare
both printed and electronic versions of the hearing record, the process
of converting between various electronic formats may introduce
unintentional errors or omissions. Such occurrences are inherent in the
current publication process and should diminish as the process is
further refined.
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Hearing to Receive Legislative Presentation of the Disabled
American Veterans (DAV)........................................ 1
OPENING STATEMENTS
Hon. Jeff Miller, Chairman....................................... 1
Senator Richard Blumenthal....................................... 4
Hon. Michael Michaud, Ranking Minority Member.................... 5
Prepared Statement........................................... 28
WITNESS
Joseph W. Johnston, National Commander, Disable American Veterans 8
Prepared Statement........................................... 28
Accompanied by:
Jim Marszalek, National Service Director;
Joseph A. Violante, National Legislative Director;
Garry J. Augustine, Executive Director Washington
Headquarters;
J. Marc Burgess, National Adjutant;
Barry A. Jesinoski, Executive Director National
Headquarters;
And
Susan K. Miller, National Commander, Disable American
Veterans, Auxiliary
HEARING TO RECEIVE LEGISLATIVE PRESENTATION OF THE DISABLED AMERICAN
VETERANS (DAV)
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
U.S. House of Representatives,
Committee on Veterans' Affairs,
Subcommittee on Senate Veterans' Affairs,
Washington, D.C.
The committees met, pursuant to notice, at 1:59 p.m., in
Room 345, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. Jeff Miller
[chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs]
presiding.
Present from the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs:
Representatives Miller, Roe, Runyan, Wenstrup, Michaud, Takano,
Brownley, Kirkpatrick, McLeod, and Walz,
Present from Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs:
Senators Blumenthal, Boozman, and Heller.
OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN JEFF MILLER
The Chairman. The committee will come to order.
Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for being with us on
this wonderful Florida sunshiny day. It is my privilege to
welcome you to today's joint hearing on the House and Senate
Veterans' Affairs Committees to receive testimony on the
legislative priorities for the Disabled American Veterans.
Before we get started, I have a little bit of housekeeping
that we need to address, and I would like to say in the
interest of time and in keeping with the tradition of these
hearings, after hearing from myself, Chairman Blumenthal,
Ranking Member Michaud, and Acting Ranking Member Heller, I
would like to ask all other committee members to waive their
opening statements. There is going to be an opportunity for
remarks following testimony today.
Hearing no objection, so ordered.
It is truly an honor for me to be here this afternoon with
so many DAV members, and I thank you all for coming to the Hill
once again. Due to the hard work and dedication of DAV's 1.4
million members, especially DAV service officers, veterans are
provided with professional benefit counseling and claims
assistance, and transportation to and from VA healthcare
facilities. DAV also assists with transition assistance
services and on-site care at military treatment facilities, at
VA medical centers, and clinics, and at home. That is just to
name a few of the many programs that you, DAV, provide every
single day.
I have witnessed many of these efforts firsthand, and I am
personally grateful to each of you for the hard work that DAV
does across the country, as well as right here in Washington,
D.C.
On behalf of a grateful Nation, thank you all for your
commitment to our veterans, for your time this afternoon, and
for your brave and honorable service to our Nation.
I now want to take a few moments to welcome several
individuals who have transitioned into new leadership roles
with DAV. I begin with National Commander Joseph W. Johnston,
who was elected to the position at DAV's 2013 national
convention.
Mr. Johnson retired from the United States Army in 1992 and
subsequent to his military service has dedicated his efforts
towards working with nonprofit organizations. Commander
Johnston, we welcome you here today.
Other new placements within the professional leadership of
DAV include Navy veteran J. Marc Burgess, who now serves as
Chief Executive Officer and National Adjunct; Army veteran
Garry Augustine, the new Executive Director. Garry, nice to
have you back. Marine Corps veteran Jim Marszalek now serves as
DAV National Service Director, and his fellow Marine Corps
veteran, Barry Jesinowki, leads as Executive Director DAV
National Headquarters in Cold Spring, Kentucky. Very good to
have you back, too.
And with us today, is Ms. Susan Miller, who was elected to
the Office of National Commander of the DAV Auxiliary. Ms.
Miller previously served as a registered nurse with the
Veterans Health Administration and I note that Ms. Miller's
son, Trent, is a member of the United States Army, recently
serving in his second deployment to Afghanistan.
Gentlemen and Ms. Miller, thank you for your leadership,
and for your service. I look forward to working with each of
you in your new roles and continuing to work with those of you
that are continuing in the roles that you have had for a number
of years.
I would also like to recognize the DAV members from my home
State of Florida who may be with us today. If you could, please
just raise your hand up so we can say hello. Isn't this just
like home? This is just like home, right?
Welcome to those from the Sunshine State. We are glad to
have you here. Each of you are a credit to our State of Florida
and to your communities. I am proud to have you here in your
Nation's Capital. Thank you for your military service and for
your ongoing service to veterans.
Commander Johnston, officers and members of the DAV, you
have a tremendous force behind you to accomplish the immense
mission that is before each of us. Our charge, yours and mine,
is to assist and oversee that the Department of Veterans
Affairs, carries out America's promise to those who have worn
the uniform of this country. This includes ensuring that
veterans receive timely, accurate, and consistent decisions
when seeking service-connected disability compensation, safe,
and high quality health care and prompt access to earned
benefits. It demands that in dealing with the Department of
Veterans Affairs, veterans be treated with the dignity and
professionalism that is earned through honorable service to our
Nation. The need for oversight is crucial, but the need for
accountability is paramount.
Speaking directly to the Disabled American Veterans, you
and your members understand that leaders must set the example.
True leaders lay out clear expectations and put others in
positions to succeed. They follow through and most importantly,
they hold themselves accountable for their actions. Follow me!
That is the motto of the infantry. Yet, those words can be
easily translated to organizational leadership at VA. When
there is a mission to be accomplished, those who put themselves
on the line are the leaders that others want to follow. And it
is a lack of accountability that corrodes trust within a chain
of command. That said, an undeniable, widespread, systematic
lack of accountability exists today in the Department of
Veterans Affairs.
In fact, if you look at recent preventable deaths at VA
medical centers, patient safety incidents, and claims backlog
increases, department senior executives who presided over
negligence and mismanagement are more likely to have received a
bonus than punishment. It is a leadership model that is primed
for failure.
Today, I ask for your support of a measure that I have
introduced, H.R. 4031, The Department of Veterans Affairs
Management Accountability Act of 2014. This bill would provide
tools to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to better manage
Senior Executive Service employees; those who are directly
responsible for the day-to-day success, or failure of VA
programs. H.R. 4031 would give the Secretary the power to hold
leaders accountable when they fail to perform their duties in a
manner that properly serves the veterans entrusted to their
care. DAV, you know leadership and I hope that you will support
this bill and work with us to empower the Secretary to lead VA
into the future.
And I also want to comment on something from your written
remarks. You noted that the Department, specifically the
Veterans Benefits Administration, has exhibited reduced
transparency and openness of late. I can assure you that this
shift has been noted by this Congress and I will underscore
these ongoing concerns to the Secretary.
If VA is to effectively carry out its duties, the
Department, as well as Congress and veteran service
organizations, must be open to candid and honest conversation.
I will be paying close attention to the matters of transparency
as VBA pushes towards 2015 and I encourage you to continue your
dialogue with Congress and VA to the maximum extent possible.
I look forward to hearing your testimony today and I am
certain that we will work together over the coming months on
many items that are on your list of legislative priorities.
But before I yield my time, I want to touch upon one
specific area that you have noted is a top priority for DAV in
2014: The expansion of advanced appropriations for the
Department of Veterans Affairs.
Thank you for your resounding support of H.R. 813, The
Putting Veterans Funding First Act. While the Veterans Health
Administration is largely shielded from budgetary impasse,
other functions critical to the department and to veterans are
not; including accounts for information technology, and
construction spending on vital maintenance and improvement
projects. I am also going to continue to advocate for passage
of this measure as well. Gridlock must not compromise the
functionality of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
There is great work ahead for all of us, but with your
help, I am confident that there is also great potential for
success for America's veterans.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR RICHARD BLUMENTHAL
The Chairman. Thank you once again for being here today,
and I now yield time to my colleague and friend from the
Senate, Chairman Blumenthal, for his opening statement.
Senator.
Senator Blumenthal. Thank you very much, Chairman Miller,
and thank you to the leadership of the DAV, Commander Johnston
and others who are here today.
A most important thank you to all of the DAV members who
are here. Thank you so much for making the trip, and sending a
message by your presence about not only the concern and
interest, but your knowledge and power by your numbers and your
presence here today.
I would like to ask that Chairman Sanders' full opening
statement be placed in the record. He could not be here today
because, indeed, he is helping to manage the bill, the
comprehensive bill that is under consideration this week before
United States Senate. And indeed, I may have to--I will have to
leave early to go back and assist him in that effort. I hope
you will forgive me, but with the chair's permission, I would
like to ask that his opening statement be placed in the record,
and I would like to make a few opening brief remarks.
The Chairman. Without objection. I thought it was probably
going to be because of the snow that he was not able to be
here.
Senator Blumenthal. We are here in the warmth compared to
Connecticut and Vermont. Let me ask all of the Connecticut DAV
members who are here to please raise your hand so I can thank
you personally for being here, all of the Connecticut members.
I know that Connecticut DAV State Commander Robert Werlich,
First Junior Vice Commander Barry Bernier, and Dominick Cortez,
the DAV State Vice Commander, all regularly advise me, and
their guidance and thinking is so very valuable to me.
Let me begin by thanking the DAV for its support for the
Comprehensive Veterans Health and Benefits Military Retirement
Pay Restoration Act which is the bill on the floor of the
Senate this week.
The DAV said about this bill--this bill is, and I am
quoting, ``unprecedented in our modern experience, would
create, expand, advance, and extend a number of VA benefits,
services, and programs that are important to the DAV and to our
members.'' Your help and support has been critical along with
the help and support of virtually every veterans' and military
service organization in the country, including the American
Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Disabled American
Veterans, the Vietnam Veterans of America, the Military
Officers Association of America, the Iraq and Afghanistan
Veterans of America, the Paralyzed Veterans of America, the
Gold Star Wives, and many more.
We thank you for your support for this bill, which includes
many measures that were reported out of our committee, the
Senate Veterans Affairs' Committee by unanimous vote or on a
very overwhelmingly bipartisan vote. There is nothing partisan
about supporting this bill or any other measure that provides
what we owe to our veterans. They should be above partisan
politics.
And this bill is big and broad because the needs and
challenges of all of our veterans are big and broad. That is
why it is comprehensive. It would provide the restoration of
COLA for military retirees, improve VA health care and
benefits, expand educational opportunities for our veterans,
help end the benefits backlog, which we know bedevils many
parts of our country still, and would help put our veterans
back to work, and I am very proud to be supporting this
measure. It is a historic effort to be comprehensive, to reach
and aid our veterans in a multi-pronged, multifaceted way.
Of particular interest to me is hearing from you about
where you think the priorities ought to be and how we can
address the problem of uniting, for example, uniting the
medical records and personnel data of the Department of
Defense, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. There are
gaping divisions in that system where there should be none, and
I am appalled by the delays that often occur in the transfer of
information. I am deeply appreciative of the work of the DAV
experts who help every day in aiding our veterans with their
claims and I value your expertise in addressing this challenge.
I am also personally committed to determining what we can
do more and better to help veterans who suffer from
posttraumatic stress. We should assist equally a veteran from
today's conflicts as well as those from past conflicts,
including our Vietnam veterans who suffered posttraumatic
stress before this debilitating condition was medically
diagnosed or perhaps even seen for what it is.
That is why I am working to get the Department of Defense
to give a second look at the records of our veterans of past
wars, including Vietnam, who may have been less than honorably
discharged, or otherwise disadvantaged because their condition
was undiagnosed and untreated.
Given what we now know, those individuals who today are
upstanding members of the community and suffered from
posttraumatic stress ought to be given a second look, and their
discharge status reevaluated if necessary.
On all of these issues, again, your expertise and guidance
not only today, but every day is very, very valuable, and I
want to welcome you and thank you for your service to America
in uniform, and when you have returned to your communities, and
today as you come back to the Capitol.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
OPENING STATEMENT OF MIKE MICHAUD, RANKING MINORITY MEMBER
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator.
I now yield 5 minutes or as much time as he may consume to
the ranking member of the full House committee, Mr. Michaud.
Mr. Michaud. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank
you for your service to this great Nation of ours as well.
Good afternoon, Commander. I want to thank you and all
members of DAV and the Auxiliary for your service. We also
thank you for your continued dedication to our Nation's
veterans.
I want to take an opportunity, also, to welcome those in
the audience from Maine. The sons and daughters of Maine have a
history of serving our Nation and I am glad to see that they
are continuing that tradition as well by fighting for veterans'
issues.
DAV and other veterans groups are active and valued
partners with us in Congress as we work to keep our promise to
America's veterans. I want to thank you for your work of
advocating and the passage and enactment of H.R. 813, The
Putting Veterans Funding First Act. We have seen how well
advanced appropriation has worked for VA's medical care. It is
time that the rest of VA's discretionary budget be treated the
same way. We owe it to America's veterans to provide certain
and stable VA budget funding.
VA is pursuing a wide range of initiatives from new methods
of healthcare delivery, to electronic benefit management. These
investments will help bring the Department into the 21st
century. Working with you in the Department of Veterans
Affairs, we will make sure that these initiatives are
implemented fairly, transparently, and in the best interest of
veterans and the American taxpayers, making sure that the
Department of Veterans Affairs can meet the challenges of the
21st century is a job of all of us.
And I know the DAV, your members across the country, and
your staff here in Washington are ready and eager for that
challenge. I look forward to your testimony today, Commander,
and again, I want to thank you and DAV's long history of
distinguished service for the men and women who wear the
uniform. And it is because of VSOs such as this organization
that actually will give Members of Congress the information we
need so that we can make those decisions important for our
veterans and their families in this country. So once again,
thank you very much.
And thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back.
[The prepared statement of Hon. Mike Michaud appears in the
Appendix ]
The Chairman. I recognize for as much time as he may need,
the Acting Ranking Member, Mr. Heller from Nevada.
Senator Heller. Mr. Chairman, thank you.
The Chairman. Glad to have you here.
Senator Heller. Good to be back seeing old colleagues and
some old friends that I have on this side of the Capitol.
I want to thank the commander for being here today and
everybody that will be testifying and answering questions
today. Thanks for taking time and it is always a wonderful view
to see this crowd, everybody here in your advocacy for issues
that are important to all of us.
I want to take a moment though to acknowledge the veterans
who have flown here from my home State, Bill Bowman, and John
Hanson. Are you out there today? There we go. Any other
Nevadian veterans out there, please raise your hand.
Anyway, they are tremendous advocates. They had
appointments in my office at 9:30 this morning, and they were
there at 8:30. So if that gives you any idea how aggressive
they are, and I appreciate all the work that they do and they
are great advocates and they represent the Battle Born State
quite well.
Commander Johnston, I think we can all agree that there
remains a lot to be improved upon when it comes to--and for our
caring of our American veterans, which is why the work that the
DAV does as an advocacy group and resource for our veterans is
so important.
This is the second year I have had the privilege to sit on
the Senate Veterans Affairs' Committee. While that may not be
for as long a period of time compared to some of the other
Members here, it is clear that one issue continues to be a
primary focus, and that is the disability claims backlog at the
VA.
The VA promised veterans that their claims would be
completed in less than 125 days. Yet more than 4,300 veterans
in Las Vegas, Reno, and across Nevada have waited much longer
than that. In fact, Nevada has the longest waiting time in the
Nation. That is why I have made it a top priority on this
committee to work to address this issue in a bipartisan manner.
The claims backlog is the greatest challenge facing the
Department of Veterans Affairs today.
But this issue has been plaguing the VA for over 20 years,
or two decades and the reality is we must update the process.
It is a 1945 system for a 21st century veteran. The VA needs a
claims process that is proactive rather than reactive; one that
can anticipate the needs of veterans to keep a backlog from
happening.
Some may want to point fingers, place blames, but at the
end of the day, Congress, the VSOs, and the VA all have a part
to play. For the past year I worked with Senator Casey through
a bipartisan VA backlog working group to learn more about why
the backlog exists and what can be done to fix it. I am also
pleased that Senators Moran and Tester have joined us in this
effort. It has taken significant time and resources to dig into
this issue, and shortly, I look forward to rolling out
suggestions that we have developed with the help of the DAV.
Our Nation owes it to our veterans to keep our promise to care
for them and resolve this problem together.
This is just one of the many important issues that will be
discussed today, and I appreciate DAV being here and look
forward to the testimony.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you very much. Senator, we are
certainly glad to have you back on our side of the building.
Before I yield to my colleague Dr. Wenstrup, I want to also
recognize two other people that I did not talk about to start
with: Joseph Violante, who is a long-time National Legislative
Director. Joe, it is great to you have here with us, and see
you on the Hill all the time. And Ron Minter, National Director
of Voluntary Services. Ron, glad to have you here too.
My staff had just said I was going to yield to
Representative Wenstrup to introduce the commander, but I think
it is important that you understand that Dr. Wenstrup is a
combat veteran of Iraq, a surgeon by trade, and a Bronze Star
recipient.
