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Hearing Transcript on Examining the Effectiveness of Veterans Benefits Administration Outreach Efforts.
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EXAMINING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION OUTREACH EFFORTS
HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON DISABILITY ASSISTANCE AND MEMORIAL AFFAIRS OF THE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION MAY 22, 2008 SERIAL No. 110-89 Printed for the use of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
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CORRINE BROWN, Florida |
STEVE BUYER, Indiana, Ranking |
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Malcom A. Shorter, Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON DISABILITY ASSISTANCE AND MEMORIAL AFFAIRS
Pursuant to clause 2(e)(4) of Rule XI of the Rules of the House, public hearing records of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs are also published in electronic form. The printed hearing record remains the official version. Because electronic submissions are used to prepare both printed and electronic versions of the hearing record, the process of converting between various electronic formats may introduce unintentional errors or omissions. Such occurrences are inherent in the current publication process and should diminish as the process is further refined. |
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C O N T E N T S
May 22, 2008
Examining the Effectiveness of Veterans Benefits Administration Outreach Efforts
OPENING STATEMENTS
Chairman John J. Hall
Prepared statement of Chairman Hall
Hon. Doug Lamborn, Ranking Republican Member
Prepared statement of Congressman Lamborn
Hon. Phil Hare
WITNESSES
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Diana M. Rubens, Associate Deputy Under Secretary for Field Operations, Veterans Benefits Administration
Prepared statement of Ms. Rubens
U.S. Department of Defense:
Leslye Arsht, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, Military Community and Family Policy
Prepared statement of Ms. Arsht
Kevin Crowley, Deputy Director, Manpower and Personnel, National Guard Bureau
Prepared statement of Mr. Crowley
Advertising Council, Kate Emanuel, Senior Vice President, Non-Profit and Government Affairs
Prepared statement of Ms. Emanuel
American Legion, Jacob B. Gadd, Assistant Director, Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Commission
Prepared statement of Mr. Gadd
Disabled American Veterans, Kerry Baker, Associate National Legislative Director
Prepared statement of Mr. Baker
Gold Star Wives of America, Inc., Kathryn A. Witt, Member, Government Relations Committee
Prepared statement of Ms. Witt
National Association for Uniformed Services, Richard A. "Rick" Jones, Legislative Director
Prepared statement of Mr. Jones
National Association of County Veterans Service Officers, Darlene McMartin, President
Prepared statement of Ms. McMartin
National Association of State Directors of Veterans Affairs, Tammy Duckworth, Member, and Director, Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs
Prepared statement of Ms. Duckworth
MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
EXAMINING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION OUTREACH EFFORTS
Thursday, May 22, 2008
U. S. House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs,
Committee on Veterans' Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 1:45 p.m., in Room 340, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. John J. Hall [Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Hall, Hare, and Lamborn.
OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN HALL
Mr. HALL. The Veterans' Affairs Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee hearing on Examining the Effectiveness of the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) Outreach Efforts will now come to order.
I would ask everyone to rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. The flags are located in the front.
[Pledge of Allegiance.]
Mr. HALL. Thank you and welcome, and thank you for your patience.
Over the last number of months, we have had a series of hearings on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) claims processing system, which resulted in the full Committee passing H.R. 5892, the "Veterans Disability Benefits Claims Modernization Act of 2008." I am very pleased with the bill's progress, and am grateful that we have over 30 cosponsors already.
However, during the course of those hearings, I have often heard words like confusing, misinformed, stigmatizing and overwhelmed to describe the way that veterans felt about accessing their duly-earned VA benefits.
It occurred to me that there was a secondary problem that was not internal to VA operations, but was indicative of its outreach to the veterans they were supposed to be serving. Benefits information was not getting out in clear, simple language that was consistent and easy to use.
As many of you know, the House recently passed H.R. 3681, the "Veterans Benefits Awareness Act of 2007," which authorizes the VA to advertise.
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) knows how to advertise. Congress gave DoD that authority in the 1950s, and since then they have inspired many to join, "The few, The Proud;" or to "Be All That You Can Be." Today, DoD even uses TV commercials to educate the military community about its Military OneSource support program.
But beyond the issue with advertising that I hope H.R. 3681 will address, I felt we needed this oversight hearing to examine the effectiveness of all of VBA's outreach efforts, and asked the staff to further investigate.
During that process it became evident that there were inconsistencies and gaps in how VA is informing the public about its benefits and services. Committee staff found that it was difficult to readily ascertain what, in fact, official VA information was, and what was incorrect.
Even with all of the joint councils between the VA and DoD, there is no clear ability to correctly find VA through DoD sources. For instance, the DoD has three Web sites that offer servicemembers transition assistance, but none that connects with VA. When calling the DoD Military OneSource toll-free line, the operator gives the incorrect call line for VBA. It took our staff almost 30 minutes, three phone calls and six menu options to get to the right VBA operator to get claims questions answered. At what point would a disabled veteran have quit, stressed, frustrated, or worst of all, unassisted?
