Thank you, Mr. Chairman.  

Public Law 110-389, the Veterans’ Benefits Improvement Act, was a wide-sweeping move toward improving what is often a frustrating process for our nation’s veterans in receiving well-deserved benefits from VA.  Many members are still here on the committee and share a common interest in seeing that Congress’s intent, as voted upon and signed into law by the President, is carried out.

While VA may not intentionally try to make the claims process difficult, every member of this committee has constituents who have experienced trouble receiving their benefits.  Among the concerns of this committee was the nationwide perception that veterans in different parts of the country were receiving different compensation for the same disability.  The fact that this concern could even arise should warrant immediate action by VA, and shouldn’t rely on Congress to step in.  

Another concern was how to expedite fully-processed claims.  I think we can all agree that the entire scope of this bill has an impact for veterans across the country, and the implementation is important to us all, not just because it was passed by this committee, the full Congress, and signed into law, but also because it is important to the veterans themselves.   

Unfortunately, not all of the deadlines established have been met, and I hope that we can learn the full reasons for this today as well as what is being done to address those shortfalls.  I am pleased to see that certain sections that were implemented, such as the Office of Survivors Assistance.  The support of servicemembers’ families is vitally important, and we must never forget to include them in our efforts.   

I look forward to today’s testimony on the implementation of Public Law 110-389, and yield back my time.