With that, Mr. Wenstrup, you are recognized.
Mr. Wenstrup. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
As a proud member of the House Veterans Affairs' Committee,
it is my privilege to introduce Joseph Johnston, National
Commander of Disabled American Veterans. As Commander Johnston
works to represent injured and disabled veterans, I have had
the honor to represent him in the House of Representatives.
Having personally served as a combat surgeon in Iraq, I saw
our troops in the minutes and hours after being wounded. But
oftentimes, the toughest battle our veterans fight is when they
come home. Disabled American Veterans is a strong advocate for
those who have served our Nation and given more than most, and
Commander Johnston does yeoman's work on the behalf of the
Nation's disabled veterans. I have had the honor of sharing the
stage with Mr. Johnston during veterans tributes in Ohio. His
passion for our military veterans is clear. It is selfless and
with great conviction.
A 100 percent service-connected disabled veteran who served
in the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars, Commander Johnston served
and joined the U.S. Army in 1966, serving first as an enlisted
soldier, and later as a commissioned officer. He retired at the
rank of Colonel in 1992, and was inducted into the Ohio
Veterans Hall of Fame in 2007, and is a life member of DAV
chapter 63 in Williamsburg, Ohio.
In our State of Ohio, and nationally, Commander Johnston
has been elected to and held various management and leadership
positions with the DAV and is active in various chapter and
department VA voluntary service programs, culminating in his
election as national commander last year.
Fellow Members of Congress from the House and Senate, it is
my honor to introduce National Commander Joe Johnston to
present the DAV's legislative agenda.
Mr. Johnston. Thank you.
The Chairman. Welcome again, Commander, and you are now
recognized for your testimony.
STATEMENT OF JOSEPH W. JOHNSTON, NATIONAL COMMANDER, DISABLED
AMERICAN VETERANS, ACCOMPANIED BY JIM MARSZALEK, NATIONAL
SERVICE DIRECTOR; JOSEPH A. VIOLANTE, NATIONAL LEGISLATIVE
DIRECTOR; GARRY J. AUGUSTINE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WASHINGTON
HEADQUARTERS; J. MARC BURGESS, NATIONAL ADJUTANT; BARRY A.
JESINOSKI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS; RON B.
MINTER, NATIONAL DIRECTOR OF VOLUNTARY SERVICE; AND SUSAN K.
MILLER, NATIONAL COMMANDER, DISABLED AMERICAN VETERANS
AUXILIARY
STATEMENT OF JOSEPH W. JOHNSTON
Mr. Johnston. Representative Wenstrup, friend, fellow
warrior, thank you very much.
Chairman Miller, Acting Ranking Member Heller, and Ranking
Member Michaud, I want to thank you for convening today's
hearing and for your leadership in helping to fulfill the
promises to the men and women who have served.
Chairman Sanders has recently brought forth introducing
Senate bill 1982 and that is indeed one of the most wide-
ranging veterans bills ever brought forward. I would like to
extend our sincere appreciation to Chairman Sanders and all
members of these committees on behalf of the more than 1.4
million members of DAV and its Auxiliary for the outstanding
support that you have given our Nation's injured and ill
veterans and their families and survivors.
We wish you all the best in your efforts through the rest
of the 113th Congress on behalf of America's veterans, their
families, and survivors.
Allow me to introduce those seated at the table with me, as
well as some distinguished guests. National Adjutant Marc
Burgess; Executive Directors Barry Jesinoski and Garry
Augustine; Service Director Jim Marszalek; Legislative Director
Joe Violante; Voluntary Services Director Ron Minter; Auxiliary
National Commander Susan Miller of Colorado; Auxiliary National
Adjunct Judy Hezlep, DAV Senior Vice Commander Ron Hope of
North Carolina; Junior Vice Commanders Moses McIntosh of
Georgia; Dave Riley of Alabama; Delphine Metcalf-Foster of
California; and Dennis Krulder of New York; National Judge
Advocate Mike Dobmeier of North Dakota; Immediate Past National
Commander Larry Polzin of California; National Chief of Staff
Raymond Hutchinson of Ohio. And let me also introduce the love
of my life, Vicky, and my son James, who is also a DAV member,
and his wife Rhonda.
One man who for the first time in decades is not at the
table with us today is Art Wilson. He retired in 2013 after a
47-year career serving as DAV's superbly effective Chief
Executive Officer and National Adjutant. Art's departure after
such a long and distinguished term will clearly leave a void,
but DAV has selected an able, experienced executive in Marc
Burgess as our new CEO and National Adjutant. Will the DAV
National Executive Committee please stand and be recognized.
Will the members of the National Legislative Interim
Committee also please stand?
And I would also like to recognize the entire DAV
delegation from my home State of Ohio. Please stand.
I have already submitted for the record my written
testimony detailing a number of concerns and ideas for your
information and consideration, so I will use my time today to
highlight a few of the most important issues facing veterans
today.
Messrs. Chairmen, veterans stand with each other and
support one another in combat. And long after the bullets cease
to strike, we always rely on our warrior brothers and sisters,
and I am hoping that every Member of Congress will also stand
with us and for us each and every day of your respective terms.
Since our founding, DAV has remained dedicated to
fulfilling our promises to the men and women who served, their
families, and survivors. DAV's core mission is carried out
through our chapter, department, transition, and national
service officers. In all, DAV has nearly 3,000 service
officers, including county veteran service officers who are
credited by DAV.
During 2013, DAV's 276 National Service Officers
interviewed over 187,000 veterans and their families, reviewed
more than 313,000 VA claims files, filed over 215,000 new
claims for benefits, and participated in more than 272,000 VA
rating board actions. In addition, our national appeals
officers provided representation in almost a third of the
appeals decided before the Board of Veterans Appeals.
Our transition service officers conducted some 1,400
briefings to groups separating service members, with 54,000
total participants in those sessions, counselled almost 31,000
persons in individual interviews, reviewed the military service
treatment records of 30,260 individuals, and submitted benefits
applications for 19,000 personnel to DAV NSOs for filing with
the VA, and our mobile service officers traveled almost 90,000
miles last year to 833 cities and towns, and met with more than
20,000 veterans, and other potential claimants to offer our
assistance. About 17,000 DAV and Auxiliary volunteers donated
more than 1.8 million volunteer hours to assist America's
wounded, injured, and ill veterans every year, saving taxpayers
over $40 million in cost.
DAV's national transportation network logged almost 26,000
road miles and transported over 700,000 veterans to VA
healthcare facilities. Nearly 9,000 volunteer drivers spent
over 1.7 million hours transporting veterans. From 1987 to
2013, we had donated nearly 3,000 advance to the VA at a cost
to the DAV of more than $57 million.
Messrs. Chairmen, and members of the Veterans Affairs'
Committee, let me thank those of you who joined us for a couple
of hours ago in front of the Capitol at our press conference
calling for advanced appropriation for all veterans programs,
service, and benefits. We are also joined by members of many
other veterans and military organizations, by all uniting with
a message for Congress to pass The Putting Veterans Funding
First Act. In addition, hundreds of DAV members and supporters
have been visiting your offices. Thousands have been calling
from back home, and over a million--that is over a million--
have sent or heard or messaged through Facebook, Twitter, and
the other social media, all calling on Congress to keep the
promise by passing advance appropriations.
Today, if you open up any of the Capitol Hill publications,
you will see our full page ad and you can see them online at
corresponding Web sites. You can also read the op ed in today's
Wall Street Journal that former VA Secretary Tony Principi and
I coauthored, and another op ed in yesterday's Washington Times
that I wrote together with the national leaders from the VFW,
and the American Legion. Together, our organizations represent
more than 5 million veterans.
Messrs. Chairmen, you and the other members of these
committees know the importance of advanced appropriations
judging by the overwhelming votes in favor of this legislation
in both of your committees.
Let me especially recognize Chairman Miller, and
Congressman Michaud for sponsoring the legislation in the
House, and Senators Begich and Boozman for sponsoring this
legislation in the Senate.
I also want to thank you, Chairman Sanders, who isn't here,
for getting behind this legislation and ensuring that Senate
Bill 1982 included VA's mandatory benefits and for moving it
through the committee.
The government shutdown last October confirmed what has
become increasingly clear. The Federal budget and
appropriations process is broken. Over the past 25 years the 4-
year budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs has only
been enacted by the start of the fiscal year only three times.
In 2009, as a result of a grassroots advocacy effort by DAV and
other VSOs, Congress passed and the President signed the
Veterans Healthcare Budget Reform and Transparency Act that
provides advanced appropriations for VA medical care programs.
This past October, while many VA offices and services were
shut during the shutdown, VA hospitals and clinics were able to
provide uninterrupted health care. By contrast, claims
processing to reduce the backlog was slowed, activities at
National cemeteries were scaled back, and medical research
projects were nearly suspended.
When VA regional offices were shut down, many of our
national service officers resorted to occupying temporary
quarters, including tents, in order to continue helping
veterans seeking their earned benefits. We at DAV determined
that our free representation would not, and could not be
interrupted.
In the last year Veterans Day activities, a woman
approached me to say how grateful she was to DAV for our
efforts in helping during the government shutdown before VA ran
out of funds for disability compensation. She and her husband's
only income was his monthly VA compensation. And as the
shutdown lingered on, she told me with tears in her eyes, that
they were terribly worried that they would not be able to buy
food, gas, or pay their rent.
As national commander of this tremendous organization, I
was grateful for those kind words about DAV's effective
advocacy, but it concerned me greatly that she and her husband
were forced to go through such a terrible ordeal given the
sacrifice they had already made for this country. We should
never again put a disabled veteran or his or her family in
similar circumstances.
This is why DAV's Operation Keep the Promise has made
advance appropriations for all VA funding accounts, including
its mandatory disability payments to veterans, our highest
legislative priority in 2014.
Messrs. Chairmen, advance appropriations is a common-sense
approach to a long-standing problem and it has broad and
bipartisan support in Congress and the veterans community, and
by the American people at large.
Now it is up to the leaders and Congress to bring this
legislation up for votes in both the House and the Senate. It
is time for Congress to keep the promise to American's
veterans.
Of course, authorizing benefits for veterans, especially
disabled veterans, without providing the systems to deliver
those benefits in a timely, accurate, manner is a promise
unfulfilled. For decades, VA's benefits claims process has
failed to meet that promise. Today, however, for the first time
in years, some good news is coming from the VBA. After 4 years
of comprehensive transformation that included implementation of
new organizational and operating processes, new IT systems, and
new training, testing, and quality control regimes, there is
measurable progress in addressing the backlog of pending claims
for a veteran's benefits.
Similarly, without the infrastructure to deliver services
and benefits the promises made by our government will ring
hollow. DAV believes one of the greatest challenges facing the
VA and the enormous shortfall in funding for VA's capital and
infrastructure, according to VA's own analysis, just to
maintain its current infrastructure requires up to $64 billion
over the next 10 years. But at current funding rates, VA will
need more than 25 years to complete that work. In major
construction alone, VA estimates say that there is an average
of $2.3 billion is needed each year for the next decade, but
this funding's level was a pitiful $342 million. Our veterans
deserve more than aging facilities that may soon be falling
down around them.
We need your support to increase funding for maintaining
VA's infrastructure needs to continue delivering the health
care and benefits our Nation's heroes have earned.
Messrs. Chairmen, family caregivers play an indispensable
role as a part of VA's long-term services and support systems.
They provide the vast majority of the care for loved ones with
chronic needs and functional limitations. As a result of
legislation passed in 2010, VA provides essential caregiver
services and support only to the newest generation of severely
injured and wounded veterans. Family caregivers of veterans
from earlier wars do not receive the same comprehensive support
to fully address the burdens and strains of a lifetime of
caregiving. DAV urges Congress to correct the inequity and
extend this successful program to caregivers of all eras.
In closing, I would like to point out to all of you that
before you are men and women of honor. That means that they did
whatever was needed to be done when our country called. And
ladies and gentleman, you can still call on us any time that
you need us and we would be proud to serve. That is why this
country is never going to be overrun by an enemy force as long
as we all draw breath.
Messrs. Chairmen, this completes my testimony, and my staff
and I would be very pleased to respond to any questions that
you may have. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to
appear before you on behalf of the DAV and to share our proud
record of service to veterans and our country. May God bless
America's Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Coast Guardsmen, and
Marines who are in harm's way, and may God continue to bless
the United States of America.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Johnston appears in the
Appendix]
The Chairman. Thank you very much for your testimony,
Commander.
What I would like to do since the Senators may have to
depart to go back to the Senate side for the debate that is on
the floor, I would like to go ahead and yield to the chairman
for any questions he may have in case he has to leave. Senator.
Senator Blumenthal. Thank you, Chairman Miller. I very much
appreciate that courtesy in yielding, and am very grateful for
that very stirring and inspiring comment and testimony.
I want to focus my brief couple of questions on the capital
budget, the 10-year plan that as you very wisely and
perceptively say can't be accomplished in less than 25 years,
which is a contradiction in terms, and really a betrayal of the
promises that we do need to keep.
And I want to ask you about the impacts, the human impacts,
if you could tell us from your deep and vast experience of
failing to fulfill that 10-year plan?
Mr. Johnston. Yes, sir.
The impact is going to be even greater if we bring down the
Army and the other services to pre-World War II levels. The VA
is going to be inundated with new requests for claims and for
new requests for healthcare services.
And to have these infrastructure facilities falling down
around folk's ears, is absolutely the wrong thing to do. And we
need to make sure that we get the appropriate amount of funds
budgeted to cover these shortfalls that are certainly going to
occur in the years to come. Simply because the war ends, does
not mean that the necessity for VA services gets any less. It
gets greater.
Senator Blumenthal. In fact, perhaps you would agree with
me that the contrary is true. As the wars end and as we
downsize to levels of World War II and pre-World War II, the
Army, for example, at 440,000 to 450,000, we are going to see a
million men and women leave the military over the next 5 years.
That statistic comes from the VA itself; in fact, from General
Shinseki, a million men and women becoming veterans. Many of
them afflicted, not only with highly visible wounds, but also
the horrific invisible wounds of posttraumatic stress, and
traumatic brain injury; 1 million men and women added to the
ranks of our veterans. And they are the ones who will be
impacted by this failure to fulfill the 10-year plan.
In Connecticut, for example, we see the VA hospital in West
Haven found wanting and failing in a number of critical areas
by the IG, the Inspector General of the VA, in a recent report
that has to be addressed through capital improvements as well
as changes in procedures and practices.
So I would agree with you very strongly, and really want to
commend and thank you for the statement and the presence of so
many of the Members who are here today so that we can fulfill
that promise. Thank you very much.
And I want to thank you, Mr. Chairman, for allow me to ask
that question and in case I have to leave, I hope you will
forgive me.
Thank you.
The Chairman. Senator Heller.
Senator Heller. Mr. Chairman, thank you.
And again, Commander, thank you very much for your
testimony and everybody that is here today. It is good to see
you here.
At 4:30 this afternoon, I have Secretary Shinseki coming
into my office. I am going to ask him a lot of questions. I am
going to ask him, obviously, about the veterans backlog issue,
and progress, if any are being made; the issue of lack of
communication between my office and the VARO in Reno. That will
be another question that I am going to ask, and hopefully get a
good answer for. But there are other questions that you might
think that I should ask him. Are there any questions, if you
were talking to Secretary Shinseki today, what question would
that be, and I am going to take notes, and this is your chance
to advocate.
Mr. Johnston. Well, I wouldn't presume, sir, to tell you
what to ask the Secretary, although the Secretary is an
Airborne Ranger like me, so he is my friend. And he has told me
that he will reduce the backlog by 2015.
But I would defer to members of my staff for any additional
information that they want to share.
Senator Heller. Love to hear from them, yes.
Mr. Augustine. Yes, thank you.
We do believe that the VA is making progress on the
backlog. We obviously feel that advanced appropriations is
necessary, because every year there is a lapse between the
start of the fiscal year and when the budget is finally
approved. That causes all kinds of problems in training, in
getting things accomplished, and in an efficient business
manner.
We would like the Secretary to support our efforts to get
advance appropriations for the rest of the VA, and for our
discretionary. He himself has indicated that it is very
important for his IT budget and his construction budget to be
received on time because of the problems associated with those
two issues. So we would like to know if the Secretary will
continue to advance or to support our advance appropriations.
Senator Heller. Very good. Anyone else?
I certainly appreciate those comments, and they will be
well heeded.
One of the issues that comes up in my office, Commander, is
the fully developed claims program. It is a new initiative by
the VA office. Veterans who submit a fully developed claim are
able to receive a decision under 125 days, and ensure that
their claims do not become backlogged. I guess my question is:
What more can Congress and the VA do to ensure that these
veterans do fill out a fully developed claim?
Mr. Johnston. I would make just a general comment before I
turn this over to my staff that we believe that the reduction
of the backlog is a combination of a fully developed claim
process, the DBQs, and then also accountability that is passed
on to the review officers. And we think those three things are
exactly the types of answers to not only reduce the claims, but
to a manageable level, but then to reduce the backlog entirely.
Senator Heller. Let me, if I can ask a follow-up question.