Veterans service organizations (VSOs) and other nonprofits, which are doing their best to assist veterans and their families and survivors, are left on their own to create veterans benefits messages and lines of assistance which sometimes link to VA and sometimes do not.
I believe that it is VA's responsibility to create promotional and educational materials that these organizations can use so that VA is readily recognizable and available, no matter how the veteran finds it.
There have been inconsistencies reported in how VA conducts in-person outreach. VA is a primary component of the Transition Assistance Program, or TAP, briefings that take place for separating active duty servicemembers, National Guard and Reserves.
VA reports that it attends these briefings when it knows they are taking place, but they are not always notified by the military commands when a briefing is scheduled, and not everyone eligible attends. DoD in turn has been reluctant to mandate TAP because it does not control all of those resources also. VA representatives have been reported to not show up for their portion of the briefing.
TAP and the Benefits Delivery at Discharge (BDD) Program are not as readily available to the National Guard, Reserves or medical hold patients. VA has dismantled its Office of Seamless Transition and replaced it with the Federal Recovery Care Coordinators who primarily operate out of Veterans Health Administration (VHA), not the VBA. The VBA began a call center program to contact veterans about their benefits, but only after suicide rates became known.
It seems clear that the VA needs a more proactive outreach approach. Each area of our country has its own unique challenges of meeting the population needs and its veterans population needs. That is why I am glad we have veterans service organizations, State and county representatives with us today, who can address the issues associated with reaching rural and urban communities, women and minorities, younger or older veterans, and those living in impoverished conditions.
I look forward to the testimony of our witnesses and to hearing about their innovative practices and the outreach gaps that they have identified.
I also look forward to the Ad Council testimony to hear what they can teach us about advertising veterans benefits. They have helped other Federal agencies to teach us that "Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires." or how to "Take a Bite Out of Crime" or that "Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk" or that "Loose Lips Sink Ships." The genesis, of course, was with the War Department, which immortalized Rosie the Riveter, and later a more well-known one, "This is your brain, This is Your Brain on Drugs" and the frying pan with the eggs in it.
Different branches of government, including DoD, have advertised effectively enough to permanently implant these images into everyone's mind, not just veterans' minds, and hopefully we can do a similar type of outreach and advertising program that will make VA benefits or the way to access them so firmly implanted in everybody's mind that a veteran might be able to turn to somebody else on the street who is not a veteran and say where do I go to get my benefits and, just like I remembered, "This is Your Brain" or "Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires," all citizens can be educated where those services can be accessed.
Family members, caregivers, and survivors new to the VA's lingo, jargon and acronyms need materials and briefings that are user friendly with personnel dedicated to assisting them.
On April 24, of this year, I held a roundtable discussion with organizations that assist survivors, and they brought up the need for a VA Survivor Affairs Office, so I have developed a draft bill that would create such an office and we will be asking the organizations for their feedback shortly.
Finally, I am hopeful that the Departments will be able to provide insights into their joint efforts in cooperation with each other, to provide materials, briefings, and Internet and telephonic assistance that is accurate and consistent and readily available. Web links are simple, and it is a shame that such an obvious outreach tool has eluded the Departments so far and needs Congressional oversight.
Bringing our men and women home is a responsibility that we all share in caring for them as best we can once they are home. It is great to see the efforts being made by the communities all around the Nation to support our veterans, especially those with disabling conditions. Hopefully, these efforts can be augmented with the efforts of the Departments of both the VA and Defense, and I hope that the message that the VA gets from us today is a friendly, cooperative and helpful offer of assistance to help to do better messaging, create better outreach materials, announcements, and Web resources tailored to different audiences and reaches the veterans, their families and survivors in clear and simple language that will make them all see the VA as a user friendly resource truly there for their benefit.
I now recognize Ranking Member Lamborn for his opening statement.
[The statement of Chairman Hall appears in the Appendix.]
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DOUG LAMBORN
Mr. LAMBORN. Mr. Chairman, thank you for yielding.
I am pleased to have this opportunity for a collective discussion on the Department of Veterans Affairs outreach efforts. I believe the VA is doing a much better job of reaching Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF) veterans now than it was at the beginning of the Global War on Terror. This is a commendable development, and I hope that a comparable improvement can be achieved in VA's effort to reach older veterans. Veterans cannot obtain the benefits they have earned if they don't know they are eligible to receive them.
I am concerned that despite millions of dollars spent on outreach every year, we have not effectively reached many veterans of earlier conflicts. It is for this reason I was proud to join with my colleagues in supporting H.R. 3681, the "Veterans Benefits Awareness Act of 2007," which passed the full House this week.
This measure, introduced by my good friend and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, John Boozman of Arkansas, authorizes the VA to conduct national advertising campaigns for benefits outreach.
I believe that with the enactment of this bill and help from groups like the Ad Council, VA will be able to create public service announcements that will provide effective outreach for all veterans.
The Department of Defense spends billions each year on recruitment ads, and I believe if VA spent just a fraction of this amount, it would be very effective for outreach purpose.
