[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 10011-10012]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          VETERANS HEALTH CARE

  Mr. HELLER. Madam President, I would like to begin by thanking my 
colleague from Pennsylvania Senator Casey for his dedication in working 
with me in a bipartisan manner to resolve the backlog of veterans' 
benefits claims. The care of our Nation's veterans is truly a 
bipartisan issue.
  I would also like to take this moment to commend my colleagues, the 
chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee Senator Sanders and also 
the senior Senator from Arizona for bringing together ideas from both 
sides of the aisle to address the problems facing appointment wait 
times, VA scheduling practices, accountability, and the overall quality 
of our care provided at VA medical facilities across our Nation.
  A recent VA audit of VA facilities across the Nation found that 
appointment wait times for new patients at hospitals and clinics were 
up to several months. No veteran should have to wait that long to get 
their first appointment. I have talked with the Las Vegas VA Director, 
Isabel Duff, about plans to reduce their wait times. I am confident the 
proposals in the veterans bill passed yesterday will help these 
facilities make immediate improvements in progress to provide the 
necessary care to these Nevada veterans.
  Addressing the serious concerns of health care at the VA is an urgent 
issue, one that needs quick action from Congress. I am pleased we were 
able to pass that bipartisan legislation, but there is another side of 
the coin separate from the Veterans Health Administration; that is, the 
Veterans Benefits Administration. It is the responsibility of VBA to 
administer benefits to our veterans. The VHA has undergone intense 
scrutiny in the last few weeks, but the veterans disability claims 
backlog is another urgent issue that needs action from this Congress.
  The legislation we passed helped get the VHA system in order, but 
this will do no good. It will not do good unless the veterans can 
actually get their benefits and utilize these hospitals. The problems 
with accountability, management, and efficiency with the VA health care 
nationwide are the same problems the Veterans Benefits Administration 
is facing.
  As we speak, nearly 287,000 veterans across this country and nearly 
3,700 veterans in the State of Nevada have waited over 125 days for 
their claims to be processed. In fact, veterans in Nevada have the 
longest waiting time in the Nation at 346 days. This week the VA 
inspector general released its report on the inspection of the Reno VA 
regional office, which processes claims for veterans in our State. The 
inspection found that 50 percent of the claims the IG reviewed were not 
accurately processed. Furthermore, many of these inaccuracies were the 
result of a lack of proper management.
  The problems at the Reno VARO are a prime example of why Congress 
needs to act now to bring reforms and accountability to the VBA. Just 
as it is unacceptable for veterans to wait months for appointments, it 
is just as unacceptable for them to wait months for the benefits they 
have earned.
  To address this issue, Senator Casey and I introduced the VA backlog 
working group report along with a bipartisan group of our colleagues, 
which included Senators Moran, Heinrich, Vitter, and Tester. This 
report outlines the claims process, explains the history of the VA 
claims backlog, and offers targeted solutions to help the VA develop an 
efficient benefit delivery system.
  To put the report's targeted solutions into action, our working group 
introduced the 21st Century Veterans Benefits Delivery Act. This 
comprehensive, bipartisan piece of legislation addresses three areas of 
the claims process: claims submission, VA regional office practices, 
and Federal agencies' responses to VA requests.
  I am pleased 18 of our Senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle 
have cosponsored this legislation and that it has gained the support of 
the veterans service organizations such as the VFW, DAV, the American 
Legion, Military Officers Association of America and the AUSN.
  Senator Casey and I recognize that the claims process is complex. 
There is no easy answer. There is no silver bullet that is going to 
solve this particular problem, but the VA's current efforts will not 
eliminate this backlog.

[[Page 10012]]