I know that the DAV works hard to encourage veterans you serve
to file as complete a claim as possible. I also recognize that
the veterans have the option to file any way they want; whether
that is on that form, or perhaps on a paper napkin. Is that
accurate, and can you explain to this committee why it is
important that veterans still have the option to file a claim
any way they want?
Mr. Johnston. I will defer that to the staff.
Mr. Marszalek. Yes, thank you.
I think it is important that veterans still have the
opportunity to file a claim, whether it is on paper, on the
standard 526EZ, or if they do it on a regular form. Currently,
they can take the regular piece of paper, as many people refer
to as a napkin, send it to the VA regional office, and the VA
has a duty to send the claimant the correct appropriate form to
be completed, and then they return it.
But that napkin starts to date the day they receive the
claim. In VA's proposal, they are recommending that you have to
file it on that 526EZ in order for them to start the date. And
that is what we don't agree with. So it is very important that
veterans still have the opportunity, because not everyone has
easy access to those forms and not everyone can do it
electronically either.
So VA is still in the early stages of their transformation
plan on filing claims electronically, so we feel it is
important that we continue to allow them to submit claims on
paper to protect their effective dates.
Senator Heller. Very good. Thank you.
Mr. Augustine. And if I might add.
Senator Heller. Please.
Mr. Augustine. You mentioned fully developed claims. In
order to encourage people to develop their own claims,
veterans, it is very important to have that process so that
they can establish what is called an informal claim, and as Mr.
Marszalek mentioned, protect that effective date so that they
can then go out and develop the information that is needed to
be a fully developed claim. That claim goes through the process
much quicker. And without that protection on the effective
date, they will not be motivated to go out and develop that
evidence, and will leave it to the VA which causes the claim to
have a lot longer development time.
Senator Heller. Mr. Chairman, thank you. I see my time is
running out, but it has been a pleasure to participate in
Operation Keep the Promise.
Thank you.
The Chairman. Commander, in your written testimony, you
talked about several initiatives that DAV finds that have had a
positive effect on the backlog of disability claims, and one of
those initiatives that DAV refers to is the quality control
regimes or, as VA refers to them, quality review team, I don't
know if you or your team is aware, but despite this positive
feedback, there was a memo that was sent out a week ago today
basically saying that all quality review team work would be
discontinued until further notice so that all hands could be on
deck to continue processing claims.
And what I would like to hear from you is the effect that a
temporary elimination of these review teams may have on the
Secretary's goal of 95 percent accuracy within 125 days.
Turning numbers out is one thing, but the accuracy is critical.
Again, you may or may not be aware of it--Joe may be aware of
it--but I would like to hear what you think the potential
effects negative or positive could be.
Mr. Johnston. I will let the staff answer that question.
Mr. Marszalek. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Quality is our number one priority. It always has been. We
were very supportive with the creation of the QRT teams. We are
aware of this initiative. This goes through the end of March.
It is important that VA makes the decision right the first
time. That is the only way that we want it. We are going to
monitor very closely over this next 40 days or so to see how it
impacts.
What we don't want to see is this continue to happen. That
was our concern in the beginning when the QRTs were created
that they would use these folks when the initiative came up.
QRT teams are very important and we have been happy with the
progress of the QRT teams locally there, being able to, you
know, do some centralized training on particular issues that
they are seeing at that local VA regional office. So again, we
feel it is important that quality is a number one priority over
quantity.
The Chairman. Also in your written statement, you stated
that the most important factor driving VBA's productivity gains
was undoubtedly the policy that was put into place of mandatory
overtime for claims processing. I think that the overtime
initiative has been helpful, without question, but it is not
sustainable in the long term due to employee burnout and
reduced accuracy rates. So indeed, the benefits program portion
of the independent budget recommends that we provide sufficient
resources to ensure adequate staffing levels at the VBA goes on
to state that the VSOs recommended increase staffing levels
instead of a sole reliance on mandatory overtime.
So what I would like to hear is a further explanation of
the independent budget rationale and the position that you--
take, and the organizations took--regarding whether that hiring
additional employees may prove more beneficial to VBA than
overreliance on mandatory overtime.
Mr. Johnston. I would like to say just a few general words
before I defer to staff for the specifics of that; but over the
years, the independent budget has been the bellwether of the
actual requirements for what was needed in the VA in the budget
each year; and every time that that independent budget is
ignored, it always results in additional appropriations having
to be passed in order to meet the needs, so we do have
confidence in our numbers. We have confidence in the quality of
that product, and we certainly believe that you all should pay
attention and heed it. So with that, I will defer to the staff.
Mr. Violante. Mr. Chairman, I will respond to that and just
say that in the independent budget, what we thought about was
what happened several years ago when they brought on a core of
temporary employees, trained them, put them into the workforce,
and then through attrition either kept them on after the
temporary period or let them go; and we felt that that provided
VA, number one, with the resources, with sufficient trained
employees, and also gave VA the opportunity to make a
determination as to who was successful and who they can keep
on.
So we feel that overtime is nice, but after a while people
do get burned out; and we would rather see, even if it is
temporary in the beginning, a core of people coming on board to
take care of the needs; and again, with automation and what VA
is doing, the needs for the numbers that we have requested may
go down over the years; and that gives VA the ability to then
decrease their workforce when necessary and just keep those
that are productive.
The Chairman. Thank you. My time is expired. Mr. Michaud.
Mr. Michaud. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. In this
year's independent budget, you included a recommendation that
VBA must develop a new metrics and assessment tool to measure
the performance at every level of the claims processing system,
based upon a scientific methodology of projecting workloads,
resources, requirements and allocations. Can you provide some
examples of the performance measures you believe that should be
instituted at VBA.
Mr. Johnston. I will defer that question to the staff.
Mr. Augustine. Thank you. We firmly believe that there
should be progressive metrics with benchmark compliance,
transparency, so that we as VSOs can ensure that the VA are
meeting their needs and making sure that it is more than just
production goals but also quality goals; and we will continue
to watch them closely and make them accountable for those
benchmarks.
Mr. Michaud. There is an old saying, if you can't measure
it, you can't manage it. What part of the claims process, in
your view, should be counted in order to be measured? Clearly
you can get a lot of, you know, claims out the door, but the
accuracy rate might be terrible; so what part of the claims
process do you think should be measured?
Mr. Augustine. There is no doubt that the VA's making sure
that everybody knows about their production metrics, so of
course, we are very concerned about the quality of those claims
that are being done. Now, the DAV, for all the claims that we
represent, we take a look at those claims before they are
promulgated to make sure that there are no mistakes and take
them back to the VA before they are finalized.
However, there are many veterans that are not represented,
so it is very important to make sure that quality across the
board is being done and that they do it right the first time.
Having that said, that would also reduce the appeals because if
they get it right the first time, then you are not going to
have as many appeals.
Mr. Michaud. Actually that is my next question. As you
know, as they move down to lower the backlog, the amount of
appeals are actually as concerning is actually going up. What
are you recommending as far as, that we should do as far as the
appeals process, because that is a huge concern as a backlog
claim comes down, the appeals process is going higher.
Mr. Augustine. There is no doubt appeals are even a longer
time frame than the adjudication of regular claims. So the more
we can do to fix it at the front end, and I believe that with
FDCs, fully developed claims, those will help the appeal
process. Not only will the evidence be there at the very
beginning that they need to do it right the first time, the
time frame for those claims are much shorter, and I believe
veterans would be much more satisfied to get a claim in a
matter of weeks as opposed to a matter of months or years,
knowing that the evidence that they submitted, and also all the
evidence was considered as opposed to starting a claim, getting
an exam, and then not having the claim adjudicated until months
later when the condition could change between the time they had
their exam and the time they actually adjudicate the claim.
Mr. Michaud. My last question, since my time is running
out, is on advance appropriation, I have no doubt that that
bill was brought to the floor, that H.R. 813, that it passed
Congress overwhelmingly, probably unanimous. What are you doing
as far as to get leadership to bring the bill to the House
floor for a vote on it.
Mr. Violante. Actually yesterday our department of Ohio had
a meeting in the Speaker's Office with his staff to discuss
that fact in bringing advanced appropriations forward. Today,
along with Operation Keep the Promise, we had thousands of
calls made into the Capitol Hill switchboard at the time that
we were at the rally; so we hope that with those phone calls,
with the emails that we will be generating today, and with the
visits that our members are making, that they will get the
message to bring that bill to the floor for a vote.
Mr. Michaud. Thank you very much. And thank you very much,
Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you very much. Dr. Roe, you are
recognized for five minutes.
Mr. Roe. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I got the
message.
I would like to take just a moment. Any Tennessee DAV if
you would hold your hands up. I want to recognize you. Any of
my Tennessee colleagues that are here. Commander, I want to
thank you; and, Ms. Miller, thank you for your leadership for
the DAV. And I want to just briefly tell you a very quick story
about how much I appreciate why you are here.
About a year and a half ago, a little over a year ago, I
got to go back to Korea where I was stationed--and by the way,
Colonel, my gig line is still straight, too, after 40 years.
People that are civilians might not understand that. You do.
I got a chance to go back to Korea, and I was there in
1973; and I saw a country that was digging its way out of a
war. They were recovering from a devastating war that leveled
that country from one end to the other.
In 1960, that country had the fourth poorest economy in the
world. Today because of what you men and women did and people
like you, there are 50 million free people; and the leadership
of that country said every time you get in front, Dr. Roe, of a
group of veterans, you thank them for us. I am doing that
today. You are seeing the largest Christian church in the world
is in Seoul, Korea; and by the way, to all my Baptist friends
out there, it is a Methodist church, where I go. It is a
country that has the eighth or ninth largest economy in the
world thanks to what the American people did.
You saw what happened after World War II. I cannot thank
you enough for what you have done and made us a free Nation,
and I can never do enough for our veterans in this country. We
have a VA hospital a mile from my front door in Johnson City,
Tennessee, where I live; and you have my commitment. I wrote
down your advanced appropriations. I couldn't see why we
wouldn't do that. It makes absolute sense to do it. As a matter
of fact, I think it makes absolute sense to do it with the
whole budget we do here. Get it done in 1 year, and then refine
it the 2nd year. The VA was a good start. It has worked. The
veterans shows the way that advanced appropriations work. So I
absolutely will support that.
A frustration I have here is $1 billion we spent. That is a
thousand million dollars. Last year about this time, we were in
the Veterans' Affairs Committee--the chairman remembers this
very well--where we couldn't have an integrated electronic
health record where the VA and DoD can talk. We flushed $1
billion, and we still can't make it work. That is something
that I think--this is my 6th year here. I cannot understand, in
today's technology, why a veteran, a service member, can't
leave and electronically transfer their records. It hasn't been
explained to me. We need to do that. We need to hold the VA
accountable for that.
I think the backlog of claims has been well-discussed. It
is coming down. I salute the Secretary on that. He has a real
commitment to that. The two things that I really am passionate
about are homeless veterans. I think it is heartbreaking when
you see a veteran that is sleeping under a bridge that
honorably served this country; and had we had the HUD VASH
vouchers, and that has come down. I will salute General
Shinseki for that. He has been very, very good about that. We
don't have enough housing stock out there to put these veterans
in. That is one of our problems at home we have got to work on,
is a place to house homeless veterans and the people that go
ahead and get these people back integrated into society.
Sergeant Major Walsh and I co-chaired the Invisible Wounds
Caucus. When you have more veterans dying of suicide than you
do combat, something is wrong. We need programs. We need to
look into that and find out what the causes are and put the
resources behind preventing that. And we have so many veterans
out there that are in need right now. That is one that really I
certainly feel very passionate about.
And I think the other one I have seen just at a local level
is to bring the VA to the communities, the community outpatient
clinics that we have. We just opened one up in Sevier County,
Tennessee. It is going to have to be expanded in a year and a
half. It was that successful. So I think I am going to
encourage--John and I are having breakfast with the Secretary
in the morning; so if you want to give us any other questions
that Senator Heller didn't get, we will be glad to take them in
the morning. We have breakfast with the Secretary.
I think the CBOCs are a tremendous success and a way to get
to care instead of our elderly veterans having to drive miles
and miles to care, have it in their own community. I will stop
there, and again, just thank you for your service. I hear all
of the claims I think we can support pretty much everything you
have brought up today, Commander. Thank all of you have for
your service. With that, I yield back.
The Chairman. Mr. Takano, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Takano. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Well, on behalf of, I
think, the five Californians, the three of us here, myself,
Congresswoman Gloria Negrete McLeod, and Congresswoman Julia
Brownley, Paul Cook, who is not here, and also Dr. Raul Ruiz,
and Mr. Denham; I am sorry. There is actually six of us, I
guess.
I would like to acknowledge the Californians in the room.
So if you are here from California, please stand and let us
know you are present. We make that trip back and forth between
Washington and California, and we know what a journey you made,
and we appreciate that you have come all that way to let us
know your legislative agenda. And it is a great honor to serve
on this committee and to do what we can.
I represent Riverside County, which is the eighth largest
veterans population in the country. I met with my veterans'
advisory council last week. They are doing tremendous work in
my county to reach out to homeless veterans to find out where
they are living along the Santa Ana River and in different
encampments in the Coachella Valley, just to get a count. And I
am fully aligned, as I think all of us on this committee are
fully aligned, with the Secretary's goal of ending veterans'
homelessness.
I have one question that I want to ask you, Commander. It
is my understanding that the VA has published new regulations
that establish presumptions for veterans living with severe
traumatic brain injury who also have Parkinson's disease,
certain types of dementia, depression, unprovoked seizures or
certain diseases of the hypothalamus and pituitary glands.
Given these additional disabilities, A, is your
organization aware of any planning or analysis that the VA has
done that relates to the possible impact on the Veterans
Administration's backlog of claims.
Mr. Johnston. I defer that to the staff, sir.
Mr. Marszalek. Thank you for the question. We are not aware
of any planning that the VA has right now and how they are
going to implement that, but we haven't seen an overwhelming
increase in claims at this time from that at this point.
Mr. Takano. Because of that rule change, we are not seeing
a tremendous impact as of now?
Mr. Marszalek. Right. We haven't seen a spike in the
backlog. There hasn't been any discussions about initiatives to
address those particular conditions that were added as
presumptive conditions.
Mr. Takano. So we are not anticipating a spike, and
organizationally, you feel that you are prepared as of now?
Mr. Marszalek. Well, I am not sure if we anticipate a
spike. The VA hasn't discussed that they are going to segregate
these particular claims and send them to a particular place;
but we hope that if that does come to fruition with Veterans'
Benefit Management System, that they are able to electronically
send those cases to regional offices that can handle the
additional workload where it wouldn't increase a spike in the
backlog of claims that we already have pending.
Mr. Takano. Very good. I don't have any further questions.
I will give my colleagues an opportunity to also ask questions,
so I yield back my time, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you very much. Dr. Wenstrup.
Mr. Wenstrup. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Believe me, I am so
grateful to be here with you today. And I know we already had
the opportunity to see so many delegates from Ohio, and I am
proud to be from Ohio to see so many of you here today. And if
anyone out there is somebody that I had the opportunity to lay
my hands on in Iraq, I want to tell you it was my honor to take
care of you.
You know, we have a wall that exists unfortunately, and I
see it more and more now that I am on this side of things,
between the Department of Defense and the VA; and I know we are
in the process of tearing that down. You know, we are one
family. When you take that oath and you say I am going to serve
this country, it should go right on through. There shouldn't be
this wall and this divide between the opportunities that exist
to take care of our troops. The electronic medical record that
Dr. Roe spoke about, to me that is shameful, and it delays
care, makes it more difficult to have a smooth flow of care.
I do see some positive things. I was at Joint Base Lewis-
McChord at Madigan last year. I see some startup programs where
they are really starting to focus on transition at the time of
ETS; and it makes sense to me that if you are disabled, or
getting a medical separation, that your level of disability can
be determined at that time and carry right over into the VA
instead of having to go through these processes and having
redundant services.
There are other things that I see starting to take place,
and that is guiding troops as they are leaving the military
into being able to use the skills that they have learned in the
military and translate them into civilian work and helping them
get there, and guidance on the educational opportunities. And I
do believe that you have the greatest opportunity when you have
the troops still in uniform, that they are a more captive
audience; and these are the types of things that we need to do
to make your job easier and to tear down that wall between the
two.
You know, we endured in our medical practice, my private
medical practice, where we had to change to an electronic
medical record. It can be done. You just do it. You just do it.
And then there is a seamless flow.
Things are getting better. The opportunities are great. I
really don't have any questions of you today, except I want to
thank you for all that you do. I know how active you are. I
know how many people you help, and I know the challenge that
comes with that; and I want to thank you for keeping your
promise of service to this country. Thank you.
The Chairman. Ms. Negrete McLeod, who is leaving us after
one term of service in the Congress to go home.
Mrs. Negrete McLeod. Well, thank you all for being here.
Thank you for your service, and I won't be redundant; but I
want to thank the California delegation who is here. So the
question I would like to say is, and since I have to be
leaving, I am going to roll two questions into one. I will just
add an ``and.''
What steps has DAV taken to conduct outreach specifically
towards women veterans, and what could the VHA facilities do
more effectively to integrate women's health care programs into
the rest of the health care centers?
Mr. Johnston. I am very proud to say, Madam Congresswoman,
that we and the DAV lead all of the legacy VSOs on our women's
programs; and we are the co-sponsors of every meeting that has
occurred with the VA in order to do that. The specific answers
to your questions, I will now defer to the staff.