Mr. Chairman, I would also like to recognize and thank veterans service organizations for their outreach efforts to veterans, and I encourage them to continue their excellent work.
I look forward to our witnesses' testimony and a productive discussion on ways to improve VA outreach.
I yield back the balance of my time.
[The statement of Congressman Lamborn appears in the Appendix.]
Mr. HALL. Thank you, Mr. Lamborn, and thank you for mentioning Mr. Boozman, who was the originator of the bill that we passed this week.
I would like to remind the panelists that your complete written statements have been made a part of the hearing record so you can limit your remarks to five minutes each. We have the clock system here. That way we will have sufficient time for follow-up questions once everybody has provided their testimony.
Now I recognize Mr. Hare so he may introduce our first panelist.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. PHIL HARE
Mr. HARE. Thank you, Chairman Hall.
Mr. Chairman, today I have the privilege and the honor of introducing one of the members of our first panel, the Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs (IDVA), Tammy Duckworth.
Director Duckworth was appointed to the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs by Governor Rob Blagojevich on November 1, 2006, and has brought a high level of leadership, dedication and ingenuity to the IDVA ever since her appointment.
Along with Governor Blagojevich, Director Duckworth worked tirelessly to help establish the Illinois Warrior Assistance Program. This first-in-the-Nation program requires that all returning Illinois National Guard members are screened for traumatic brain injuries, also known as TBIs, while offering other Illinois veterans that same opportunity.
It also created a 24-hour toll-free psychological help line for veterans suffering from symptoms associated with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
As a member of the military, Director Duckworth is currently a Major with the Illinois National Guard. She served in Iraq as the Battle Captain and Assistant Operations Officer for a 500-soldier aviation task force and flew combat missions as a Black Hawk pilot.
On November 12, 2004, Duckworth was co-piloting a Black Hawk helicopter north of Baghdad when a rocket-propelled grenade struck the cockpit of the aircraft and exploded. Director Duckworth lost her right leg and most of her left as a result of the attack.
Director Duckworth has received the Purple Heart, the Air Medal, along with other decorations, citations, and badges.
Director Duckworth speaks four languages. I have trouble speaking English. She has a BA in political science from the University of Hawaii and an MA from the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs.
I am pleased and honored to have her testify today on the importance of veterans outreach programs.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. HALL. Thank you, Mr. Hare, and welcome, Director Duckworth, and thank you for your service to our country and veterans.
Joining you on the first panel is Ms. Darlene McMartin, President of the National Association of County Veteran Service Officers; Rick Jones, Legislative Director of the National Association for Uniformed Services (NAUS); and Kathryn Witt, member of Gold Star Wives (GSW). Welcome all.
Director Duckworth, you are recognized for five minutes.
STATEMENTS OF TAMMY DUCKWORTH, DIRECTOR, ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS, AND MEMBER, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF STATE DIRECTORS OF VETERANS AFFAIRS; DARLENE MCMARTIN, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COUNTY VETERANS SERVICE OFFICERS; RICHARD A. "RICK" JONES, LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR UNIFORMED SERVICES; AND KATHRYN A. WITT, MEMBER, GOVERNMENT RELATIONS COMMITTEE, GOLD STAR WIVES OF AMERICA, INC.
Ms. DUCKWORTH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Lamborn and Congressman Hare. I would like to thank the Subcommittee for holding this hearing today and providing the opportunity to testify on this extremely important issue.
I am here on behalf of the National Association of State Directors of Veterans Affairs, of which I am a member. Each year, State governments spend more than $4 billion to support our Nation's veterans and their families. In Army terms, we are a force multiplier for the Federal VA. Collectively, we are second only to the Federal Department of Veterans Affairs in providing benefits and services to the men and women who defended our Nation.
Although each State is unique with its own traditions, programs and resources, we are united by our common goal to make a difference in the lives of ours veterans.
We all know that at this point in the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is a need to increase awareness among veterans about the benefits that are available to them. These are benefits that they have rightfully earned and deserve. We need to use every tool possible to ensure that they know about what benefits are available to them and their family members. Outreach is absolutely the key, especially with returning veterans of OIF and OEF. Educating them about their benefits through outreach and reaching them right now is essential to their future well-being.
As the Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, I can assure you that we are in dire need of additional resources at the State level to reach the new generation of veterans who are coming home, and to maintain communications with previous generations, specifically our aging Vietnam veterans who are retiring or reaching retirement age and have increased healthcare needs, many of whom are turning to the VA for the first time in 35 years.
Most of the States have the capability and infrastructure to increase outreach but need the resources to do it. The members of the National Association of State Directors of Veterans Affairs would like Congress to pass a Federal grant program to provide outreach to veterans regarding the available benefits.
Let me explain how this would work. In Illinois, Governor Blagojevich responded to the increased needs of our veterans by actually more than doubling the number of our veterans service officers. We now have 73 veterans service officers in 51 offices across the State of Illinois. These are all State of Illinois employees. They are trained and certified by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to assist veterans, their families and their survivors in completing applications for both State and Federal benefits.
