Good Afternoon:

I would ask everyone to rise for the Pledge of Allegiance – flags are located in the front and in the rear of the room.

The last few months we have had a series of hearings on the VA claims processing system, which resulted in the Full Committee passing the Veterans Disability Benefits Claims Modernization Act of 2008, HR 5892.  I have been very pleased with the bill’s progress and am grateful that we have 30 cosponsors already. 

However, during the course of those hearings, I often heard words like “confusing,” “misinformed,” “stigmatizing,” and “overwhelmed” to describe how 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 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 may know, the House recently passed the Veterans’ Benefits Awareness Act of 2007, H.R. 3681, which authorizes VA to advertise.  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 also 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 the VBA’s outreach efforts, and asked staff to further investigate.  During that process, it became evident that there were a lot of inconsistencies and gaps in how VA is informing the public about its benefits and services. 

Staff found it difficult to readily ascertain what – in fact – official VA information was, and what was incorrect.  Even with all of the joint councils between VA and DoD, there is no clear ability to correctly find VA through DoD sources.  For example, DoD has three website that offer service members transition assistance, but none that connects with VA and when calling the DoD Military OneSource toll free line, the operator gives the incorrect call line for VBA. It took 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, and worst of all, unassisted?  

Veteran Service Organizations and other nonprofit, which are doing their best to assist veterans, families, and survivors, are left on their own to create veterans’ benefits messages and lines of assistance, which sometimes link to VA, but often do not.  I believe its VA’s responsibility to create promotional and educational materials that these organizations could use, so that VA is readily recognizable and available no matter how the veteran finds it.  

There have also 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 service members, 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 that not everyone eligible attends.  DoD, in turn, has been reluctant to mandate TAP because it does not control all of the resources. VA representatives have been known to not show up for their portion of the briefing.  TAP and the Benefits Delivery at Discharge program are not as readily available to the National Guard, Reserves, or Medical Hold patients. VA dismantled its Office of Seamless Transition and replaced it with Federal Recovery Care Coordinators who primarily operate out of VHA, not VBA. VA began a Call Center program to contact veterans about their benefits, but only after suicide rates became known.  It seems clear that VA needs a more proactive outreach approach. 

Each area of the country has its own unique challenges in meeting its populations’ needs.  That is why I am glad that we have veteran service organizations and state and county representatives with us today who can address the issues associated with reaching rural or urban communities, women and minorities, younger and older veterans, or those living in impoverished conditions. I look forward to their testimony and 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 teach us that "Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires", how to "Take A Bite out of Crime," and that "Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk".  Interestingly, their genesis was with the War Department, which immortalized Rosie the Riveter and warned, “Lose lips sink ships.” Currently, they are working on PSAs with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

Furthermore, family members, caregivers, and survivors new to VA’s lingo, jargon, and acronyms, need materials and briefings that are user-friendly with personnel dedicated to assisting them.  On April 24th, I held a roundtable discussion with organizations that assist survivors. They brought the need for a VA Survivor Affairs Office to my attention.  So, I have developed a draft bill that would create such an office and will be asking the organizations for their feedback shortly. 

Finally, I am hopeful that the Departments will be able to provide insights regarding their joint efforts and cooperation with each other to provide materials, briefings, and Internet and telephonic assistance that is accurate, consistent, and readily available.  Web links are simple - it is shameful that such an obvious outreach tool has eluded the Departments and needs congressional oversight.     

Bringing our men and women home is a responsibility that we all share.  It is great to see the efforts being made by the communities all around this nation to support our veterans, especially those with disabling conditions. However, these efforts should be augmentations to the ones being provided by the Departments.  I hope the message VA gets today is how to do better messaging – to create outreach materials, announcements, web resources and briefings that are tailored to its different audiences and can talk to veterans, families and survivors in clear, simple language that will make them see VA as a user-friendly resources and truly there for their benefit.