Mr. Augustine. Thank you. In 2008, we began the Stand Up
For Women Veterans Campaign and since that time have sponsored
several films highlighting the military experience of women
veterans such as LIONESS in Services: When Women Come Marching
Home. This summer we plan to release a special report and
sponsor another Capitol Hill event focused on women veterans
transition issues and do a screening of the film, ``Journey To
Normal, Women of War Come Home''?
As with previous events, we plan to bring the women
featured in the film to Washington and invite Members of
Congress, their staffs and VA and VOD officials to attend a
panel discussion following the film screening.
Our special edition, Women Veterans Magazine, was mailed to
every VA medical center, and the screening of these films on
Capitol Hill helped to inform and educate policymakers about
the special needs of women veterans and resulted in legislation
being passed to improve benefits and service for women.
The DAV is also engaging this year on a special research
project to look into the transitioning of women after
deployment back into the civilian world, and what issues they
may be dealing with different from men so that we can be aware
of it, make the VA aware of it.
Mrs. Negrete McLeod. Of course, there is lots of women that
have already returned who are out there, and I know
homelessness amongst women is a very large issue, and the
places where they feel safe when they are homeless. Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you. Mr. Runyan, you are recognized for
5 minutes.
Mr. Runyan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank each and
every one of you for your service. I have checked the
attendance list. There has got to be one or two, but there is
no New Jerseyans on the list there. There is one. I know the
rest, everybody's coming down next week. It is not on the
schedule here today, but thank you all for your service.
It is rare that we have the panel of expertise from the DAV
all sitting at one table at one time. Usually we are issue-
specific on what we are talking about, and I know Mr. Violante,
when we talk about metrics it kind of sets my hair on fire; and
I don't even know if you are the one to answer this question. I
will direct it at the Commander, so he can maybe take a chop at
it and hand it on down.
When we talk about metrics, and Mr. Michaud kind of touched
on it a little bit, it seems to me a lot of the time being
where I am at, and I know it seems to many of our constituents
and many of our veterans, it is almost that the VA is running
to the next major crisis. Now, is it there to put out a fire,
or is it a combination of putting out a fire and actually
having a lack of actually personnel to address the crisis
because it seems our attention that are drawn to metrics in the
VA change monthly.
I mean, it came up to now, fully developed claims are
great, but now we have got an increase in appeals, so what is
the flavor of the day? Are we actually accomplishing anything,
or are we just playing a shell game, and I just want to throw
that out for comment and any suggestions that we can pin them
down to actually try to get a set sheet of measurements so we
can actually judge the progress they are trying to make.
Mr. Johnston. We had a report from General Hickey yesterday
that, indeed, there are some reduction in the claims backlog
that even goes beyond what we knew of; but I would defer to the
rest of the staff for the specifics of those questions.
Mr. Violante. Mr. Runyan, it is one of the things that we
raised in our testimony about the transparency and making sure
that we can see the progression and how they are proposing it.
Because you are right; we put out one fire, and that is the
backlog, and someone forgets about the fact that now that we
have done all of those claims and decided them, what happens to
them. And BVA gets 5 percent of appeals from those that are
filed, so that is one of the things we would like to see VA do
a better job at, and that is giving us their metrics and how
they are figuring this out and what they are looking at; and
one of the issues that we have talked about in the independent
budget again is, you know, VHA is able to determine what their
needs are through a metric program, and VBA should be able to
do the same.
Mr. Runyan. Well, I appreciate that, because I sit up there
and chairing the Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and
Memorial Affairs, it is a daily occurrence; and what problem
are we going to tackle this week, and at the same time, the VA
sits up here and says, well, it takes us two years to get
anybody trained to do any of this anyway.
Mr. Augustine. If I might, we do believe that the
transformation to paperless process is the right thing to do.
It is in its 4th year now, I believe. It is not an easy thing
to transition a large bureaucracy like that into paperless
processing. But we do believe that many of their initiatives
are now coming on-line, and we are hoping that they are showing
positive results and will start to help the process be much
more quality effective from this point forward.
Mr. Runyan. Well, thank you for that, and I will leave with
this, dealing with advance appropriations, and I know I brought
this up when Secretary Shinseki sat in front of us, it was
literally within the first couple months of my first term 3
years ago; and I went to a CBOC in the District, a brand new
expansion. They had the X-ray machine sitting there. They
couldn't install the X-ray machine because they didn't have the
IT budget to put the CAT 5 wire in the wall to hook up the
computer that came with the X-ray machine. And that is the
detail that we are talking about, and with that I yield back,
Chairman.
The Chairman. Mr. Walz, you are recognized.
Mr. Walz. Thank you, Chairman Miller, and thank you,
Commander, for your service and for continuing your service and
to your family. No warrior deploys alone and know warrior comes
home alone. There is a family and a broader community.
Commander Miller, thank you. The importance of getting this
right and the work you do can't be understated. Minnesota
delegation here, a couple of these folks hold a special place
for me. I think our State adjutant, First Sergeant Whitehead is
here. He and I served together in the same artillery unit, so I
will speak up for you back there, Sergeant. And Dave Wenslow I
think is here. Dave came to my office through a special
project, Wounded Warriors. Dave, are you here somewhere? I ask
that to make sure you are working. Thanks. It is good that he
is here. So we are grateful, and to each of you, and no one
comes to Capitol Hill with more credibility than this
organization; and no one understands the importance of what you
are doing--this goes beyond care of our wounded warriors, and
it cuts to the heart of our democracy: What are our values?
What are our commitments? What do we do as community? And what
are we willing to do for those who understand a little bit
about service to this Nation?
We understand now through technology and other things that
less and less people serve in uniform. That is a good thing as
all of you want to know is, because you know what comes with
that service; but somebody's still got to do it, and so the
rest of the folks who aren't doing it need to understand
veterans, benefits aren't a charity or a lottery. That is not
the way this works, and they are not a secondary thing that you
think about.
We have to get this right. We have to get it right not only
morally to do the right thing, we have to get it right because
it cuts to the core of the Nation. What is the next generation
looking at and getting right? So when you bring these things
and you bring your credibility up here, it is broader than
that. You hear that. It is healthy to have the debates up here.
It is not healthy when veterans, as the Commander said, are put
out there and their well-being is put at risk because we have
political differences, because I can tell you it is healthy to
have the differences.
This thing about, oh, you people can't get along and you
have differences. Why can't you agree? I feel like asking them,
have you ever been married? Do you agree all the time? But you
know what, you love your spouse dearly; but you have
differences, but you find that commonality. I will tell you
this: This chairman and these folks you heard speak, there is
no one I would rather stand with than them. We don't agree on
all the issues, but we agree for care of our veterans. We agree
on the basics of the democracy that need to get right. When you
come here and bring these things up, it is critically
important. I think it is hard to understand, and for many of
you, I see familiar faces here. There is folks here, you didn't
only fight this Nation's wars, you came back and have been
fighting for these things for decades.
Now, there is a tendency to be a frustration that, damn it,
why do we have to fight? You are right. Some of these things
shouldn't have to be, but democracy is always, has to keep
growing, has to keep coming; we have to keep at it. It is not
going to run itself, but we shouldn't have to put up with the
nonsense of not having the funding there when it is needed,
fighting whether we were injured and how that injury came
about, and how do we get the care, because no one in my
district or any of these folks' districts tells me, you know
what you guys need to do, you need to cut the budget by making
sure veterans don't get the care they need. I have never heard
anyone say that. And they say lots of things to me, good and
bad. That is not one they say.
And so Keeping the Promise, nothing should be easier than
keeping that promise. Every person in America wants us to keep
that promise. And here's what you need to know. The folks that
are sitting up here, and I have just two short questions I am
going to ask, but I think it is important for you to understand
and you who come out here. There are literally millions of
folks who they are working today. They have got families. They
couldn't come out. You sacrificed. You took your time, your
money; you came out here. These folks who are out here on
Capitol Hill, they are the best at what they are doing.
And I can tell you what; many things that get done here,
they don't get done because of political malice or anything
like that. They get done out of ignorance because people just
don't know. Somebody needs to explain how this works. Somebody
needs to know how to get this right. And what you understand is
in this country right now. President Kennedy was right about
this one. You can either curse the darkness or you can light
the damn candle. So come here and light the candle. Make people
light the candle. There is a lot of people are connoisseurs of
cursing the darkness. Well, find a solution. Bring it forward.
So your advanced appropriations, that is a candle. Get it done.
Get it lit. Get it fixed. It is not that difficult. Move it
forward.
I am just going to ask one thing of this group. How we can
together help this. I don't know if any of you this weekend,
this Senator Boozman was part of a little documentary that was
done on Jason Ehrhart and his family. Jason was blown up in
Iraq, and he came back home; and the VA, as we did this with
the Camp Lejeune bill, put in there and said you know what,
through new technology, it is not good enough just to get these
guys in wheelchairs. It is not good enough to find the newest
prosthetic. Because the new--and there are folks here sitting
are living testimony to this--we don't know what the limits of
your rehabilitation are, so let's get it there.
And then we also promised and said if your parents or your
spouse are taking care of them, we are going to help do that,
because you know what, they may be your son, but they are our
warrior. So you are giving the love. You are doing that. I am
out of time.
I am out of time, but what I am telling you is Jason and
his parents, Mike and Pam are telling me, it is not happening
the way we intended it to happen. They are paying out of pocket
for those types of things. We have got to figure out how to do
better because this kid, this 23-year-old kid summed it up
best. He said what kind of person wants to be told they
plateaued. What kind of man wants to be told he plateaued? He
said, I am not plateauing. I want to ski again. I want to go do
these things again. That is the call to action to us. That is
the candle we need to light. I just would hope we come back to
figure out how we ask for that implementation.
Thank you for indulging me, Chairman.
The Chairman. Now you know why we call him Commander,
Sergeant and Major; He is the highest-ranking enlisted soldier
ever to serve in the United States Congress.
Ms. Brownley, you are recognized.
Ms. Brownley. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I, too, want to
welcome everyone who is here from the great State of
California. Thank you for travelling here, and thank you for
what you do every single day for our veterans in California. My
hat is off to you; and thank you, Commander Johnston, for your
testimony today and your very detailed written testimony that
has been offered to us. I think this is an excellent document
for us to hold on to and a document that we can refer to often
to make sure that we are fulfilling our responsibilities, not
only that we are providing the services our veterans need, but
our oversight responsibilities as well.
So thank you for that. And you described the men and women
in this room as men and women of honor, and I just want to tell
you, I concur wholeheartedly that every man and woman in this
room are men and women of honor; and every man and woman who
have served our country are men and women of honor, and I want
to express my deep gratitude to them.
I wanted to follow up on Congresswoman Negrete McLeod's
questioning with regards to our female disabled veterans and
female veterans in general, and I am very excited to hear about
what is coming forward this year. I will look forward to the
film screening and look forward to the hearing. If there is
anything I can do to be helpful in that process, I would be
delighted to offer a helping hand.
I want to know if we will get to a place where we actually
have, what are the very specific things we need to do for our
women veterans and then our ability to create the metrics that
we have been talking about today and the transparency to have
the metrics that we need for us to oversee and to make sure
that we are providing everything we need for our female
veterans.
Mr. Johnston. I will defer to the staff.
Mr. Augustine. Yes. Thank you. Over the last several years,
the VA researchers have been evaluating the VA's current health
care delivery model for women veterans. As you know, the
population of women using the VA system has doubled over the
last 5 years. We are pleased that one of the VA Secretary's
highest goals is to ensure that all women veterans have access
to high quality health care from a provider proficient in
women's health at all VA facilities. Although there is still
work to be done to fully achieve this goal, we believe VA is
heading in the right direction. We especially want to be sure
that women veterans have access to all VA special programs and
services.
Ms. Brownley. Thank you, sir. I appreciate that. And last
week, this committee, Subcommittee on Health, Dr. Benishek and
myself, held a subcommittee hearing actually in my district in
Ventura County in California, to discuss access to traditional
and alternative mental health care. We learned a lot in that
hearing. In my county, in Ventura County, there is up to a 44-
day wait period to get any kind of mental health care services,
which is way too long.
Intake for mental health services, our veterans in Ventura
County have to travel into Los Angeles County to just do the
intake for their services. We don't have enough mental health
providers to meet the needs in our county, so I am looking
forward to being able to resolve some of those issues.
But we did spend a great deal of time also talking about
alternative mental health options, and I understand that the
DAV hosts a Miracle on the Mountainside event, and it sounds
like a really wonderful event; and I am curious to know, from
your perspective, are there other alternative forms of therapy
that the DAV has found to improve psychological well-being of
veterans who are suffering from post-traumatic stress?
Mr. Johnston. I serve as the chief operating officer in my
full-time job of the largest mental health agency in
Cincinnati. Yes, there are many things that are done. There are
many things that the DAV funds that are alternative therapies
through our charitable service program, and staff can tell you
what some of those are; but it can be swimming with dolphins.
It can be horseback riding. It can be something as simple as
growing a garden; and all of those things are important to
people that are reaching out because they have a mental
illness, albeit depression or severe mental illness; and so the
normalization of their lives is an important function of that,
and we believe that, and we do what we can do to fund those
types of programs, and I defer to the staff for other answers.
Mr. Augustine. And we agree that alternative therapies are
very important. Even meditation now is becoming more and more
known as a way to deal with those type of issues. We are very
pleased that the VA is now starting to look at some alternative
therapies. They are not just stuck in their traditional therapy
mode anymore. They are considering other types of therapies.
Recently they just hired, I believe, 900 peer-to-peer
counselors that we are very excited to see the results of that
initiative. So we do believe they are starting to understand
the need for alternative therapies.
Ms. Brownley. Thank you, sir. And thank you, Mr. Chair, for
your indulgence.
The Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Brownley. Thank you members
for hanging in there. Commander, we appreciate your testimony.
Again to each and every one of you that have made the trip to
your Nation's Capital: We thank you. We thank you for what you
have done for this country. We thank you for what you continue
to do for this country.
I would ask that all members would have five legislative
days with which to revise and extend their remarks or add any
extraneous materials. Without objection, so ordered; and with
that, Commander, this hearing is adjourned.
Mr. Johnston. Thank you, sir.
[Whereupon, at 3:39 p.m., the committees were adjourned.]
APPENDIX
Prepared Statement of Michael Michaud, Ranking Minority Member
Good Morning, Commander Johnson. Thank you and all the
members of DAV and the Auxiliary for your service. We also
thank you for your continued dedication to our nation's
veterans.
I want to take this opportunity to welcome those of you in
the audience from Maine. The sons and daughters of Maine have a
history of service to our Nation, and I am glad to see you
continuing that tradition.
DAV and other veterans' groups are active and valued
partners to us in Congress as we work to keep our promise to
America's veterans. I want to thank you for your work on
advocating the passage and enactment of H.R. 813, the Putting
Veterans Funding First Act. We have seen how well advance
appropriations work for VA medical care. It is time that the
rest of VA's discretionary budget be treated the same. We owe
it to America's veterans to provide certain and stable VA
budgets.
The VA is pursuing a wide range of initiatives, from new
methods of health care delivery to electronic benefits
management. These investments will help bring the Department
into the 21st century. Working with you and the VA, we will
make sure that these initiatives are implemented fairly,
transparently, and in the best interest of veterans and
taxpayers.
Making sure that the VA can meet the challenges of the 21st
century is the job of all of us. I know that DAV, your members
across the country, and your staff here in Washington are ready
and eager for the challenge.
I look forward to your testimony today, and again thank you
for DAV's long history of distinguished service, in and out of
uniform.
Thank you Mr. Chairman and I yield back the balance of my
time.
STATEMENT OF JOSEPH W. JOHNSTON
DAV NATIONAL COMMANDER BEFORE THE COMMITTEES ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS U.S.
SENATE AND U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, WASHINGTON, DC, FEBRUARY 25,
2014
Messrs. Chairmen and Members of the Committees on Veterans'
Affairs:
It is indeed an honor and a privilege to appear before you
today to present the legislative and policy recommendations of
DAV (Disabled American Veterans) for the coming year, and to
report to you our accomplishments for wounded, injured and ill
veterans as an organization over the past year.
Before I report our work to the Committees and make our
legislative recommendations, I want to take a moment to inform
all Members of the Committees that DAV has transitioned into a
new era in our professional leadership. Our superbly effective
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and National Adjutant, Arthur
Wilson, retired in 2013 after a 47-year career in DAV. Art's
departure after such a long and productive term will clearly
leave a void, but DAV has selected an able, experienced
executive in J. Marc Burgess, as our new CEO and National
Adjutant. Marc is a distinguished Navy veteran, who has held
increasingly responsible positions in DAV for over 20 years,
including most recently serving as Executive Director of our
National Headquarters in Cold Spring, Kentucky. We also have
seasoned leadership in our Washington office in the person of
Garry Augustine, our new Executive Director. Garry, an Army
Vietnam combat veteran, rose to this position after a long
career in DAV, including serving as our National Service
Director. Jim Marszalek, a Gulf War-era Marine, has assumed the
National Service Director position. Last but certainly not
least, Barry Jesinoski, also a Gulf War-era Marine, has
returned from our Washington office to lead our National
Headquarters as Executive Director there. DAV is thrilled to
have these experienced hands now commanding our professional
activities in Cold Spring and Washington, D.C.