These service officers are part of the communities, and have lived in those communities and they have the ability to reach veterans in a way that the Federal Government cannot. They also work very closely with the county Veterans Assistance Commission, and together we form a partnership in researching not just Federal, but State and sometimes municipal benefits as well.
Increased funding for outreach through the States would give veterans an opportunity to find out about and take advantage of both their State and Federal benefits after they have made it home.
You know when I was in Iraq and when we received our briefings prior to being sent home, a lot of times your spouse is sitting in the parking lot with the engine of the car running as you are getting your TAP briefing, and our servicemen and women just want to hop in the car and go home. They are not paying that much attention, and it is important to get back to them 45 days later after they have had time to reconnect with their wives and their family. It is really important that maybe six months, maybe a year later, when they start to show some symptoms, to let them know of these benefits.
At this point in time they are out of the reach of the Federal VA and the DoD. Many of them are going home to small towns, population 2,000, places like Anna, Illinois, El Paso, Illinois, you have similar towns in your own States, and that is why as a State entity we, living in these States, have that unique ability to reach out and provide services to veterans in their local communities.
We also firmly believe that when a servicemember returns home from Iraq and Afghanistan, they need that extra time to reintegrate into their community, which is why Governor Blagojevich, at the 45-day mark, after our National Guard has come off of Federal order, he then uses Executive Order and has made the PTSD and TBI counseling mandatory for all Illinois National Guardsmen. It is an example of a way we are delivering services to our servicemembers.
Unfortunately, we don't have similar access to the active-duty forces. As a matter of fact, we don't get any information from the Federal VA or the DoD when a servicemember leaves active duty and comes home.
When a young man from El Paso, Illinois, joins the Army, enlists, goes off, he does his tour, he comes home and nobody tells me that he is coming home, and the first time I hear about it is oftentimes from the State police because he has been self-medicating and has been drinking because he is trying to deal with his PTSD and ends up with a DUI.
The first call I get should not be from the State police. The first call I should get should be from the VA or the DoD. We are inspected by the Federal VA. We are certified by the Federal VA, and we have information agreements. We need to know when our servicemembers are coming home to Illinois so that we can deliver the services that they deserve.
Thank you.
[The statement of Ms. Duckworth appears in the Appendix.]
Mr. HALL. Ms. McMartin?
Ms. MCMARTIN. Chairman Hall, Members of the Subcommittee, it is truly my honor to be able to present this testimony to you. As President of the National Association of County Veteran Service Officers, I am commenting on the National Association's views on the effectiveness of the Veterans Benefits Administration outreach efforts.
The National Association of County Veteran Service Officers is an organization of local government employees. Our members are tasked with assisting veterans in developing and processing their claims. A large percentage of the claims presented to the Veterans Administration each year originate in a county veterans service office.
Each day our members sit across from those men and women who wish to file a claim for benefits. They are our friends, our neighbors, they are members of our community, with whom we see often daily.
We exist to serve the veterans and partner with national service organizations and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Our association focuses on outreach, standardized quality training, claims development, and advocacy. We are an extension or arm of government, not unlike the VA itself in service to the Nation's veterans and their dependents.
In this changing world, there is a need for multiple approaches to outreach. Today we have our Nation's veterans of World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and those just returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Veterans Benefits Administration has a monumental task of reaching each of those veterans and making sure they understand the benefits available to them. In the realm of veterans outreach improvements, there is a clear need that the veterans being discharged from active duty, especially during a time of war, have access to information concerning veterans' benefits entitlement.
Often, to reiterate what Ms. Duckworth said, often the veterans are just glad to be going home and they are not concerned about what benefits may be available to them. The National Association of County Veterans Service Officers proposes a partnership of the local county veterans service officers, VA, DoD, to reach out and assist returning veterans in their local areas.
A first step would be to provide county veterans service officers a copy of the DD-214 and adding to that DD-214 a section where it has the veteran's cell phone number and the mailing address. This would provide the county veterans service officer a ready tool for reaching out to the veteran.
Additionally, the National Association subscribes to Chairman Filner's solution to the problem of veteran suicide that requires the military to use qualified psychiatrists to interview every member before separation and determine who is in need of treatment while still on active duty. It has merit and is probably the only way to reach every soldier being discharged.
Additionally, we believe that anyone found to be suicidal should be retained and retransferred to the VA for treatment, just as a soldier with a seriously physical injury is being taken care of. Those who are in need of treatment for less serious diagnosis should be given a fee-basis card for use in the local community with a five-year renewal with VA approval.
These veterans live 60, 70 miles away from a VA facility, and it is very difficult for them to get into a VA hospital without having transportation, and the cost of gas right now makes it very difficult for them to get to a VA hospital.
Across the Nation there are veterans who still do not think they are a veteran because they didn't lose a limb or they didn't get injured in any way. They came home and started to work to support their families. They have never looked for any help from the government. When the veteran dies, their family still does not know that they are entitled to benefits just because their husband or father served this country.
These are people that need outreach. They are mostly lower income, have never heard or reached out to the VA, and therefore, don't think they are entitled to this help.
