[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 5011]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                                VETERANS

  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I rise today to add my name as a co-sponsor 
of Senate Bill 1810, ``Veterans Claims and Appeals Procedures 
Clarification and Improvement Act.''
  Recent court decisions have made it more difficult for veterans to 
get their rightful assistance from the Veterans Administration, VA, and 
to develop their claims. This bill will clearly lay out the rules of 
how the VA will assist veterans with these claims. This bill will 
remove many of the barriers now standing in the way of veterans 
gathering information from many different sources to make their claim 
``well-grounded.''
  Right now, many veterans who have filed claims with the Department of 
Veterans Affairs must wait for months and, in some cases, even years 
for the claims to be decided. This creates a hardship on our veterans 
who have served our country with pride. In my state of Montana, I have 
seen veterans wait five to 10 years for their claim and the necessary 
appeals to make it through this bureaucratic system. Over the past few 
years, I have seen my veterans' casework increase due to veterans 
having problems in obtaining information that the VA previously 
provided.
  My President, can you imagine a homeless veteran finding out that 
they must call this federal agency or write to this private hospital to 
obtain his or her own information for a claim? Often, many veterans 
just give up when they face these many bureaucratic obstacles. They 
fall though the cracks of a system that is fast becoming a legal 
nightmare and a system that was supposed to be there for them when they 
came home. Why? It is because the Department of Veterans Affairs has 
ceased being helpful to the veterans in the development of their 
claims.
  We must honor our commitment to our veterans and ensure the VA is 
being as helpful as possible to all veterans. This bill will do just 
that. I urge my colleagues to support this bill and bring an end to the 
nightmare that America's veterans are having with the present system.

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