At the outset of my statement, I want to thank Members of
these Committees on behalf of the more than 1.4 million members
of DAV and our valued Auxiliary for the steadfast support
Congress has given to wounded, injured, and ill veterans and
their families and survivors.
As I sit here before these august bodies today, I am
reminded of, and humbled by, how important your work truly is.
Your efforts are important because the people have elected you
to the House and Senate to represent them across a vast sea of
crucial national responsibilities, to govern them with care,
and to protect them from harm in its many forms, so they can
live their lives in peace. Our DAV mission is important because
the members of DAV have elected us to represent their interests
to ensure that their brother and sister veterans, injured or
made ill in war by virtue of decisions you and your forbears
made in this Capitol, see their needs met afterward by a caring
and grateful nation. These responsibilities are not mutually
exclusive, but are interconnected. My testimony today is
intended to help you understand this relationship, and perhaps
give you information showing how DAV brings hope and, most
important, services to millions of our fellow veterans, without
any financial support from our government other than in-kind
services authorized by law. We rely on the benevolence and
generosity of the American people for the funds that support
our work on behalf of wounded, injured, and ill veterans.
However, DAV and others look to you and the government to bring
that same hope, and restore that same prospect to these
veterans. Only by working together can we make these veterans
feel whole again and achieve our mutual goal.
Members of the Committees on Veterans' Affairs, the group
before you came into this hearing, in this beautiful and
historic Cannon Caucus Room, after a public rally we conducted
at noon today in view of the Capitol dome as part of DAV's
Operation: Keep the Promise. At that rally we heard the
stirring words of distinguished veterans and guests, who laid
out a challenge before Congress, and to the American People, to
keep the promise made to veterans--and particularly to those
who paid a high price in military service to our Nation. We
were joined by thousands of veterans and fellow Americans
online, who are lending their voices to our call to action.
Operation: Keep the Promise is focused on ensuring that the
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is afforded sufficient,
timely, and predictable funding in advance for all its
budgetary accounts, to enable it to carry out your expressed
intent, as made so eloquent by Lincoln's words, ``...to care
for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and
his orphan.'' To do this, VA needs a sufficient, predictable,
stable budget, approved by Congress and the President on time
every year.
Each of you knows, for different reasons perhaps, that
Congress and the Administration, in the current political
climate, cannot seem to agree on how to fund the operations of
government. In fact for 22 of the past 25 years, the
government's budget was not approved by Congress and the
President by the start of the new fiscal year on October 1. The
VA, like every agency, thereby was stranded in budget limbo,
waiting out the day when Congress and the Administration have
finally agreed to an acceptable funding level. The VA to my
knowledge has never been the reason for any of these
stalemates, but VA and the veterans it serves were caught
nevertheless in the same snare. Over the years, this paralysis
created no end to the problems of running an efficient medical
care and benefits system, a complex labyrinth of programs and
services designed to help veterans repatriate, heal,
rehabilitate, educate themselves, and to compensate them for
their wounds and injuries, so they might reemerge fully
prepared to resume their civilian roles in American society.
After a protracted struggle, in 2009 we solved one key part
of this problem through Congressional enactment of advance
appropriations for VA medical care. This law was a godsend to
six million veterans and to VA itself, and I'll tell you why
with a very practical example. Advance appropriations proved
their worth in last October's government shutdown. While nearly
every other agency in the civil service was thrown into
shutdown status and chaos for 16 long days, and most of their
employees were sitting at home in worry, and a plethora of
federal services lapsed, VA health care facilities and all
their employees and staff continued normal operations, caring
for hundreds of thousands of injured, wounded, and ill veterans
as if no shutdown was underway at all. Other important VA
programs, however, suffered through the shutdown, then reduced,
and nearly eliminated, vital services to veterans--because,
simply put, they began to run out of money. DAV resorted to
occupying temporary quarters, including tents, when VA regional
offices were shut down. We were determined that DAV's free
representational services to veterans would not, and could not,
be interrupted, despite veterans being locked out of our
offices at VA benefits locations. Another real fear that
fortunately did not come to pass was whether veterans'
disability compensation checks would arrive on time in
November. We were informed, if the shutdown continued, that
funds would not be available for disability checks or other VA
financial benefits, such as survivors' compensation and
vocational rehabilitation benefits.
Additional VA Accounts Should Be Advance--Appropriated
We believe Congress should expand the advance
appropriations umbrella to protect VA's remaining accounts. For
example, although VA medical appropriations may provide
assurance that a new outpatient clinic can open without delays,
the fact that VA's information technology (IT) funding is still
provided through the stymied regular appropriations process
means that computers or other IT systems (such as radiology and
laboratory equipment) on which health care crucially relies,
might not be provided until Congress completes work on the
regular appropriations acts, delaying the clinic opening by
weeks or even months. Similarly, funding for VA's Medical and
Prosthetic Research program directly contributes to excellent
clinical care of veterans, and supports VA's affiliation
relationships with more than 100 schools of medicine and other
health professions, but it is funded apart from advance
appropriations and subject to the same paralysis affecting VA's
other regular appropriations. VA was on the verge of halting
thousands of ongoing research projects when the shutdown ended.
Moreover, the funding for VA construction accounts, providing
VA capital infrastructure and large investments in facilities
improvements, would also be more efficient and cost effective
if it were provided through advance appropriations. Stopping
construction projects because of an unrelated budget crisis
only leads to more delay and higher costs for VA. Finally, the
Veterans Benefits Administration's ability to address the
backlog of pending claims and transform itself into a modern
21st century organization is being hindered by now-predictable
annual budget stalemates and seemingly endless continuing
resolutions. Given the universally recognized success of
advance appropriations in VA health care, Congress should
determine whether some or all of the other VA appropriations
accounts should be managed through advance appropriations so
that veterans and their families and survivors are not forced
to sacrifice yet again, and needlessly.
Members of these Committees, during last year's Veterans
Day activities, I attended a ceremony commemorating the
Traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, a national tribute to
Vietnam veterans who gave the ultimate sacrifice in that
unpopular war, a war in which I and many members beside and
behind me, in this historic room, served. When the ceremony
ended and the crowd was dispersing, a woman from the audience
approached me to say how grateful she and her husband were to
DAV for our strong advocacy and unflagging efforts in helping
to end the government shutdown mere days before VA ran out of
funds to support the payment of disability compensation. She
explained to me that she and her husband's only income due to
his disability and her personal care giving of him is his
monthly VA compensation. As the shutdown lingered day after
day, she told me, with tears in her eyes, they had worried
terribly that without that VA payment on November 1, they
wouldn't be able to buy food, gas, or pay their rent. As
National Commander of this tremendous organization, I was
grateful to her for her kind words about DAV's effective
advocacy, but it concerned me greatly that she and her husband
were forced to go through such a terrible ordeal, given the
sacrifice they had already made for this country.
We should never again put a disabled veteran or his or her
family in such a situation. This is why DAV's Operation: Keep
the Promise intends to make advance appropriations for all VA
funding accounts, including its mandatory disability payments
to veterans, our highest legislative priority in 2014.
Thousands of DAV members and supporters from all over this
nation are sending social networking, email, and telephonic
messages today to your offices and those of every Senator and
House Member. Today, when you pick up and browse your Roll
Call, Politico, National Journal Daily, or The Hill, you'll see
our Operation: Keep the Promise message prominently displayed.
DAV launched this one-day intense campaign because we are
serious and dedicated to this goal, and I assure you this
testimony will not be the last time you hear about this urgent
need. This is not a partisan issue; not a Democratic or
Republican issue; it's a veteran issue, and as National
Commander of DAV, I want all of you to join me and everyone
else in this room, and our 1.4 million DAV and Auxiliary
members, in making it your highest priority as well. If solving
this particular problem for wounded, injured, and ill veterans
is not a high priority for your Committees, Congress in
general, and the Administration in this New Year, please tell
me what is. Bills to make this a reality are pending in both
Congressional chambers; DAV urges you to pass the Putting
Veterans Funding First Act as a top priority for 2014.
VA Health Care
Messrs. Chairmen, let me turn my attention to the VA health
care system and what it means for members of DAV.
As you well know, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA)
is the largest direct provider of basic and specialized health
care services in the nation with a core mission of providing
comprehensive veteran-centered health care. Across the nation,
VA is a model health care provider that has led the way in
various areas of biomedical research, specialized services,
graduate medical education and training for all health
professions, and the use of technology to improve health care.
VA's specialized programs and treatment for war-related
polytrauma; traumatic brain injury (TBI); prosthetics and
orthotics for traumatic limb loss and other trauma injuries;
spinal cord injury and dysfunction; blind rehabilitation; post-
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); and post-deployment mental
health are essential elements to rehabilitate and provide
comfort to wounded, injured, and ill veterans and their
families. Such quality and expertise on veteran-specific health
needs cannot be adequately replicated in the private sector.
Many DAV members rely solely on the veterans' health care
system for lifelong care; thus, the Department must continue
its legacy of excellence with sufficient funds and other
resources to meet the ongoing specialized needs of wartime
veterans.
Messrs. Chairmen, DAV and the veterans we represent are
grateful for the resources that Congress and your Committees
have provided to the VA health care system. For more than a
decade during our two overseas wars, VA has received
substantial annual funding increases for its health care
programs. Also, DAV acknowledges the Committees' continued
oversight and dedication in working to improve the system and
ensuring that resources Congress provides are spent wisely and
concentrated on direct patient care and other services. We
fully support these efforts and want to assist you in ensuring
a sustainable system for veterans who need VA now and in the
future. We encourage the Committees to continue the vigorous
oversight of VA to ensure that its mission is properly carried
out to care for this nation's veterans, their families and
survivors. We concur with you, Messrs. Chairmen, that VHA must
be more transparent, responsive, and accountable to Congress
and to the veterans it serves. DAV is committed to working with
Committee members and staff, to report our concerns as they
arise, and to work to find viable solutions so veterans may be
better served.
Members of the Committees, since the beginning of the
military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, 2.6 million
individuals have served or are still serving in these war
zones. More than 6,775 have died from wounds, illnesses, or
accidents, and hundreds of thousands have been injured, wounded
in action, or became seriously ill while serving. Of the more
than 1.7 million service members who have left active duty and
are now veterans, about one million have sought and obtained VA
health care in some form. We must make caring for those who
have served our nation and its citizens an unwavering priority.
In addition to the previous generations of wartime veterans
currently receiving VA benefits and health care, VA must make
continued efforts to absorb the influx of new veterans
streaming into the system while maintaining a high level of
baseline services for all enrollees. War veterans must have
ready access to primary and specialty health care services and
programs, post-deployment mental health services, cutting-edge
treatments for TBI, high-quality prosthetic items, and a
comprehensive array of ancillary health services needed to
recover and successfully rehabilitate from war-related injuries
and illnesses. As you might imagine, this is an expensive
proposition, but its value to these veterans, and to the
nation, is well worth the cost in our estimation.
Additionally, given the significant increase in the number
of women who are now seeking VA benefits and health care in
unprecedented numbers following wartime service, VHA must be
prepared to address their unique post-deployment and health
maintenance needs. According to VA, women are the fastest
growing segment of new VA health care users. Increased outreach
efforts to enroll returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan
have resulted in more than 50 percent of eligible veterans
enrolling and using VA services. In fact, the number of women
in VA care has doubled over the past 10 years and is projected
to be 10 percent or more of the total patient population by
2018. The shifting age demographic of younger women veterans
enrolling in VA health care over the past decade portends
implications for both policy and clinical practice in the VA
health care system. VA must continue to increase capacity in
women's clinical services and ensure that VA health
professionals are properly trained and skilled in women's
health. Additionally, since more than half of women veterans
under VA care are service-disabled, the Department must
reallocate resources and ramp up clinical training for these
high-priority VA beneficiaries with age-appropriate, lifelong
specialized care.
Another group of people who deserve unwavering support by
Congress and the American people are family caregivers of
severely injured or ill veterans of all military service
periods. Only with the help of their caregivers are many of
these severely wounded, ill, and injured veterans able to
remain out of institutions, reintegrate into their communities,
and achieve their highest levels of recovery and quality of
life. Family caregivers are critical members of a veteran's
health care team--these are unsung American heroes who often
sacrifice their own health, well-being, employment, educational
and other goals, to care for their loved ones, our nation's
true heroes, such as the wife of the Vietnam veteran I met at
the traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. DAV believes it
is only proper that family caregivers be recognized for their
decades of sacrifices and dedication, and receive the support
and assistance they need to fulfill their vital role.
We are pleased that Congress enacted Public Law 111-163,
the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of
2010, authorizing VA to provide comprehensive support and
services to caregivers. Some 10,000 families are covered by
these new VA services, while a much larger group of families
carrying the same burdens receives only partial VA support or
none at all. As one of DAV's priorities, we call on Congress to
continue the work it began and address this inequity by
extending equal benefits and services to family caregivers of
veterans of all military service periods. The particular
calendar date on which an injury or illness occurred should not
be a reason for legislation to discriminate against one group
of veterans to favor another. They are all equal in our eyes,
and equally deserving of your support and the support of the
nation.
Wartime service members, like many generations of veterans,
chose military service to protect freedoms at home, advance the
liberty of strangers in foreign lands, and to keep our nation
safe and strong. At the behest of government these men and
women serve and make great sacrifices, as do their families.
For some, the sacrifices are devastating and life-altering; for
others, life-ending. The men and women of DAV remain steadfast
in our fight to ensure that our government fulfills its
promises to all veterans who depend on VA's health care system,
and for those who will need the system in the future. We
acknowledge it is not a system absent any flaws, but we want
your Committees and every Member of Congress to understand that
VA health care remains a vital resource for veterans,
especially wartime wounded, injured, and ill veterans, and we
believe VA must be protected, preserved, and enhanced. It is
our responsibility, with your help and that of the
Administration, to ensure VA is properly maintained and
modernized to deal with the needs of veterans of all
generations, including those returning from our current wars.
Especially in recent years, VHA has received its share of
criticism and been held publically accountable for its errors
and lapses; however, VA health care also has been cited by
numerous independent reviewers as outperforming every other
health care system in America, in quality of care, cost,
patient satisfaction, and safety.
Messrs. Chairmen, 10 years ago DAV commissioned a private
firm to conduct a nationwide survey of DAV members to gauge
their perceptions of VA quality, satisfaction, access, and
safety from the perspective of our members, who regularly and
intensively use VA health care services. We believed then, as
we do now, that our members might offer a very useful set of
responses, because they are regular patients, with high
priority for care. When the report of that survey was
completed, we were pleased, with rare exception, that our
members were highly satisfied with VA across a series of
important questions relating to their care. The primary
negative responses we received then dealt with access matters
and waiting times, but our members solidly appreciated the
quality of VA services they received.
Based partially on the oversight discoveries of the House
Committee under Chairman Miller over the past two years, DAV is
considering conducting a new survey in 2014 of our members on
many of these same questions. We are anxious to know from
veterans of all ages wounded, injured or ill from wartime
service whether VA across the nation is meeting their needs
now, and whether they perceive VA in ways similar to our
members' reports in 2004. We will provide both Committees the
results of our new survey once it is completed.
Many challenges lie ahead for VA in the decades to come,
including rising long-term care needs of World War II and
Korean War veterans; an aging Vietnam-era population with
rising morbidities; and the long-term physical and mental
health care needs of veterans of the Gulf War and the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan. Barriers to care and delays in the
delivery of essential benefits and services must be minimized,
and basic and specialized VA services must be provided, when
and where veterans need them.
VA Capital Infrastructure Lacks Investment
Members of the Committees, DAV believes one of VA's
greatest single challenges, and one that is both directly and
indirectly related to a number of oversight matters you have
uncovered over the past two years, is the enormous gap that has
grown unabated in VA capital infrastructure. VA's FY 2014
appropriation for major and minor construction is a mere $1.1
billion, contrasted with the Independent Budget recommended
level of $2.6 billion. For FY 2015, the Independent Budget is
recommending $3.9 billion for all VA infrastructure programs,
$2.7 billion more than the FY 2014 appropriated level. Our
request was based directly on VA's own analysis and estimates
of its capital needs. This has been an annual recurring
pattern: VA identifies billions in needed new facilities,
renovations and various capital improvements. Through the
budget formulation process, however, VA's request is reduced to
a small fraction of the funds needed. These unaddressed needs
simply pile up.
VA's latest estimate in its so-called ``10-year plan''
calls for more than up to $64 billion in infrastructure
investments. As we have indicated in the Independent Budget, at
current funding rates, VA will need more than 25 years to
complete its current 10-year plan, a ridiculous proposition.
Although Congress has funded new VA major medical facilities in
recent years in Las Vegas, Denver, Orlando, and New Orleans,
the vast majority of existing VA medical centers and associated
buildings are more than 60 years old and badly in need of
renovations, upgrades to building systems, and numerous total
replacements. Aging facilities create an increased financial
burden on VA's maintenance requirements and routine operational
costs, and we believe they also affect quality of care. Unless
Congress approves additional capital funding, there is a real
risk that VA's declining infrastructure will diminish the care
and services VA can provide to wounded, injured, and ill
veterans. We have not seen any media discuss the situation that
occurred with the outbreak of Legionella at the Pittsburgh VA
medical center in the context that the major building systems
and the buildings themselves are more than 60 years of age, but
we must wonder if some connection between those decrepit water
systems within the facilities could be related to the outbreak.