I look at rural and urban America and see the great need to make these veterans aware of the benefits that they deserve. They earned entitlement, not welfare. These veterans have never made use of the VA Medical Centers, the GI bill, home loans, pensions or compensation benefits. They just served our country and they come home.
It is so rewarding when we meet one of these veterans and tell them that they may be entitled, and see hope on their faces. It sometimes means the difference between eating or buying medicine. I am sure if a study was completed you would see a large number of these rural veterans have never used the VA for any services, and they didn't know they could.
It is our responsibility to make sure that each of these veterans are getting their benefits. We do outreach to veterans and widows in nursing facilities, and everything we possibly can as a county office. In the State of Iowa, we just instituted legislation to where they are giving $10,000 to every county veterans service office, mandating that 99 counties will have funds from the State to do outreach services. So in Iowa next year in 2009, there will be 99 county veterans service officers available and ready, and there are several more. We have thousands of them ready and willing to help with outreach benefits to our Nation's veterans.
Thank you.
[The statement of Ms. McMartin appears in the Appendix.]
Mr. HALL. Thank you, Ms. McMartin.
Mr. Jones, you are now recognized for five minutes.
STATEMENT OF RICHARD A. "RICK" JONES
Mr. JONES. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Lamborn, Mr. Hare, as we head toward Memorial Day, your Subcommittee takes a good and very well traveled road. It is critically important that our young men and women who defend us know what our great and generous country provides them following their service.
Regarding VA outreach, it is clear to us that veterans are generally more aware about the availability of services today than they were say 4 or 6 years ago. Not everything of course is perfect and we can do better, but things are improved.
Let me give you a quick comparative analysis.
Six years ago, for instance, the administration was deeply opposed to spending resources aimed at making veterans aware of the benefits and services, and facilities were in decline. At one point in that past period we had a Secretary of Veterans Affairs who told the Nation, told Congress that the Department was fully budgeted, needed not one penny more. Only months following that announcement was the revelation of a $1.5 billion shortfall in VA resources needed to provide those benefits to veterans.
And prior to that revelation, our association and many other associations had pleaded with Congress for adequate funding, and told them if we did not have funding addressed, there would be cuts in services and healthcare, in education benefits, backlogs and claims, and all of these sorts of problems we face today.
During that period, things were in fact so bad that there was a memorandum sent out by the Deputy Under Secretary for Operations and Management, this was in July of 2002, that actually directed all of its healthcare providers to stop marketing VA programs to veterans. Basically the July 2002 memo said too many veterans were coming in for services and the VA was spending too much money. It directed VA officials across the country to stop outreach to veterans. VA employees were directed to stop participating in health fairs and standdowns and related outreach projects all across the country. Medical facilities were prohibited even from putting out newsletters informing veterans about the services that they were legally entitled to receive.
We are thankful that we no longer face that deeply troubling period. If such heartless, shameful, incompetence were in place today, our OEF/OIF folks would struggle virtually alone because we have a couple of reports that indicate a great number of folks face enormous stress, personal stress from their experiences in combat.
The Defense Department shows that more than 1 in 4 of its commissioned officers on their third or fourth tour have symptoms commonly referred to as PTSD. That figure is of course higher than the roughly 12 percent who show those same symptoms after one tour and the 18.5 percent who show it after their second tour.
Another recent report, this one from RAND, shows that almost half of those returning troops, who number nearly 500,000, both reserve and active duty, will not seek treatment. Many of these veterans simply believe they are not at risk. They fear that the mental situation might be stigmatizing.
We need to assure these folks that the VA is open and accessible for their benefit, and it is available. If not addressed, these symptoms can compound and the costs will be greater.
Secretary Peake's recent announcement on outreach presents an opportunity for veterans to become more aware of VA's accessibility and in some cases these outreach efforts can be a matter of life and death for a veteran.
They need to hear not only that the system is open and available to them, they need to hear that the system can tackle their stress.
And believe me, we remain attentive that these most recent efforts, as optimistic as they are, actually take root. We have concerns, because residue from the previous attitude remains within the system. Take, for example, reports out of Temple, Texas, just a week or so ago that remind us that sometimes the cost of care takes precedence over the care of our greatest asset, the men and women who serve to protect us.
There was an e-mail that simply said we need to have less time taken to examine these veterans coming in for PTSD exams and to give them less of an effort because it costs too much money-and takes too much time.
We are very fortunate to have the Secretary come out and repudiate that e-mail and do it immediately and indicate that is just one small e-mail that doesn't show the system-wide efforts to serve our veterans.
Mr. Chairman, I thank you very much for this opportunity. Hopefully we have reached a turning point, and we appreciate your overview of this operation.
[The statement of Mr. Jones appears in the Appendix.]
Mr. HALL. Thank you, Mr. Jones. I too was glad to see Mr. Peake repudiate that e-mail in the strongest possible terms.
Next is Mrs. Kathryn Witt from Gold Star Wives.
Ms. WITT. Thank you for allowing me to testify today. Most of my testimony was about a survivor's office and the need for a survivor's office, but you have already addressed that and said you have drafted legislation on the issue. So I will just skip over that.
