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Veterans optimistic about progress on VA ills

After several standing ovations from at least 300 Disabled American Veterans in pin-emblazoned garrison caps, one could almost assume everyone was reading from the same page at a joint hearing of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs’ committees Feb. 24.

And, at least rhetorically, they were — specifically the page that says cut the bureaucracy to get veterans immediate access to their benefits; ensure female vets receive the same benefits as men; eliminate the backlog of 400,000 benefits claims; screen all returning service members for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries; fund research to treat those issues; and get the Veterans Affairs Department budget done on time.

“The only question is whether our government has the will to live up to our nation’s veterans,” said Raymond Dempsey, national commander of Disabled American Veterans.

He said getting the budget out on time could be the first step in solving many other problems.

In 19 of the past 22 years, the VA budget has been approved well beyond the start of the fiscal year Oct. 1, Dempsey said, and several times, Congress has had to step in with supplemental funding when the administration asked for a budget that fell far short of VA’s needs.

“For too long, the VA health-care system has had to struggle with budgets that were too little and too late,” Dempsey said. “Insufficient funding for veterans health care leads to rationed care, waiting lists and veterans being turned away from VA hospitals and clinics.”

He asked for “timely, efficient and productive” budgeting, and praised new VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and President Barack Obama for saying they would like to reform the budget process so that it is, in fact, on time every year.

Dempsey also said VA’s benefits delivery system can be reformed only if the evaluation system is timely and accurate, and VA employees get better training.

On other issues, he said family members who care for disabled veterans should have training, counseling and financial help, and disabled veterans should receive more help with accessible cars and houses.

Praise for DAV

After Dempsey spoke, most senators and representatives at the hearing used a bit of their time to praise DAV for helping form legislation to try to address the morass of backlogged claims, increase in suicides and upswing of homelessness and substance abuse. But many acknowledged more work needs to be done.

“After a dark period, we have begun to make some real progress in the needs of Veterans Affairs,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. “The record of the last several years is not insignificant.”

He referred to Congress’ infusion of extra funds for training, staffing and research through supplemental bills to VA over the past two years. But he said VA needs to be aggressive about outreach.

Rep. John Hall, D-N.Y., said he worries about the increase in suicides among people in VA care over the past year and said VA needs resources to address that problem quickly.

But Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., noted that the Defense Department, which also is dealing with a suicide epidemic, problems with TBI and PTSD, and a disability case backlog, needs to pick up the pace on the front end, rather than passing all problems to VA.

“DoD simply can’t see the warriors as another piece of equipment that, when its shelf life is over, is handed to someone else,” Walz said.

Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, weighed in on the issue of Agent Orange, saying all disability claims related to the cancer-causing defoliant from Vietnam-era veterans should be approved immediately.

“I don’t care what the presumption is,” he said, “we should honor those claims now.”

Filner also demanded more research and work on mental health, saying that more Vietnam War veterans have died from suicide than died in the war itself. He talked about the issues they faced that are recurring for today’s veterans who also face combat-induced mental health issues: domestic abuse, divorce, homelessness, substance abuse and suicide.

“[PTSD] can be healed,” he said. “We know that. It’s a tragedy if we let that continue.”

After the battles of recent years on the VA’s budget, organization and planning, lawmakers and witnesses at this hearing seemed infused with more optimism that this could be the year VA gets what it needs to plan ahead and take care of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who will make their ways through its system as they return from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as to begin making progress on the huge backlog of claims.