Would Legionella have occurred in a new VA facility, with new
piping, venting, and cooling towers?
Not only does aging infrastructure affect health care
delivery, but also it challenges VA's academic mission,
including its significant clinical and biomedical research
program. VHA conducts world-class and veteran-focused research
in basic sciences, genomics, rehabilitation, prosthetics
development, clinical trials, and health services. The
existence of a robust research program has enabled VA to become
one of the highest quality health care systems in the world.
Also, VA researchers have been awarded three Nobel Prizes in
immunoassay, medicine and chemistry, and are the recipients of
numerous other prestigious awards both domestically and
internationally. VA researchers annually publish thousands of
peer-reviewed articles in the scientific literature, and VA's
work not only improves care and treatment of veterans, but also
affects the standard of care for all Americans.
In 2012, VA released a report from a House Appropriations
Committee-directed study of infrastructure needs in VA research
facilities. VA had commissioned the review to three outside
firms. The report concluded VA needed almost $800 million to
upgrade, restore, and, in some cases, entirely replace research
laboratories and associated facilities in 76 VA academic health
centers. Since the report was released, VA has made no public
statements with respect to these findings or revealed its
intentions to address these deficits, many of which deal with
life-safety issues for veterans and other VA staff.
We eagerly await the Administration's budget for FY 2015 to
determine if VA intends to begin the restorative process and
address, at minimum, the most urgent needs identified in the
report. The Independent Budget recommends that Congress
appropriate $50 million in FY 2015 for up to five replacement
research facilities and $175 million to aid in addressing and
repairing the most pressing of the priorities identified in the
report. Also, of great concern to the DAV and the other authors
of The Independent Budget is the serious under funding of all
VA construction appropriations accounts. From FY 2002 through
2014, we have recommended a total of $23.5 billion for major
and minor construction, yet less than $13.5 billion was
appropriated by Congress to keep rapidly aging facilities safe
and operational.
We ask Congress and VA to consider what has made VA the
special resource it is today and what must be done to improve,
sustain and secure its longevity for decades to come. Just as
you do, we want VA to maintain a stellar reputation and provide
the highest quality care possible to our Nation's veterans. We
want our veterans to know that promises made will be kept.
While direct patient care services are a primary focus, the
foundational and core needs that make up the system cannot be
neglected. A dedicated effort must be made to address the
current physical infrastructure, IT and telemetry needs, and
address safety deficiencies and other core support programs
that are the underpinnings of the VA health care system.
Likewise, creative, capable leaders must be molded to better
manage the vast network of VA employees, hospitals, community
based clinics, and ancillary facilities that make up the VA
health care system. To achieve our goal, the Administration,
Congress, VA, and the veterans community must work together to
identify and resolve existing challenges and bring forth the VA
health care system our nation's veterans deserve and need.
The Fiscal Year 2015 Independent Budget, by Veterans for
Veterans
As of today, Congress has yet to receive the
Administration's FY 2015 budget request. Indications are the
Administration's budget will be submitted at the beginning of
March 2014, possibly later. It should be pointed out and not
lost on Congress that VA last received an on-time budget 16
years ago, in 1998. We urge your Committees to closely monitor
VA's current medical care program funding to ensure VA receives
sufficient funding from Congress for the remainder of this
fiscal year, and to carefully examine the VA's budget proposal
when it is released for the FY 2015-16 periods, to be sure that
the government continues to provide sufficient, timely, and
predictable funding for VA health care. Failing to pass VA's
budget on time and at adequate funding levels simply leads to
one fact: a failure by our Congress and Administration to meet
their obligations to our Nation's heroes.
In the absence of the Administration's budget request for
FY 2015, DAV and our Independent Budget (IB) co-authors
(AMVETS, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and Veterans of Foreign
Wars of the United States) are calling for $61.1 billion in VA
Medical Care funding. For Medical and Prosthetic Research, the
IB recommends a funding level of $611 million. The IB
recommends approximately $2.9 billion for VA's General
Operating Expenses. For total capital infrastructure programs
and grants, the IB recommends $3.9 billion, $2.8 billion for
major medical facility construction projects, $831 million for
minor construction projects, and $298 million for VA grants to
state veterans homes and state veterans cemeteries. DAV and its
IB co-authors recommend a total VA discretionary funding level
of $72.9 billion in FY 2015.
More detail on our recommendations for both policy and
budget matters can be found at www.independentbudget.org. Our
staffs stand ready to provide you additional or clarifying
information on our concerns about the budget, and our
recommendations for VBA and VHA programs and services. We hope
to testify soon before your Committees on these issues.
Veterans Benefits Claims Processing Reform and the Vital
Nature of Disability Compensation
Messrs. Chairmen, authorizing benefits for veterans,
especially disabled veterans, without providing the systems to
deliver those benefits in a timely, accurate manner is a
promise unfulfilled. For decades, VA's benefits claims process
has failed to meet that promise. Today, however, for the first
time in years, some good news is coming from the Veterans
Benefits Administration. After four years of comprehensive
transformation that included implementation of new
organizational and operating processes, new IT systems, and new
training, testing, and quality control regimes, there is
measurable progress in addressing the backlog of pending claims
for veterans benefits.
As the House and Senate address the major challenges facing
our Nation, we urge you to continue focusing on the unfinished
work of reforming the veterans' benefits claims processing
system. For DAV and many other veterans organizations, ensuring
that wounded, injured, and ill veterans and their dependents
and survivors receive all the benefits they have earned,
without undue delay, remains an important legislative priority
for 2014.
As a result of all this transformation, there are
quantitative metrics showing progress. At the beginning of
2013, more than 860,000 claims were pending for disability
compensation and pension. By the end of the year, that number
had dropped by more than 20 percent, down to about 685,000. The
number of claims in the backlog--greater than 125 days
pending--dropped by about a third, from over 600,000 in January
2013, to just over 405,000 in January 2014. The VBA increased
the number of claims completed each month from an average of
about 89,000 during the first four months of the year to more
than 114,000 during the succeeding six months prior to the
government shutdown.
The most important factor driving VBA's productivity gains
was undoubtedly the policy of mandatory overtime for claims
processors, a period that ran from May through November. During
this six-month stretch, the VBA achieved significant increases
in the number of completed claims per month, reaching as high
as 129,488 in August, before dropping back down during the
government shutdown and after mandatory overtime ended just
before Thanksgiving. The other key factors boosting claims
production were likely the increased focus on fully developed
claims (FDCs) and the continued professional development of
VBA's newest employees hired during the past five years.
Although the VBA finished the rollout of both the Veterans
Benefits Management System (VBMS) and the new transformation
organizational model last year, this achievement likely had
only a marginal influence on productivity increases last year
because of the learning curve that both employees and
management must complete before they reach their full
productive potential with new systems.
While the reduction in the backlog was certainly good news,
even more encouraging was the steady increase in the accuracy
of claims produced throughout the year, as measured by the
Systematic Technical Accuracy Review (STAR) teams, which rose
to 89.6 percent by the end of 2013, as reported by VA. Although
this figure remains far from the 98 percent accuracy goal put
forward by the Secretary, it is a significant improvement.
While the progress is real, we continue to have some
concerns about a recent trend toward less openness and
transparency from the VBA over the past year, which could
hinder its ability to successfully complete the transformation.
It is essential that VBA work in an open, transparent, and
collaborative manner with both Congress and VSOs in order to
continue receiving the support and assistance needed to
complete this transformation. Just as important, without proper
and transparent data and metrics, neither Congress nor VSO
stakeholders can gain the information necessary to provide
constructive feedback that could help improve VBA's claims
processing system.
Creating A Culture of Accountability at VBA
In order to complete the transformation, end the backlog,
and decide each claim right the first time, VBA must develop
and inculcate a new work culture based on quality and
accountability. At a time when so much national attention has
been focused on reducing the number of claims pending in the
backlog, VBA must continue to place at least equal emphasis on
quality and accuracy, rather than merely speed and production.
As technologies and processes come online, it is imperative
that the VBA be able to make timely adjustments to performance
standards to ensure that production pressures do not outweigh
the goals of accuracy and quality. VBA must develop a
scientific methodology for measuring the resources (primarily
personnel) required to accurately and timely process the
current and future anticipated workload, as well as develop a
new model for allocating those resources among VA regional
offices.
The VBA must continue to invest in the training and
professional development of its workforce. Over the past
several years, the VBA has reengineered its ``challenge''
training program for new employees, with four weeks of in-
station training followed by four weeks of training at
centralized locations around the country. In addition to the
requirement for all employees to complete continuing training
of 85 hours per year, VBA has developed a new training program
called Station Enhancement Training (SET), which requires all
employees at targeted poor performing VA Regional Offices
(VAROs) to undergo comprehensive training together for one
week. SET allows employees to review and refresh their
knowledge while also providing structured time to work live
cases under the supervision of the training staff. VBA has
found that SET not only increased quality, but also boosted
morale of employees, and the VBA expects to continue SET in
2014.
VBA also requires that employees, everyone from coaches to
Veterans Service Representatives, take and pass a skills-
certification examination every two years. For STAR employees
the testing is now done every year to ensure that those who
measure quality are held to the highest standards.
Certification exams are designed by subject matter experts and
reviewed by a test committee of employees who process claims to
ensure that the examinations are appropriate for each class of
employees. VBA must continue to ensure that its testing regime
is adequate to measure necessary job skills and that
appropriate human resources accountability measures are
developed for employees who fail to pass skills-certification
examinations.
In order to sustain progress made with the new IT systems
and organizational models, the VBA must continue to make the
changes to its work culture so that quality and accuracy are
the cornerstones of all activities. VBA's creation of Quality
Review Teams (QRT) was a powerful statement of the VBA's
commitment to quality. QRTs perform several functions: they
conduct local quality reviews, perform in-process reviews, and
provide select training. In particular, the in-process reviews
allow errors to be corrected before they negatively affect a
rating decision and without penalizing the VBA employee. The
VBA must continually evaluate and improve its training,
testing, and quality-control programs in order to truly reform
the claims system over the long term.
Fully Developed Claims Program
DAV continues to actively support the fully developed
claims (FDC) program and the VBA's goal of channeling an
increasing share of all claims through the FDC program: by the
end of 2013 nearly 25 percent of all claims filed were done
through the FDC program, with DAV having the highest rate among
all VSOs. This approach lowers the burden on VBA employees and
results in faster and more accurate claims decisions for
veterans. While not all claims can or will be filed under this
simplified concept, DAV remains committed to its partnership
with VBA in the FDC process by encouraging our clients to file
their claims in this manner. There are particular steps VBA can
take to ensure continued and improved success of the FDC
program, such as reducing the number of claims being removed
from the FDC process and designating at least one individual in
each VARO as an FDC coordinator to address any problems with
claims prior to their being removed from the process.
Private Medical Evidence And Disability Benefits
Questionnaires
The VBA should also continue to encourage and support the
use and acceptance of private medical evidence to eliminate the
time and resources required to administer compensation medical
examinations, which would also support efforts to increase the
number of FDCs filed. The VBA has taken significant actions in
recent years to encourage private evidence, such as the
development and use of Disability Benefits Questionnaires (DBQ)
and the Acceptable Clinical Evidence (ACE) initiative, under
which VA physicians review existing medical records to
determine if enough evidence already exists to make a rating
decision without the need for an extra VA-ordered examination.
However, resistance lingers in some VAROs and from some
employees in giving the same weight to private medical evidence
as for VA medical evidence. To further support efforts to
encourage the use of private medical evidence, Congress should
amend title 38, United States Code, section 5103A(d)(1), to
provide, when a claimant submits private medical evidence,
including a private medical opinion that is competent,
credible, probative, and otherwise adequate for rating
purposes, the Secretary shall consider it and not request a
duplicative VA medical examination.
Furthermore, the VBA should expand the availability of
DBQs, most of which were developed in consultation with DAV and
other VSO experts, to enable private physicians to submit
medical evidence on behalf of veterans they treat. The VBA must
also develop and institutionalize greater cooperation from VHA
in having VA physicians complete DBQs for veterans treated by
VHA. In the past year many VHA treating physicians were told
that they either should not or may not fill out DBQs for their
patients. The VHA has made efforts to address this problem by
creating more convenient opportunities for veterans to have
DBQs completed by VHA physicians at specific times and
locations. However, VBA and VHA should continue working to
reach an agreement to have VHA-treating physicians complete
DBQs for veterans upon request.
Modernizing Technology Infrastructure
Perhaps the most important element of VBA's transformation
strategy is the successful implementation of new technology,
including the VBMS, the Stakeholder Enterprise Portal (SEP), an
expanded e-Benefits system with VONAPPS Direct Connect (VDC),
and the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) initiative.
In terms of processing claims, the most important technology is
the VBMS, the paperless, rules-based system the VBA uses to
create electronic claims files, manage workflow, and determine
ratings. While full implementation of the VBMS was completed
ahead of schedule, VBA must continue to receive and allocate
sufficient funding for scanning paper claims forms and
evidence, including back-scanning of legacy files.
We have generally been pleased with VBA's efforts to
incorporate our perspectives, experience, and expertise
throughout the IT development process, particularly recognizing
the important role that VSOs play in the claims process.
Although some obstacles needed to be overcome in providing full
access to claims decisions for VSOs that hold power of
attorney, the VBA continues to work in partnership with VSOs to
ensure that claimants will be fully represented in the new
digital environment. The VBA must ensure that neither the VBMS
nor other new technologies override veterans' rights or the
ability of VSOs to fully represent veterans in this new
environment. Likewise, significant work remains, including
completing the authorization and awards portions of the VBMS
for compensation, as well as connecting VBMS to the Appeals
Management Center (AMC), Board of Veterans' Appeals (BVA), the
United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC),
Education Services, and Vocational Rehabilitation and
Employment (VR&E) service. These connections will allow for a
continuous electronic flow of vital information throughout the
claims process.
Recognizing that no modern IT system or software is ever
truly ``finished'' is vitally important. In addition to the
funding required for maintenance of the VBMS system, VBA must
continue to make significant investments in VBMS development
for the life of this system. Furthermore, as new IT
technologies emerge, and new requirements for the VBA are
identified, the VBMS must evolve to address those needs and
opportunities, requiring an aggressive development program that
is supported with sufficient resources.
Another crucial IT component for reforming the claims
process has been the development of the SEP, which allows
service officers representing veterans to directly file their
claims, upload new evidence, and track the progress of pending
claims. Essentially, the SEP allows VSOs to do for veterans
what VDC and e-Benefits allow veterans to do for themselves.
The VBA must continue to work out problems and glitches in the
SEP to ensure that VSOs are able to fully represent veterans in
this electronic environment.
Perhaps one of the more challenging elements of VBA's IT
transformation strategy has been the fulfillment of what has
long been called the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record. After
too many years of futile debate, negotiation, and ultimately
stalemate on the Integrated Electronic Health Record--a key
component of VLER--VA and the DoD must finally come to an
agreement on how to create a single interoperable medical
record that serves the missions of both departments. The
impasse between the DoD and VA has already cost the Treasury
more than $1 billion over five years, and less palatable
alternatives to a single integrated electronic health record do
not satisfy Congress's 2008 directive to VA and DoD to
establish an interoperable joint electronic record. The
seamless integration of VA and DoD medical information is one
of the keys to truly achieving automated, electronic processing
of claims for disability compensation and other earned VA
benefits. Congress, VA, DoD, and the Administration must
accelerate efforts to finally reach agreement and move forward
expeditiously.
Standardized Claims and Appeals
Finally, VA is proposing to amend its adjudication
regulations and the appeals regulations and rules of practice
of BVA to require all claims to be filed electronically on
standardized forms prescribed by the Secretary, regardless of
the type of claim concerned; and to require that VA only accept
an expression of dissatisfaction or disagreement with an
adjudicative determination by the agency of original
jurisdiction as a Notice of Disagreement (NOD) only if it is
submitted on a prescribed form.
DAV understands the stated intent of VA's proposed
amendments as an effort to improve the quality and timeliness
of processing claims and appeals. The purpose of the regulatory
change is to promote submission of claims and appeals in
standard formats in order to capture data for a paperless
claims and appeals system. Nonetheless, we are concerned about
the proposed rulemaking and the consequential adverse effect
upon veterans, especially those who do not have the capability
or ability to file their claim or NOD electronically.
First, requiring a veteran to submit a claim on a
standardized form is not a new concept. In fact, a claim for
disability benefits is defined under title 38, Code of Federal
Regulations, section 3.151(a), as ``[a] specific claim in the
form prescribed by the Secretary must be filed in order for
benefits to be paid.'' So requiring a veteran to file a claim
on a standardized form is the current practice; the real
question is how the new proposal would impact the effective
date of a claim received.
Unfortunately, this proposal goes much further than simply
requiring a standardized form to be used; it effectively
removes the preservation of the date of claim by eliminating
the informal claim from the process. Under this proposed rule,
if a veteran did not submit a claim in the prescribed standard
format, VA would provide the veteran a correct form as a
response; however, if that same veteran did not return the
completed forms until seven months later, that new date would
be the effective date of the claim--not the actual date on
which the veteran submitted his or her unaccepted claim,
thereby losing entitlement to seven months of benefits.
