Thank you Mr. Chairman for yielding.

I look forward to hearing our witnesses’ testimony and I am pleased to have this opportunity for a collective discussion on the Department of Veterans Affairs’, Schedule for Rating Disabilities.

The VA Rating Schedule provides the basis for determining the level of compensation that is appropriate for veterans’ disabilities. 

It is a complex schedule that is unparalleled by any other disability benefits system.

The schedule is complex, because the human body is complex.

It may seem a paradox that the complexity of the rating schedule favors veterans, but this is due to the fact that each rating is as specific to individual injuries as possible.

The result is more than 700 diagnostic codes that pertain to each body system.

While the VA has made adjustments over the course of many decades, it is still obviously important that this Committee confer with VA and its stakeholders to ensure that the rating schedule is as accurate and up-to-date as possible.

Veterans must be assured that the compensation they receive for disabilities is based on information that is both credible and fair.

Recent Congressional and Administrative Commissions have questioned the validity of the rating schedule in as much as it is unclear how well quality-of-life and loss-of-earnings are taken into consideration.

Perhaps further study is needed to analyze these points, and also to look at the rating schedule from a contemporary perspective with regard to today’s job market.

I want to make clear; the purpose in doing such a study is to ensure veterans are justly compensated for their sacrifices.

I have read the statements that have been submitted, and I understand veterans’ service organizations have rightly expressed concern that the schedule should not be subject to arbitrary tampering.

I commend VSOs for their protective posture regarding veterans’ disability compensation, and want to emphasize that their stance is precisely why we need them to be active participants in any effort to examine and update the schedule.

Mr. Chairman, I thank you for yielding, and I look forward to working with you on this issue in the favorable, bipartisan manner we have established on this Subcommittee.

I yield back.