Good afternoon Madam Chairwoman.

I believe we were here about 2 years ago and I remember the warm hospitality extended to me by the citizens of South Dakota and I greatly appreciate that.

I would like to announce that your Congresswoman did such a good job as my Ranking Member during the 109th Congress that I thought she should get a chance to be the Chairwoman during the 110th Congress.  I need to start negotiating with her to get my old job back.

We are here to hear from South Dakotans about their experiences with the Transition Assistance Program or TAP.  TAP is designed to provide servicemembers with the basic skills and knowledge to reenter the civilian world.  As such, TAP appears to have mixed results.

It is a success because the information being put out touches a wide variety of topics of importance to those leaving military service.  Unfortunately, a significant portion of servicemembers either choose not to attend or are not allowed to attend TAP training.

According to a July 17, 2008 audit by the VA Inspector General titled Veterans Benefits Administration Transition Assistance for Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom Service Members and Veterans, in 2006 and 2007, only 43 percent and 47 percent of OEF/OIF servicemembers participated in TAP, falling short of VBA’s goal of 53 percent.  Clearly VBA needs to do a much better job in reaching out to veterans.

I am also very disturbed that the same Inspector General report shows that the highly touted Benefits Delivery at Discharge or BDD program is not meeting its goal to process benefit claims for severely wounded OEF/OIF veterans within 30 days.  The IG noted that of the nearly 5,000 claims received by Regional Offices, only 24 percent were processed within 30 days.  The other 76 percent of claims averaged 114 days with some taking as long as 504 days.

Madame Chairwoman, while oversight of the basic claims processing system falls outside of our subcommittee, its performance certainly delays a disabled veterans’ ability to access programs within our jurisdiction such as vocational rehabilitation benefits and specially adapted housing benefits.  These two programs alone are essential to a smooth transition to civilian life for disabled veterans. 

With most locations providing TAP over a two and a half day period, members are literally deluged with information and if they don’t pay attention, they will likely miss something important.

Members of the National Guard and Reserves pose a special challenge because of the dispersed nature of their duty stations.  In my mind, we need to do a better job preparing members of the Guard and Reserves, especially those who own businesses, prior to deployment.  When those members return, we need to ensure they have full access to all benefits and programs for which they are eligible.

Finally, many of those leaving military service will enter school or training programs under the GI Bill.  I’m sure that most service members are aware that Congress passed and the President signed into law a new, much more generous GI Bill education and training benefit.  I want to recognize your efforts to improve education benefits by introducing and passing H.R. 5684, a greatly improved education benefit that I believe was superior in many ways to the new GI Bill program now signed into law.  It did not make the final cut, but it was a great bill.

Madame Chairwoman, you have brought us an excellent group of witnesses, even a husband a wife team and I am eager to hear from them.