DAV takes no issue with veterans being required to submit
their claims on standardized forms. This proposed rule,
however, would cause many veterans, who may have needed those
seven months due to illness or other reasons, to lose the
benefit of the informal claims process. This new requirement
may be intended to entice veterans to file their claims
electronically, but clearly its practice will cause veterans to
lose rightful benefits. Congress must further examine this
matter, because it will have a major adverse impact on veterans
and the benefits they need and have earned.
The proposed rule also seeks to require veterans to submit
their NOD on a standard form. As we have stated, DAV does not
take issue with requiring veterans to use a standard form;
however, this proposal will cause many veterans to lose their
appeal rights. Quite simply, under this proposal if a veteran
does not use the standard form and complete it exactly as
directed, no additional time period will be provided to the
veteran for correction. The appeal period will simply end.
Messrs. Chairmen, a distinction is being created between
those who possess the resources and capabilities to meet
electronic claims filing requirements and those who are not
able to do so. VA serves veterans and other claimants of
diverse backgrounds, with varying capabilities, education, and
financial resources. Some claimants, particularly those of
limited financial means and those with severe mental or
physical impairment, will be penalized by VA not retaining some
measure of accommodation for allowing an effective date for
entitlement to benefits based upon the receipt of a
communication expressing such intention.
Because of this disparity, and its effect on a claimant
population that may require extra assistance, we recommend that
an incomplete electronic or non-electronic claim, be considered
a request for an application of benefits under the proposed
provisions of title 38, Code of Federal Regulations, section
3.155(c), and established as the effective date of entitlement
if an appropriate completed application is received within one
year of the date the Secretary notifies the claimant and the
claimant's representative, if any, of the information necessary
to complete the application, as currently stated in regulation.
DAV--Dedicated to a Single Purpose: Empowering Veterans To
Lead High-Quality Lives With Respect and DignitY
Messrs. Chairmen and Members of these Committees, I now
turn to a topic that fills me with great pride--the dedication
of DAV members, some of whom are also employees of our
organization.
Everyone behind me knows DAV well, because collectively
with our 1.4 million fellow members, we are DAV and its
Auxiliary. We take great pride in making individual
contributions to the work of our Chapters and Departments
across this country, helping our communities, helping VA, and
in so many ways helping other veterans who have served and
sacrificed. This is not only our mission, but our reward.
Messrs. Chairmen, in this part of my testimony not only
will I bear witness to what we at DAV expect from Congress in
the form of legislation and other support, but I will also
summarize some of our work that you may not know about, but
that is important to America's veterans, their families and
survivors, and also represents how DAV cares for our fellow
veterans, and for our country.
Fulfilling Our Promises to the men and women who served
Messrs. Chairmen, as I indicated earlier in this statement,
a sacred obligation of our government and core mission of DAV
is the VA's provision of benefits to relieve the adverse
effects of disability on veterans and their families. For those
benefits to effectively fulfill their intended purpose they
must be adequate, and they must be granted in a timely manner.
The ability of disabled veterans to maintain themselves and
their families often depends on the timely delivery of these
benefits. The need for benefits among disabled veterans is
usually urgent. While awaiting action by VA, they and their
families may suffer hardships; protracted delays can lead to
deprivation, bankruptcies, home foreclosures, and even
homelessness. Tragically, innumerable veterans have died from
their service-related disabilities while their claims
languished at VA, in some cases for years. This sad fact alone
proves disability benefits are crucial; providing for veterans
disabled as a result of their service to our nation should
always be a top priority of the government.
DAV's core mission is carried out through our National
Service Program. Our Chapter Service Officers, Department
Service Officers, Transition Service Officers and National
Service Officers have never wavered in their commitment to
serve our nation's wounded, injured, and ill veterans, their
families and survivors, or any veteran for that matter. In all,
DAV has 2,949 service officers, including County Veteran
Service Officers accredited by DAV, all of whom are on the
front lines, providing much needed claims services to our
nation's veterans, their families and survivors. No one has
more impact on our organization's ability to meet our primary
mission. No one has more impact on our organization's stellar
reputation. No one has more impact on empowering disabled
veterans to become productive members of society again. And I
believe no one has a tougher task than those DAV service
officers assisting veterans and their families and survivors in
their claims for benefits from the government--at times a very
reluctant and entrenched government bureaucracy.
In addition to the long hours, often frustrating
circumstances, and tedious tasks, to be effective, DAV National
Service Officers must gain a solid understanding of the claims
process in its complex entirety, undergo intense training and
education in title 38 law and regulations, and complete
college-level classes associated with our representational
duties--much of which they receive through the national
organization--guided, monitored, and supervised by our
professional National Service Department headquarters personnel
in Washington, D.C.
DAV National Service Programs
To fulfill our mandate of service to America's wounded,
injured, and ill veterans and the families who care for them,
DAV directly employs a corps of more than 270 National Service
Officers, all of whom are wartime service-connected disabled
veterans who successfully complete their training through VA's
VR&E service. The military experience and personal claims and
treatment experiences of DAV NSOs through military and VA
health care not only provide a significant knowledge base, but
also help promote their passion for helping other veterans
through the labyrinth of the VA system. DAV NSOs are situated
in all VA regional offices as well as in other VA facilities
throughout the nation.
Our NSOs undergo a rigorous initial 16-month on-the-job
training program, as well as structured and continued training
and education throughout their DAV careers. During the course
of the on-the-job training program, NSO trainees learn
applicable laws and regulations pertaining to VA benefits and
complete a series of academic courses which include anatomy and
physiology, medical terminology, English composition, legal
writing, and public speaking. These dedicated NSOs, many of
whom are veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, sustain
DAV's legacy of providing the best and most professional
benefits counseling and claims assistance available anywhere.
With the generous support of a grateful American public and
public-spirited businesses, DAV is proud to provide these
services, without cost, to any veteran, dependents, or
survivors in need.
During 2013, DAV NSOs interviewed over 187,000 veterans and
their families; reviewed more than 313,000 VA claims files;
filed over 215,000 new claims for benefits; and obtained more
than $4.3 billion in new and retroactive benefits for the
wounded, injured, and ill veterans we represented before the
VA. Our NSOs also participated in more than 272,000 VA Rating
Board actions.
Appellate Representation of Denied Claims
DAV employs 11 National Appeals Officers (NAOs) whose duty
is to represent veterans in their appeals before the BVA here
in the nation's capital. In FY 2013, our NAOs provided
representation in 28.9 percent of all appeals decided before
BVA, a caseload of approximately 12,132 appeals. Almost 47
percent of the cases represented by DAV resulted in remands.
These remands resulted in additional consideration or
development for over 5,665 claimants who had appealed cases
that were inadequately considered by VA regional offices. In
approximately 27 percent of the cases, involving 3,265
appellants represented by DAV, the claimants' appeals were
allowed, and denials were overturned. This means that
approximately three-quarters of the appeals represented by DAV
NAOs resulted in original decisions being overturned or
remanded to VA regional offices for additional development and
re-adjudication. DAV's remand and allowance rates were above
BVA's average of 45.6 percent and 26.2 percent, respectively.
Additionally, DAV works closely with two private law firms
that have agreed to provide pro bono services to veterans
pursuing higher appeals from adverse decisions of the BVA. In
2013, these pro bono attorneys offered free representation
before the CAVC in 1,468 denied appeals and provided
representation in over 1,160 of those cases. Since the
inception of DAV's pro bono program, our attorney partners have
made offers of free representation to more than 5,165 veterans
and have provided free representation in over 3,360 cases.
Transition Services for New Veterans
Given the significant number of severely disabled service
members under care at Walter Reed National Military Medical
Center (WRNMMC) in Bethesda, Maryland, and in other military
treatment facility locations, DAV continues to provide direct
on-site assistance to wounded and injured active duty
personnel. DAV's Transition Service Program (TSP) is now in its
14th year. This program provides benefits counseling and
assistance to separating service members seeking to file
initial claims for benefits administered through the Department
of Veterans Affairs. DAV currently employs 33 Transition
Service Officers (TSOs) who provide free assistance to service
members transitioning from active military service. These TSOs
provide services at military separation centers under the
direct supervision of DAV NSO Supervisors. Our TSOs have been
trained specifically to perform transition presentations,
review military service treatment records, and initiate claims
activities for transitioning veterans military separation
centers at more than 80 military installations within the
continental United States.
DAV's TSP contributes to our goal of maintaining our
preeminent position as a provider of professional services to
veterans. In 2013, our TSOs conducted 1,390 briefing
presentations to groups of separating service members, with
54,220 total participants in those sessions. Our TSOs counseled
30,892 persons in individual interviews, reviewed the military
service treatment records of 30,260 individuals, and submitted
benefits applications for 19,074 personnel to DAV NSOs for
filing with the VA.
DAV continues to work within the guidelines of the recently
revamped Transition GPS (Goals, Planning, Success) program
which is a part of the Veterans Opportunity to Work (VOW) Act
and Hiring Heroes Act. Transition GPS represents the first
major overhaul of the Transition Assistance Program in nearly
20 years, and DAV remains committed to advocating for these
service members to ensure that they are well aware of benefits
that they have earned. It is through this program that DAV is
able to advise service members of their benefits and ensure
that they become aware of the free services that DAV is able to
provide during all stages of their claims and appeal process.
DAV Mobile Service Office Program
DAV's fleet of 10 Mobile Service Offices (MSOs) puts DAV
NSOs on the road to assist veterans where they live and
increases accessibility to the earned benefits our nation
provides to veterans. The specially equipped mobile offices
visit communities across the country on an advertised and
scheduled basis. This outreach effort generates a considerable
amount of claims work from veterans who may not otherwise gain
an opportunity to seek assistance at DAV National Service
Offices.
To support the MSO effort, DAV has received ongoing
financial contributions from the Harley-Davidson Foundation.
The mission of this project, called Harley's Heroes, is to help
DAV reach millions of veterans of all generations and to show
the respect DAV and the Harley-Davidson Corporation share for
them. It also ensures veterans gain access to DAV's free
benefits counseling and claims assistance when and where they
may be needed.
DAV also uses its MSOs for outreach to veterans in other
public awareness programs, such as attending public air shows,
Native American reservation events, NASCAR races, military
retiree conventions, the Vietnam Moving Wall appearances,
homeless veterans ``stand-downs,'' community fairs and parades,
Veterans Day and Memorial Day activities, veterans job fairs,
and information seminars of many types.
These specially equipped MSOs, along with our disaster
relief teams, also deploy into areas devastated by disasters,
enabling DAV to provide much-needed assistance directly to
displaced service-disabled veterans and their families. They
have been used at ground-zero following the attacks on the
World Trade Center, around the Gulf Coast following hurricanes
Katrina and Rita, after a devastating tornado in Greensville,
Kansas, following a destructive storm in North Carolina, and
most recently in New York and New Jersey following hurricane
Sandy.
During 2013, our MSOs traveled 89,708 miles to 833 cities
and towns, including 127 Harley-Davidson dealerships. DAV NSOs
interviewed 20,075 veterans and other potential claimants
during these appearances.
When a DAV MSO comes to your state or district, I would
encourage the Members of these Committees and your staffs to
stop by to learn first-hand the free services that DAV is
providing to your constituents. I would also highly recommend
that you refer any of your constituents who may need assistance
with their VA claims to visit our MSOs when they are in your
areas. The MSO schedule can be found on the DAV website, at
http://www.dav.org/wp-content/uploads/MSOCalendar.pdf.
Voluntary Service Programs
Equally vital to the success of our mission to empower
veterans to lead high-quality lives with respect and dignity
are the activities of nearly 17,000 DAV and DAV Auxiliary
volunteers who selflessly donate their time to assist America's
wounded, injured, and ill veterans. Our Voluntary Services
Programs ensure that sick and injured veterans are able to
attend their medical appointments, and that they receive the
comfort, companionship, and care they need and have earned. Our
volunteers are at their posts in VA medical centers and clinics
but they go outside the VA to visit and provide services to
wounded, injured, and ill veterans within communities, in some
cases going beyond the current scope of the government in
providing services. DAV is leading the way in voluntary
services, which makes all of us proud to be a part of this
organization and makes me even prouder to have been chosen to
lead this great organization.
Between October 2012 and September 2013, these valuable
volunteers of DAV and its Auxiliary served our nation by
providing more than 1.8 million volunteer hours of essential
services to hospitalized veterans in VA facilities and
transporting veterans to their medical appointments, saving
taxpayers over $40 million in costs if federal employees had
been required to provide similar services. Many DAV members
volunteer at VA medical centers, clinics, and community living
centers and serve as Hospital Service Coordinators and drivers
in DAV's nationwide Transportation Network, about which I will
provide more detail later in this testimony.
Local Veterans Assistance Program
In an effort to meaningfully touch the lives of more
veterans in need of assistance, DAV created the Local Veterans
Assistance Program (LVAP). Opportunities have always existed
for individuals to assist veterans and their dependents--and
DAV and our DAV Auxiliary volunteers have answered that call in
full measure. We see examples of this each and every day aimed
at meeting the principal objective of our organization--to
fulfill our promises to the men and women who have served.
Our LVAP volunteers contribute time and energy for a
variety of activities that include, but are not limited to:
Chapter and Department Service Officer work.
Specific outreach efforts, such as DAV's air
show outreach programs, Harley's Heroes, and National
Guard mobilizations and demobilizations.
Direct assistance to veterans, families, and
survivors, including engaging in home repairs,
maintenance, and grocery shopping, among many other
supportive activities.
Since its inception six years ago, 5,006 volunteers have
participated in DAV's LVAP for a total of over 1.6 million
hours of volunteer service. DAV is constantly seeking new ways
to recruit and engage DAV members and volunteers. We believe
this program works to the advantage of all of those we serve.
The Next Generation of Volunteers
Sadly, Messrs. Chairmen, we are rapidly losing our veterans
from the World War II era; and DAV is proportionately
witnessing the loss of DAV volunteers from that population.
Ever looking forward, DAV has sought to reward and develop a
new generation of younger VA volunteers. More than a decade
ago, we created a youth volunteer scholarship program to ensure
the future of a viable DAV volunteer effort. In remembrance of
former VA Secretary and former DAV Executive Director, the late
Jesse Brown, we launched a special scholarship program in his
name. Annually, the DAV Jesse Brown Memorial Youth Scholarship
Program honors outstanding young volunteers who participate in
the VA Voluntary Service Program and/or through DAV's Local
Veterans Assistance Program to donate their time and compassion
to wounded, injured, and ill veterans.
Since its inception, DAV has awarded 147 individual
scholarships valued at $1,043,000, to enable these exceptional
young people to pursue their goals in higher education through
the value of volunteering. We at DAV are very proud of the
Jesse Brown Memorial Youth Scholarship Program, and I am
personally proud to report that our friends at the Ford Motor
Company most recently indicated their intention to donate
$45,000 this year to this scholarship program to enable us to
continue awarding these scholarships to worthy student-
volunteers.
Another corporation that has come forward to help veterans
of all eras is Golden Corral, which this past November opened
its doors again to all veterans on Golden Corral's ``Military
Appreciation Monday,'' serving more than 433,500 free meals to
veterans as a means to thank them for their service. Nationwide
Golden Corral events also yielded more than $1.4 million in
donations to DAV Chapters and Departments in 2013. Since 2001,
Golden Corral restaurants have served more than 4 million thank
you meals to our nation's veterans and helped raise nearly $9
million in donations for DAV chapters and departments to use in
outreach and service programs in their communities.
Well beyond volunteerism itself, generous fundraising
efforts by Golden Corral, Ford, Harley Davidson, and others
continue to help support DAV initiatives and programs
throughout the year, and provide DAV resources to outreach to
local veterans so we can help them get the benefits and
services they earned from a grateful nation.
National Transportation Network
Messrs. Chairmen, DAV is extremely proud of the service
provided by our volunteers, many of whom are injured, wounded,
or ill veterans themselves, or the family members of such
veterans. These volunteers, some of whom are seated before you
today in this hearing room, continue to serve the needs of our
veterans on a daily basis. Many of our nation's wounded,
injured, and ill veterans are aided because of the time these
volunteers donate. DAV volunteers, please rise and be
recognized! Everyone at DAV applauds the efforts of our
volunteers.
DAV relies on 193 Hospital Service Coordinators at 152 VA
medical centers across the country to oversee our National
Transportation Network. This program provides free
transportation to and from VA health care facilities to
veterans who otherwise might not be able to obtain needed VA
health care services.
From October 2012 through September 2013, DAV's National
Transportation Network logged more than 25.9 million road miles
and transported 717,009 veterans to VA health care facilities.
Nearly 9,000 volunteer drivers spent over 1.7 million hours
transporting veterans. Since our national transportation
program began in 1987, more than 15.8 million veterans have
been transported over 558 million miles, for a total of more
than 32.9 million volunteer hours by our DAV drivers.
In 2013, DAV donated 128 vans to VA facilities at a cost of
almost $3.3 million. In 2014, we plan on donating 139 vans at a
cost of $3.7 million. From 1987 through 2013, we have donated
2,714 vans to VA, at a cost to DAV of $57.6 million.