The one thing I would like to mention is that the Army has an excellent long-term family care office, and that would make a great model for a VA survivors office. We would like to see our national service officers trained by the VA in survivor affairs, have a specific module of their training on survivor benefits.
We would also like to see that training available to the survivor representatives of other veterans organizations, including GSW.
We have had some problems. There is a rather obscure benefit where a lot of the survivors of veterans, as opposed to those killed on active duty or are in retired status, are entitled to military ID cards. It seems to me to be obscure and very hard to get the information on this. You have to have a letter from the VA, and they are not always aware that this benefit is available or what the person is talking about. And then you go to the military service, the ID card lab, and they don't quite know what to do with it. We would like to see some outreach on that and some clarification.
Another thing we would like to see some outreach and clarification on is the State property tax exemptions. It is very difficult to find information about these property tax exemptions and reductions. Some of the ladies receive a letter from the VA, and they don't even know why they are receiving this. It is a VA Form 2. Others can't find anybody that knows what they are talking about. It seems to depend on the State. Some of these are substantial reductions and very important. It seems to depend on the State that the VA is located in. It is the Federal VA that is sending these letters out, and then in some States they don't even seem to know what it is all about.
We would also like to see an online newsletter perhaps e-mailed out specifically to survivors that could include any new programs, discuss old benefits. You have a recurring cycle of people needing to understand what their benefits are and how they obtain them.
I would like to see an online newsletter on the VA Web site e-mailed out encouraging people to forward it. I think that would probably reach a whole lot of people.
I think we have made a whole lot of improvements in outreach, and thank you for letting me testify.
[The statement of Ms. Witt appears in the Appendix.]
Mr. HALL. Thank you very much, Mrs. Witt, and all our witnesses.
I will recognize myself now for five minutes or so.
Director Duckworth, in your testimony you suggested that the VA or DoD notify the States when a veteran returns to his or her home of record, but the Joint Executive Committee reported that it began a State Seamless Transition Initiative in 2007, and now 43 States and Territories have asked to be notified of returning servicemembers. Is the association aware of this initiative and why have not all of the States asked to participate?
Ms. DUCKWORTH. Yes, we are aware. Illinois has signed up for it, and we have received seven notices, and that is it. We have been told about seven veterans. The way that the procedure works, and there are two procedures, one with the VA and one with the DoD. When the servicemember leaves the VA and they are injured, such as myself, you are then told, Would you like your information to be released to your State? You have to actually say "yes" and fill out a form that gets faxed to the State.
That is the Seamless Transition Initiative. It is very cumbersome, it doesn't happen, and it only applies to those who are severely injured, like myself, who are actually some place in the VA system upon their discharge.
Illinois has received seven faxes.
Mr. HALL. That would be seven out of how many veterans returning?
Ms. DUCKWORTH. Tens of thousands.
The other aspect is the DD-214. When a servicemember leaves active duty, at the very bottom of the form they are given the option, would you like this sent to your State. When the servicemember takes the time to sign that, we get that. But most servicemembers are not told why it is important for them to do that, and the additional benefits they will be able to find out about. We get about 15 percent of the total number of servicemembers. So we do not get the information, and we cannot get to the veterans.
Mr. HALL. The VA and the DoD have worked together with the National Guard Bureau to create 57 Transition Assistant Advisors in the last 2 years. Feedback on the TAA seems to be positive. Why can't these positions be utilized instead of creating another grant program for the States?
Ms. DUCKWORTH. The difference between what happens with the National Guard, you are talking about one or two positions at the National Guard Bureau. I have 73 service officers, and we have all of the county service officers.
The difference is we will go to someone's home and sit at their kitchen table. I have sent my service officers into hospital rooms for Vietnam veterans dying from leukemia from Agent Orange to fill out forms so that the survivor, his wife, will get the benefits. That is the difference.
These folks are dealing with so many people they cannot provide that personalized service that we can from the State level and the county level. We actually will go and follow up and keep calling you until you get the benefits that you deserve. And we are Federally certified.
Mr. HALL. Thank you for that explanation and for the work that you do.
Ms. McMartin, you mentioned a proposed partnership between your organization and VA and DoD. What has been the response from the Departments to this proposal?
Ms. MCMARTIN. Basically what we have gotten, several of our service organizations are also certified. We have gone through the accreditation process, the TRIP training. We actually have access to virtual VA on a pilot program so we can get into the computer system to know. So we have had some good positive. It is only a pilot program, it is not out to all of our members.
They don't recognize us as an arm of government. We still have to do power of attorneys (POAs) and we still have to do all of the steps to make sure that we can get the benefits for the veterans. The veteran can't sign a release and we can't assist the veteran without that power of attorney that is necessary.
But we are out there with the veteran trying to help them, and we still have another barrier that is very difficult to get through. We have to call the 800 number just like every veteran to get the information.
So when the veteran comes in and he is 80 years old and we are trying to call an 800 number for them, we are still bound by the same unfortunate problems that they have. Virtual VA has helped that. We can go in and access the information if the file has already been generated or information is already in.
