Good Afternoon.

Would everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance?

Flags are located at the front and back of the room.

Ladies and gentlemen we are here today to receive an update on the status and implementation of the Veterans’ Benefits Improvement Act of 2008, P.L. 110-389. 

At the time of its enactment P.L. 110-389 was embraced by many stakeholders as a way forward for VA to revamp and modernize its claims processing system to bring relief to those veterans, their families and survivors who were languishing in an antiquated system in dire need of reform.   I was proud to lead that effort for the Committee. 

Under this law we created the Office of Survivors Assistance and made it possible for survivors to step into the shoes of the deceased claimants.  We also put critical pilots in place to expedite ready to rate claims and to provide a checklist with the VCAA notices so that Veterans are less confused about what they actually need to substantiate  their claims.  In addition, we created the  Disability Advisory Commission to provide ongoing expert input on the claims processing system, particularly with updating the VASRD, and we created additional checks and balances with required studies of VA’s work credit system and its Work Management system, currently known as CPI. 

On a separate note, while I wish we could have included Section 101 of H.R. 5892 in P.L. 110-389 to help the many combat veterans who are still forced to prove stressor exposure as part of this effort (which is now my bill, H.R. 952) I am heartened by VA’s rulemaking efforts on this front and look forward to issuance of the final rule soon.

I am pleased that P.L. 110-389 also laid the foundation for a number of initiatives that VA is currently undertaking, particularly its Veterans Benefits Management System and Veteran Relationship Management Initiatives, as well as, the Business Transformation Lab in Providence, RI, the Claims Processing Pilot in Little Rock, AR, and the Virtual Regional Office in Baltimore.  You clearly have listened to the clarion call from this Committee and many veteran stakeholders that the current system is broken and in need of a major overhaul.  These efforts hopefully will result in a system that reflects improved accountability, accuracy, quality assurance and timeliness of claims processing for our Veterans, their families and survivors.

I applaud VA’s more deliberative approach on these fronts and welcome the opportunity to support you in the upcoming budget cycles in your efforts to transform the VBA claims processing model.  

I look forward to hearing about how all of these pilots and laboratory initiatives will put VA on track to processing its compensation and pension claims in a virtual environment using a twenty-first century processing platform.  I also look forward to hearing how it plans to move to an electronic rules-based processing environment by 2012. 

While electronic claims processing is not the panacea for eliminating the backlog, it will transform the claims processing system into a 21st Century set-up that will improve accuracy, consistency and quality.  Let’s get it right the first time. We owe our Veterans nothing less.

I now recognize Ranking Member Lamborn for his opening statement.