DAV's efforts were aided in August 2013 by the support of
the Ford Motor Company with the gift presentation of seven new
vehicles to DAV for the Transportation Network. Since 1996,
Ford has donated 171 vehicles to support our work. DAV is proud
that Ford Motor Company continues to honor its commitment
through the instrument of DAV to the men and women who have
served our nation in uniform.
DAV's commitment to our National Transportation Network is
lasting and sure. We have deployed DAV vans in every state and
nearly every Congressional district serving our veterans, and
many of whom are your constituents.
National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic
DAV is a collaborator in another outstanding program that
directly impacts the lives and well-being of seriously wounded
and injured veterans. Working in cooperation with VA Recreation
and Voluntary Services, DAV co-hosts the annual National
Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic. For over a quarter
century, this exceptional physical rehabilitation program, held
in the mountains of Colorado, has transformed the lives of
America's most severely wounded, injured, and ill veterans.
This unique program--often referred to as ``Miracles on a
Mountainside''--helps severely injured veterans re-build their
confidence, compensate for their injuries, and regain balance
in their lives. This event promotes rehabilitation and
restoration by coaching and encouraging veterans with severe
disabilities to conquer adaptive skiing, skating, ice hockey,
fly fishing, and other sports and shows them by example that
they are not barred from adaptive recreational activities and
sports of all kinds. Veterans from all eras have attended our
clinics, including many who were wounded and injured in the
Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns. Often, this seminal event
offers some veterans their very first experience in winter
sports and gives them motivation to take their personal
rehabilitation to a higher level than they may ever have
imagined. Participants have included veterans with multiple
amputations, traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries, severe
neurological deficits, and even total blindness.
For anyone who has attended ``Miracles on a Mountainside''
and observed our participants and their efforts, it is an
inspiring sight, unlike anything you will see anywhere in the
world. I can assure you, miracles do still occur. These wounded
heroes experience life-changing events at our National Disabled
Veterans Winter Sports Clinic, and so do all the inspired
observers, family members, and volunteers who participate. I
invite all Members of these Committees to come and experience
``Miracles on a Mountainside'' with me and other DAV leaders
this year. Our next clinic is scheduled for March 30 to April
4, in Snowmass Village, Colorado. If you want to believe in
miracles, please come and join us.
DAV Charitable Service Trust
Organized in 1986, the Charitable Service Trust (CST) is a
tax-exempt, not-for-profit organization serving primarily as a
grant-maker for qualifying organizations throughout the nation.
As an affiliate of DAV, the CST strives to meet the needs of
ill, injured, and wounded veterans through financial support of
direct programs and services for service members and their
families. Accordingly, the CST is dedicated to one purpose:
empowering veterans to lead high-quality lives with respect and
dignity.
DAV established the Trust to advance initiatives, programs,
and services that might not fit easily into the scheme of what
is traditionally offered through programs of the VA, our state
Departments, and other veterans service organizations in the
community. Not-for-profit organizations meeting the direct
service needs of veterans, dependents and survivors are
encouraged to apply to the CST for financial support. Since the
first grant was awarded in 1988, more than $79.6 million has
been awarded for services to our nation's heroes. In an effort
to fulfill the CST's mission of service, support is offered to
ensure quality care is available for veterans with PTSD, TBI,
substance-use challenges, amputations, spinal cord injuries,
and other combat-related injuries, and to combat hunger and
homelessness. Initiatives for evaluating and addressing the
needs of veterans from every service era and conflict are also
encouraged.
Typically, grants are awarded to programs offering:
Food, shelter, and other necessities to
homeless or at-risk veterans.
Mobility items or assistance specific to
veterans with blindness or vision loss, hearing loss,
or amputations.
Qualified therapeutic activities for veterans
and/or their families.
Physical and psychological rehabilitation for
veterans.
Priority is given to long-term service projects that
provide meaningful support to unserved and underserved
veterans.
As veterans confront unemployment, homelessness, and
physical and psychological illnesses, the need continues for
innovative, caring programs and services to address these
challenges. DAV's CST is dedicated to making a positive
difference in the lives of America's most deserving individuals
and their loved ones.
By supporting these initiatives and programs, the Trust
furthers the mission of DAV in standing up for those who stood
up for us. For more than nine decades, DAV has directed its
resources to the most needed and meaningful services for the
nation's wounded and injured veterans and their families.
Significantly, the many accomplishments of both DAV and the
Trust have been made possible through the continued support of
corporate partners, individuals, and DAV members who remain
faithful to our mission.
American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial
Messrs. Chairmen, I am pleased to report that the American
Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial under construction only a
few blocks from this building is on track to be completed and
dedicated this fall. I am certain that many of you have seen
the ongoing construction activity taking place just west of the
Rayburn Building, including some reconfigurations of roads in
the area. As you know, Congress enacted authorizing legislation
for the construction of a national memorial to honor veterans
who become disabled while serving in the armed forces of the
United States. DAV, together with other veterans organizations
and other supporters, has proudly participated with the
Disabled Veterans' Life Memorial Foundation that Congress
authorized to design, construct, and raise all the private
funding necessary to make this vision a reality. It is
important for me to reiterate that this memorial is not being
built with public money. It has been a long and challenging
journey to raise all the funds and secure the required
approvals, and we are grateful for the continuous support this
and prior Congresses have lent to create this permanent tribute
to men and women who have been wounded, injured, or made ill by
their service to the nation. It will serve as a fitting
remembrance of their sacrifices, which do not end when wars do.
Thank you for helping us fulfill this promise, and we hope to
see many of you in the fall to help us dedicate this unique,
living memorial.
National Legislative Program
Messrs. Chairmen, DAV was founded in 1920 as a nonpartisan,
nonprofit veterans' service organization. Since then, promotion
of meaningful, reasonable, and responsible public policy for
wartime service-disabled veterans has been at the heart of who
we are and what we do. Regardless of politics and whether we
agree or disagree with our government's foreign policies and
military deployments, our service men and women put their
health and lives on the line to ensure the safety of the
Republic and to protect the basic freedoms we enjoy as citizens
of the United States.
What is right for our nation and our citizens is to take
care of those who served and sacrificed for our collective
freedom. We do this by never forgetting the sacrifices of the
men and women who served. We do this by keeping our promise to
them: through Congress and VA, to provide the resources and
services they need to enjoy the best quality of life possible,
as they make the often challenging transition back to civilian
life.
Major policy positions of DAV are derived from resolutions
adopted by the delegates to our annual National Conventions.
Since our first National Convention in 1921, DAV's legislative
program has guided our advocacy for disabled veterans in
conformance with the collective will of our members. Our 2013-
2014 mandates cover a broad spectrum of VA programs and
services, and they are available for you and your professional
staffs to see on DAV's website, at https://www.dav.org/wp-
content/uploads/ResolutionBook.pdf. I invite your staffs to
consider the content of these resolutions in crafting
legislation during the remainder of the 113th Congress.
All Veterans are Created EquaL
As DAV has testified in the past, we are concerned that
some of the benefits Congress enacted are exclusive to veterans
of recent service in Iraq and Afghanistan. While we understand
that these are special circumstances that may require
legislative consideration to ease transition challenges from
military to civilian life, DAV represents wartime veterans of
all ages and all periods of wartime service. We remain dismayed
that previous generations cannot take advantage of a number of
these new improvements enacted into law, and we ask your
Committees to reconsider the trend to exclude older veterans
from the new and expanded benefits you have awarded to younger
veterans, especially the stipend and extensive health care
benefits for veterans' family caregivers under Public Law 111-
163. I defy anyone to tell me that the struggles of a family
caregiver of a severely disabled veteran from World War II, the
Korean War, the Vietnam War, or Persian Gulf War are easier and
less burdensome than those of a caregiver of a similar veteran
of wars in Afghanistan or Iraq. They all struggle; they all
suffer. They all need our support. Congress should not leave
one of them behind while benefitting the other.
I am pleased to note that provisions to expand caregiver
benefits to all generations of veterans, as well as a number of
other longstanding DAV resolutions are contained in S. 1982, a
bill introduced by Chairman Sanders. Like thousands of DAV
members and supporters who have contacted Congress urging
enactment of this important bill, I call on you to complete
this crucial legislation.
With the realization that we will receive ample
opportunities this year to more fully address many of DAV's
specific legislative resolutions during hearings before your
Committees and personally with your staffs, I shall only
highlight a few key ideas in this testimony. I assure you that
all of these concepts are covered by DAV national resolutions.
Along with our VSO partners, and relying upon the strength of
our grassroots members and supporters, DAV will work
aggressively and proactively to advance these key legislative
priorities, while continuing to look for opportunities to
promote all DAV legislative and policy goals. These are our key
priorities, and on behalf of our 1.4 million members and
Auxiliary, I ask that you consider them.
Disability Compensation and Other Benefits
Complete the ongoing reform of VA's benefits
claims processing system, with the focus on quality,
accuracy, accountability, and timeliness.Develop and
promote legislation and policies to expand the use of
interim ratings for veterans filing complex and multi-
issue disability compensation claims.
Ensure that any revisions to the VA Schedule
for Rating Disabilities (VASRD) being considered by VBA
remain faithful to longstanding statutory policy
underlying the purpose of the VA disability
compensation system.
Eliminate inequitable policies that prohibit
the concurrent receipt of VA disability compensation
and military retired pay and that require Dependency
and Indemnity Compensation and military Survivor
Benefit Plan payments to be offset.
Provide for a 10-year protection period for
service-connected disability evaluations.
Reduce the 10-year rule for Dependency and
Indemnity Compensation.
Exclude veterans' disability compensation from
countable income for purposes of eligibility for
benefits and services under other government programs.
Award interest payments for VA retroactive
awards of one year or more.
Oppose any proposal that would offset payments
of Social Security Disability Insurance benefits or any
other federal benefit by the amount of VA compensation.
Contest any scheme to means test disability
and death compensation.
Resist any change that would redefine service-
connected disability or restrict the conditions or
circumstances under which it may be established.
Oppose any recommendations by any commission
to reduce or eliminate benefits for disabled veterans.
Health Care Services
Ensure sufficient, timely, and predictable
funding for VA health care programs in the FY 2015
appropriation and the FY 2016 advance appropriation
bills.
Develop and build support for a comprehensive
long term plan to address VA's aging health care
infrastructure needs, including VA research facilities.
Expand caregiver services to meet the needs of
veterans' caregivers from all eras.
Improve timely access to veterans suffering
from TBI, and mental health care and counseling
services, with particular focus on newer veterans in
transition
Strengthen and expand women veterans health
care programs and services.
Develop a comprehensive plan reforming VA
long-term support and services.
Provide priority access and timely, quality
health care services to service-connected disabled
veterans.
Repeal VA and Department of Defense co-
payments for medical care and prescription medications.
Repeal beneficiary travel deductibles for
service-connected disabled veterans and support
increased reimbursement rates.
Employment and Economic Opportunities
Enact legislation to transfer veterans'
employment programs from DOL to VA in a new Veterans
Economic Opportunity Administration, which also
includes VR&E, education, and business programs.
Enact legislation that will allow veterans to
transfer their military skills and credentials to the
civilian sector to enhance their economic
opportunities.
Strengthen veterans' vocational rehabilitation
and employment programs by ensuring adequate funding
for increased staffing and IT enhancements to meet
increases in VR&E demand.
Remove the 12-year delimitating date imposed
on Chapter 31 (vocational rehabilitation) entitlement.
Improve delivery of transition services to all
separating service members.
General Issues
Support advance appropriations for all VA
programs.
Extend military commissary and exchange
privileges to service-connected disabled veterans.
Provide space-available air travel aboard
military aircraft to 100 percent service-connected
disabled veterans.
Award educational benefits to dependents of
service-connected veterans rated 80 percent or more
disabled.
Exempt the benefits paid to wartime service-
connected disabled veterans from the ``Pay-Go''
provisions of the Budget Enforcement Act.
Reduce premiums for Service Disabled Veterans'
Insurance consistent with current life expectancy.
Provide the fullest possible accounting of
POW/MIAs from all wars and conflicts.
In Conclusion
Messrs. Chairmen and Members of the Committees on Veterans'
Affairs of the Senate and House of Representatives, I hope my
testimony today demonstrates to you that DAV does not come
before you with our hand out to ask for special favors, tax
advantages, or unearned benefits. We are not a special
interest; like the Congress in many ways, DAV and what we do is
a broad, general interest of the American people. We believe
our members, and all veterans who were harmed as a consequence
of their military service, earn their benefits and pay for them
in full, in advance. It is true that some of our injured and
wounded veterans do need a hand up in their post-service
lives--for transition services; hospitalization,
rehabilitation, and other health care; prosthetics for lost
limbs; insurance for the uninsurable; education and re-
training; housing and supportive services, including housing
for those who become homeless, or services to prevent it;
business and employment opportunities; compensation for the
living, and compensation for the survivors of those we lost--
all earned with service and sacrifice. These benefits and
services help veterans restore themselves and prepare
themselves for a future as productive citizens; to comfort them
if they lose their ability to work as a consequence of military
service; or to keep them and their survivors from slipping into
poverty. Given what veterans have done for this country since
its founding more than two centuries ago, we believe it's a
small price to pay. It's the price of freedom. Many VA
hospitals are adorned over building entrances or at the front
gates with these words: ``The Price of Freedom is Visible
Here.'' I believe this is a powerful and fitting statement to
honor our heroes and compels our national resolve to keep the
promise.
In a related vein, DAV has approved a national resolution
for years calling on Congress to raise disability compensation
payments commensurate with a more humane treatment of service-
disabled veterans and the survivors of veterans who die from
their service-related injuries, but Congress has never
responded other than to provide annual cost-of-living
adjustments that, while appreciated, are minimal at best. I
would ask all of you: have you ever considered what a seriously
disabled veteran is paid by the nation in disability
compensation for his or her sacrifice? On average, a 100
percent service-connected combat-disabled veteran is paid
$36,000 annually. I would challenge anyone in this room to
provide for their family on that amount of money for the year
2014, or any year, especially in the presence of unending
disability, and all that disability entails to depress the
quality of a person's life. If Congress even doubled that
amount, the payment would still be very small for the kinds of
sacrifices rendered by these veterans. A veteran who loses a
single leg above the knee in combat only receives a fraction of
that amount in compensation each year. Some of these veterans
are behind me today; I encourage you to take the time to talk
to them about disability compensation and what it means to them
and their families. They might give you a new insight on what
``income inequality'' truly means, since that term is much in
the news these days. We realize this is not an opportune time
to increase federal mandatory spending, but I believe here is a
challenge worthy of a grateful nation and of a thoughtful,
caring Congress, and one that I and everyone in this room would
hope the Members of these Committees would embrace.
I hope you will agree that DAV's testimony today shows once
again that DAV not only advocates on behalf of our nation's
wounded and injured veterans, but we also continue to give back
to our nation, our fellow veterans, and our communities through
the numerous programs detailed in this testimony--in service,
volunteerism, transportation, therapeutic recreation, claims
representation, outreach, family care giving of the injured,
sick and dying, disaster relief, charitable grants, and all the
other good works in which DAV engages on a broad national
scale. Membership dues from our Life Members are used to
exclusively support an effective professional legislative
department in Washington, D.C. DAV's effectiveness is
reinforced every day working with you and your professional
staffs, and those of many Members in both Congressional
chambers and in both political parties, to accomplish our
priorities and achieve your legislative goals for wounded,
injured, and ill veterans.
Messrs. Chairmen, I hope that I have been able to
demonstrate to you and your colleagues that DAV devotes its
resources to the most meaningful services for wounded, injured,
and ill wartime veterans. These DAV services aid veterans
directly and support and augment VA programs throughout the
United States. Our family caregivers actually reduce VA health
care costs, whether VA provides services and supports to them
as caregivers, or not. In many dimensions I believe DAV is one
of VA's most valuable partners in caring for veterans. I trust
you can see why the men and women of DAV and its Auxiliary are
proud of this great organization and all that it does for VA,
veterans, their families and survivors every day of every year.
In closing, as National Commander, it has been an honor and
a highlight of my life to appear before you today to serve as
the voice of DAV, to present our legislative goals for 2014,
and to present the collective concerns of our organization. I
know that all of us in this room and all DAV and DAV Auxiliary
members nationwide share a deep and abiding respect for the
brave men and women who have served our nation in World War II,
Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, and those who serve our
nation in uniform today, especially those in harm's way
overseas, not only in Afghanistan and Iraq, but who are
deployed in many dangerous and challenging places the world
over. May God watch over them and keep them safe.
As these Committees deliberate during the second session of
this Congress, please keep in mind that wounded, injured, and
ill veterans, their loved ones, family caregivers, and
survivors paid, and are still paying, a high price for the
freedoms we cherish--freedoms some people take for granted. The
only response that we ask to repay their sacrifice is for this
government to honor its obligations and keep the promise to
America's veterans, their families, and their survivors. This
defines DAV at its core and validates Operation: Keep the
Promise. The defenders of the nation deserve no less.
God bless the United States of America, our military
personnel deployed on land, aboard ship and in the air around
the world, all veterans who are wounded, injured or made ill in
service to the nation, their families and survivors, and
Congress and our fellow citizens.
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