But a new claim that is just processing and going through, it is difficult to get the discharge from the State office. We have to call them. If they don't have it, we send down to St. Louis to try to get their DD-214s. Older veterans are being billed to get a copy of their DD-214. We received a copy. We sent down to St. Louis to get a copy of his DD-214 for an 80-year-old veteran. He received a statement stating he had to pay $15 to get that because it has been archived. So that is a barrier.
Mr. HALL. That is a shame and a mistake that perhaps we can do something about.
Rural veterans have been a concern of this Subcommittee for some time, and although most people might not think of New York State as rural, I know that we do have sections of the State that are, and where we have a challenge in reaching all of our veterans. I am curious what are some of the outreach tools the counties have found to be effective to inform rural veterans about their benefits?
Ms. MCMARTIN. Well, you are talking to a good person. I live in Iowa in a rural community. I have a population of 200 people that live in my community where I live. We are 50 to 60 miles from the closest VA facility. My county is 45 miles long, so what we have done is I have an outreach office out in the rural part of my community so the veterans can come into that office one day out of the week.
I also do outreach to nursing facilities. We have seven nursing facilities in our community, and we contact those facilities on a daily basis as to new admits, new discharges, to make sure that every widow and veteran that is going into a nursing facility or an assisted-living facility is given a call, a letter, contacting the family member to apply for those benefits.
We assist with supermarkets of veterans benefits out in a lot of our areas to make sure that certain populations of veterans can go in. We go where the veterans live. If a veteran calls, we go out to that community.
You were talking about the National Guard. They have that one individual. Well, we have 99 individuals that can help. We live with those veterans. We know them. They are our neighbors. We know when somebody gets sick. They call me at home when someone in our community is ill and needs to use a VA facility. We partner and work together. We know the resources.
That is the other thing. We know what other resources are out there in the communities. We know what the Department of Health and Human Services offers and what Community Action Agency offers. Those partnerships in doing outreach with those, we go to those meetings and we go to the service organization meetings. That is what local community advocacy is all about. We can sit down with that veteran across the table at their table, at their convenience, not at ours, and we are accessible to them.
Mr. HALL. Thank you. And thank you for the work that you are doing.
Mr. Jones, you make an interesting comparison to the healthcare outreach efforts conducted by VHA, and pointed out the horribly misguided steps some VA employees took to try to limit services when the system became overloaded. What does NAUS see as the lesson learned from the VHA outreach experience, and how can the VBA be better positioned to respond to an increase in workload demand?
Mr. JONES. One might ascribe VA's change in attitude as simply a change in attitude, but that might not reach the real reason for VA's changed approach toward outreach. It might really be more a factor of a successful lawsuit brought against the VA some years ago, and that lawsuit was initiated on two fronts, one by a former Member of Congress, currently Governor of Ohio, Ted Strickland, and also a sister organization of ours, the Vietnam Veterans of America brought lawsuit following that memo I spoke of in testimony. They were successful in that suit and the court ordered VA to begin this outreach.
So what might be learned is that veterans need always to be on guard for the rights and privileges and entitlements they earned while defending this country. And that advocacy groups in this State of affairs need always to be on the alert as well to guard against any retreat of these benefits due to a loss of funds or a lessening of priority.
I think that is the lesson to be learned. Advocacy groups play an important role, and serve an important role with Members of Congress who champion veterans issues and understand that the freedoms we have today are directly a result of service given by generations of Americans.
Mr. HALL. Thank you, Mr. Jones. I am going to ask one question of Mrs. Witt before turning it over to the Ranking Member Mr. Lamborn for his questions.
I am interested in your suggestion for a VA survivor newsletter. Has the Gold Star Wives made that suggestion to VA previously?
Ms. WITT. No, they have not made it to the VA previously.
Mr. HALL. Do you have any idea how far into the survivor community an electronic or e-mail newsletter would work? In some of the meetings I have had with veterans in my district, some of the older veterans or survivors of veterans are not as computer literate or don't have a computer that they have access to.
Ms. WITT. I think it would go pretty deeply into our GSW community, and they tend to pass it on to other survivor communities.
Many, many of our ladies can receive e-mail. Some of them can't respond to it, but they can receive it. And they tend to share the information by telephone. So I think it would penetrate very well.
Mr. HALL. Good, and I am glad to hear that. Of course they can print it out and pass it on in printed form, and maybe the Web site could suggest that. If you know someone who doesn't have a computer and needs this information, please print it out and pass it on.
I recognize the Ranking Member, Mr. Lamborn.
Mr. LAMBORN. Ms. Duckworth, and thank you and all of you for testifying today.
How much do your current veterans service officers spend on outreach?
Ms. DUCKWORTH. It is their everyday job, sir. We actually have itinerant offices. In each of our 51 field offices, we man office hours. But all of our service officers spend at least some part of every day going to a community, visiting people's homes, or actually holding similar things, benefit fairs. We are everywhere.
