Honorable Lane Evans
 

Introduction of “Veterans’ Pension Improvement Act of 2001”
H.R. 3087

October 11, 2001

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Veterans’ Pension Improvement Act of 2001.  This important legislation would recognize the military service of our Nation’s wartime veterans by providing low-income veterans with pension benefits at age 65 without regard to a finding of total and permanent disability.  The bill would reinstate a provision of Public Law 90-77, which was repealed in 1990.

From 1967 until 1990, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was authorized to presume that low-income veterans were disabled at age 65.  In hearings on the 1967 bill, the American Legion testified that providing for benefits at age 65 would affect less than one-tenth of one percent of pension applicants and that the cost associated with providing medical examinations and disability adjudications would be reduced.  Recent evidence indicates that the Legion’s 1967 assessment was correct.

In 1990, Congress eliminated the presumption of permanent and total disability at age 65 in Public Law 101-508.  At that time, the Congressional Budget Office optimistically predicted that the measure would generate savings of $17 million in 1991 and total savings of $313 million over the five-year period.  Such savings have not materialized.  According to VA, it is rare for a wartime veteran with income below the pension threshold to be found not permanently and totally disabled.  Rather than saving money, VA estimates that it is spending more money to provide medical examinations than would be paid out if benefits were granted at age 65. 

A July 1997 sample of pension claims showed that only 5.9 percent of all claims from veterans age 65 and older were initially denied on the basis that the claimants were not permanently and totally disabled.  In 1998 and 1999, that number was even lower with only three percent of claims denied on that basis. After taking into account reversals on appeal, VA estimates that fewer than 300 veterans age 65 and older per year are denied disability pension based upon a finding that they are not permanently and totally disabled. 

VA projects the annual cost of the benefit will be less than $2 million per year.  The cost of providing medical examinations for these claims exceeds $2 million per year.  In addition to the costs of the medical examinations, additional costs are incurred in rating the disability.  Our current policy is penny-wise and pound-foolish.

Currently VBA has a backlog of 536,626 claims pending in regional offices.  Another 95,066 claims are pending appeals to the Board of Veterans Appeals.  Requiring the VA to provide a medical examination and make a disability determination on claims, which are almost certain to result in a finding of disability, is exacerbating the backlog with no financial gain to the government.  Although prior legislation presumed a finding of disability at age 65, this bill would provide for a service pension without regard to disability similar to that previously provided to veterans of Indian Wars and the Spanish-American War. 

VA would only be required to obtain a medical examination and a finding of disability for those veterans over 65 who seek additional benefits based upon a disability which renders them homebound or in need of aid and attendance.  This would reduce the cost and workload of providing disability examinations for low-income veterans who are almost always found to be disabled.

The bill does not specifically require that veterans be unemployed to qualify for the benefit.  This reflects the practical reality that wartime veterans whose income is low enough to qualify for pension benefits are almost always unemployed.  Full-time employment at the minimum wage level provides income which exceeds the pension amount and would therefore disqualify a veteran for benefits. 

Mr. Speaker, in order to reduce the backlog and reduce the cost of making expensive disability determinations for claims of elderly wartime veterans, I ask my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to support the Veterans’ Pension Improvement Act of 2001.

Rep. Evans's Floor Statements