[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 92 (Friday, June 20, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1318]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT FOR H.R. 2518, THE VETERANS AFFAIRS 
                      REORGANIZAATION ACT OF 2003

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 19, 2003

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing H.R. 
2518, the ``Veterans Affairs Reorganization Act of 2003''. This bill 
would make organizational changes in several programs for veterans in 
order to improve the delivery of vital benefits and services to 
America's former servicemen and women.
  The first two sections of this legislation provide for the 
consolidation and improvement of programs to assist homeless veterans. 
Specifically, Section 2 of the bill would create a new office in the 
Department of Veterans Affairs to manage a number of assistance 
programs for homeless veterans. Section 3 of the bill would transfer 
the functions of the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program from the 
Department of Labor to Department of Veterans Affairs and include this 
program in the responsibilities of the newly created office.
  There are at least a quarter-million homeless veterans on the streets 
of America every night. With the passage of the Homeless Veterans 
Comprehensive Assistance Act of 2001, Public Law 107-95, Congress 
established a goal to end chronic homelessness among veterans within 10 
years. More than 2 years have passed since the President signed our 
legislation into law, but in this Committee's oversight activities we 
find that the Department of Veterans Affairs is making insufficient 
progress to achieve this ambitious goal.
  Today, VA provides a range of services for homeless veterans 
including outreach, case management, clinical care, residential 
treatment and rehabilitation, managed residential placement, care for 
serious mental illnesses and substance-use disorders and supported 
housing. However, the delivery of these services has been hindered by a 
lack of focus and direction within the Department of Veterans Affairs, 
and frankly, a lack of will to commit the necessary funding to 
accomplish this mission.
  The legislation I am introducing today would create a new Office of 
Homeless Veterans Assistance Programs within the Department of Veterans 
Affairs. The Director of this office would be given authority to 
consolidate and coordinate all homeless assistance services to help 
homeless veterans get back on their feet with a hand up, not a hand-
out. The new Office of Homeless Veterans Assistance would be enhanced 
by transferring the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program, a program 
now embedded in the Department of Labor, into VA. This transfer of 
responsibility for program administration would enable VA to better 
coordinate health care, financial benefits and employment services for 
homeless veterans. By moving all programs specifically designed for 
homeless veterans into VA and consolidating them, we expect to deliver 
better services in a more timely and cost-efficient manner.

  Finally, Section 4 of this legislation would transfer the operational 
responsibility for the Military Personnel Records facility of the 
National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) to the Secretary of Veterans 
Affairs. Approximately 80 million military records are on file at NPRC, 
located in the federal records repository in St. Louis, Missouri. For 
the last 25 years, each service branch has been producing microfilm of 
each record and more recently has been keeping records on microfiche. 
The NPRC has been a source of major frustration for the Veterans 
Benefits Administration which has a daily need to search these records 
to help veterans establish claims for disability and other benefits.
  While the NPRC has made good faith efforts to be responsive to VA, it 
continues to fall short of providing VA with timely and reliable 
records retrieval. As a consequence, VA's claims process has been 
delayed, and disabled veterans wait months, sometimes years, for 
service medical records or other information before their records are 
found. For the week ending June 6, 2003, VA had 3,051 requests pending 
for more than 30 days and 3,432 requests pending for more than 90 days. 
This is simply unacceptable.
  My legislation would transfer responsibility for managing the NPRC to 
VA. The National Archives, which currently has final responsibility for 
maintenance of vital federal records, would be required to execute a 
Memorandum of Understanding to allow the Secretary of Veterans Affairs 
to assume the day-today management of the NPRC. Once this transfer of 
management responsibility is completed, VA will be in a better position 
to control its own fate in processing veterans' disability claims, and 
in turn, Congress will be able to hold one executive agency accountable 
for responsiveness to these disabled veterans who have waited far too 
long for the resolution of their claims.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe these changes will improve the delivery of 
benefits and services to our nation's veterans. I hope that my 
colleagues on both sides of the aisle will carefully study this 
legislation and join with me in this effort.

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