That is the benefit of going down to the State and county level, is, as I said before, we are force multiplier and we know about their State benefits. We are part of those communities. We are not being resourced by the Federal VA. They are not giving us information we need so we can conduct the outreach. We do outreach on a mass basis, but we can't actually pick up the phone and call a recently discharged soldier because we don't know that he has come home. Nobody tells us. The DoD just gives him a plane ticket home, and nobody tells us that he has come home.
The first call should not be when the State police calls me and says I have one of yours. He has a DUI. Or when a sister agency, a homeless shelter calls me and says, hey, we have a guy. We can't do the person-to-person outreach, which we want to do and can do.
Mr. LAMBORN. Kind of a follow-up, if additional funding was provided to States for veteran outreach, how would the States use this funding and what type of outreach would they provide to veterans that the VA is not currently doing?
Ms. DUCKWORTH. Definitely more staff so we can do more in-home visits and hospital visits, actually getting out into people's homes, especially with the case of the younger veterans, sir. Many of them do not think that they need these benefits or don't know about them, and so they don't initiate.
The way the system works now, if they initiate and contact us, then we can tell them about the benefits. But if they don't know about them, we can't help them. If they don't apply, we can't help them. So additional funding would actually allow us to visit the veterans, pick up the phone and call them. It would allow us to go into their homes and get even deeper into the community and follow up on a repeated basis.
Even though we have 73 service officers, it is still not enough when I have 1.2 million veterans.
Mr. LAMBORN. They are doing that right now?
Ms. DUCKWORTH. We are doing that to the best of our ability.
Mr. LAMBORN. So it would be more quantity, but not any qualitative difference?
Ms. DUCKWORTH. The quality would be more one on one, actually going into their homes. Right now we run offices and visit homes when we get the request. But this would actually allow us to penetrate even deeper and do more of the bringing ourselves more into the local communities than just the offices in that community.
Mr. LAMBORN. Ms. McMartin, if additional funding was provided to counties for veterans outreach, how would they use that funding and what would they do differently compared to what the VA is doing now?
Ms. MCMARTIN. Currently now a lot of our counties have limited budgets. Word of mouth is our outreach. We go to the service organization meetings and do those. The funding that we would get to do outreach would be to have, to host more veteran fairs, host more PSA news releases, news articles, the funding that the counties can't afford to do at this point in time.
In my local community if I got a grant, $1 per veteran, I can send out flyers on a monthly basis to the veterans in the community.
We can host different programs that are at nursing facilities. We do these things, but we can do these with funding. Right now we are doing them on such bare bone funds that our funds are paying for the staff. It is not for a billboard. It is not for PSAs. Those things when we get funds coming in from an organization or donated, then we can do those outreach efforts.
But right now the counties don't need to—like you said, quantity, we need quality. We need quality outreach efforts. Plus we need the referrals from the VA. If we don't get the referrals from the VA, piggybacking on them. If we can get a DD-214 that knows that veteran is coming home, we can send him a welcome-home letter.
It is so disheartening to have a veteran come into my office and say I didn't know you were here. We do news releases. We do those things that our newspapers give, but it is disheartening to not get that information out into the community. And we would try and get as much information out there as we possibly can.
If the VA has this money now to do outreach, the referral down to the local level is very important. Just putting out an 800 number is not outreach. Putting out a flyer saying you are eligible, you have got to know where to go to get the assistance. And telling them that they can go to the State or local offices, that is very important.
Mr. LAMBORN. With the permission of the Chairman, one more question.
Along those lines, how much time do county veterans service officers spend on outreach right now, and what types of outreach do they provide currently?
Ms. MCMARTIN. Right now we spend, like she said, it is our day-to-day job. When they don't walk in, we seek them out. We try to find a way of doing that.
In Iowa, our Governor just passed a bill to mandate 20 hours a week in every county employee. No matter if they have a thousand or 500 veterans, a minimum of 20 hours, and it is based on population. So outreach is very important.
What we do on a day-to-day basis is outreach. It is calling different organizations, finding out what services that we can provide, sending out flyers or putting up things in newspapers or going to the local libraries to tell them that we are available and ready.
We don't have time to go out to every organization meeting, but we could. I mean, with additional funding to assist with that, then we could go out and just meet the veterans when they come home. The active-duty soldier that comes back to my local community I don't know until they need us. They don't automatically come into the office.
If DoD would say you need to go see a local county service officer and there was one available in every county, that would help.
Record their DD-214. We get referrals on a database. The recorder sends them over to our office to see if they might be eligible for benefits. That also piggybacks on military tax exemption to make sure that they apply for all benefits that they are entitled to.
Mr. LAMBORN. Thank you for your answer, and I thank you all again for testifying today.
Mr. HALL. I have a couple of quick questions.
Director Duckworth, what would you think of having more VA benefits counselors located throughout the State, such as co-located in Community-Based Outpatient Clinics, or CBOCs, or at Vet Centers, for example? And in addition to that, what would you think of extended hours or weekend hours like a Medical Center at such places?
Ms. DUCKWORTH. I think t
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