  So just as we worked to address the issues at the VHA, I encourage 
colleagues to work to address some of these issues at the VBA.
  I was pleased to see the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs try to 
move forward with examining our proposal just last week. While I 
understand that the committee had to cancel this hearing, I encourage 
the chairman of the committee to reschedule it. Our proposal can no 
longer afford to wait in the backlog of bills to be considered by this 
Chamber.
  Practical, targeted solutions are needed to address inefficiencies 
that are keeping veterans from receiving timely decisions on their 
benefit plans. After all our veterans have sacrificed in service to our 
country, we owe this to them.
  I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues to move this 
commonsense proposal forward.
  With that, I yield for my friend and colleague from Pennsylvania, 
Senator Casey.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. CASEY. I rise to talk about the issue that my colleague from 
Nevada just raised.
  We had a vote yesterday--which, to say it was overwhelming is 
probably an understatement--for the Veterans' Access to Care through 
Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act. That act will create 
transparency in the VA system, it will result in the hiring of more 
doctors and nurses, and it will provide resources for veterans and 
their spouses to obtain a quality education.
  We are grateful that happened. We are grateful for the overwhelming 
vote, and we are certainly optimistic about the results that will flow 
from that legislation.
  We have more to do in addition to that. We need to continue to look 
for ways to address the claims backlog that my colleague from Nevada 
just outlined, as well as other issues that will come before us.
  I thank the chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, Chairman 
Sanders, who is with us today on floor, and the Committee on Veterans' 
Affairs for their work on behalf of veterans.
  The claims backlog, which my colleague just talked about, is a 
critically important issue for veterans and their families in 
Pennsylvania, Nevada, and all the other States as well.
  I commend the work of Senator Heller and his staff. My staff worked 
very hard on these issues. I want to commend especially Gillian Mueller 
in addition to John Richter for their work on the issue itself and the 
working group collaboration that resulted in this report that Senator 
Heller cited. This is a substantial report on a very difficult problem.
  Here is what the problem is--the problem that the working group 
addressed, but also our legislation addressed, which I will talk about 
in a moment. Here is the problem in terms of days. The backlog is 
especially high across the country. The average backlog in days is 241.
  Unfortunately, in Pennsylvania, it is even longer. In about half of 
our State, in the western part of our State, it is 316 days, and it is 
294 days in Philadelphia in the eastern part of our State.
  To have a veteran and his or her family wait that long for the 
processing claims, is, in a word, unacceptable and should be addressed. 
That is why we introduced the 21st Century Veterans Benefits Delivery 
Act, which was developed from the findings of the working group and the 
report that was produced.
  This is a commonsense approach, a bill that focuses on three areas 
that will ensure a faster and more accurate delivery system.
  The bill will help ensure that veterans, the VA, Congress, and all 
levels of government are working together to bring down the backlog and 
to get veterans the benefits they deserve in a timely manner.
  It does basically three things: one, update the claims submission 
process; two, improve the VA regional office practices; three, demand 
more from other VA agencies. This backlog problem is a VA problem, but 
it is also a problem of other agencies not doing their job to help the 
VA.
  As Senator Heller noted, we had great support in the working group, 
as well as 17 bipartisan cosponsors of the 21st Century Veterans 
Benefits Delivery Act.
  I respectfully asked Chairman Sanders to help us schedule a hearing 
on the legislation, and we are grateful for his willingness not only to 
work with us but to help advance this very important legislation.
  Let me conclude with one thought. I have often said that one of the 
obligations of every Member of Congress is to prove ourselves worthy of 
the valor of our veterans, to make sure that we are keeping the promise 
to our veterans. You can't prove yourself worthy of their valor by 
thanking them for their service or patting them on the back and going 
to public ceremonies. We have to act as we did yesterday. The next 
problem we should act upon is the claims backlog so that we can truly 
say that we are worthy of the valor of our veterans and keep our 
promise to them, to their families, and to our country.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. SANDERS. I thank my colleagues and friends from Nevada and 
Pennsylvania.
  Senator Heller, a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, has been 
a very active member and a very constructive member. Senator Casey from 
Pennsylvania has done an extraordinary job in representing the veterans 
from his State and on overall veterans policy. I thank them both for 
working in a bipartisan way in addressing one of the significant 
challenges confronting the VA; that is, the claims backlog.
  I thank them for their support in working to advance not only 
solutions to the claims problems, but comprehensive legislation that 
would improve the lives of our Nation's veterans and their families. 
Both of these Senators supported the two major pieces of legislation 
for veterans that have come to the floor.
  Yesterday, the Senate took a step forward in addressing a very 
significant crisis, and that is making sure that we provide health care 
to all of our veterans in a high quality and timely way.
  However, as I indicated on the floor yesterday, what we did yesterday 
is only the beginning. We have a lot more work to do if we are going to 
represent the interests of the men and women who have put their lives 
on the line to defend us.
  I welcome my colleagues' continued support and look forward to 
working together with them to pass legislation that would address the 
challenges of the backlog, as well as the many, many other concerns 
that have been presented to the committee by the veterans service 
organizations.
  We take their concerns seriously. I applaud them both very much for 
coming up with some concrete ideas as to how we address the backlog 
problem, and I pledge to them that we are going to work as aggressively 
as we can to address the issue.
  I thank them both very much for helping us on this issue.

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