Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen:

Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

The purpose of today’s hearing will be to explore the policy implications of five bills and one draft measure, H.R. 3407, H.R. 3787 and accompanying draft legislation, H.R. 4541, H.R. 5064 and H.R. 5549 that were recently referred to the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs’ Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee.

The first bill we will discuss is the Severely Injured Veterans Benefits Improvement Act, H.R. 3407, introduced by Ranking Member Buyer which seeks to significantly increase the level of benefits available to our severely disabled veterans and Medal of Honor recipients.  As a cosponsor of this bill, I support its provisions which would to amplify the ancillary benefits relating to aid and attendance for traumatic injury for our veterans and to severe burn injuries of both veterans and active duty members for adaptive equipment automobiles, as well as increases for the non service-connected pension and Medal of Honor special pension.

The second bill on today’s agenda, H.R. 3787 and its accompanying draft legislation, Honor America’s Guard-Reserve Retirees Act, both sponsored by Chairman Walz would grant honorary veteran status to retired members of the Guard and Reserve who completed 20 years of service.  I support this bill and look forward to working through the kinks to ensure that these deserving men and women receive the distinction of being called veterans.  Our Guard and Reserve comprise a large component of those called to serve in our two current wars.  Those changing dynamics need to be reflected in the policy to reflect their level of sacrifice.

Third is the Pension Protection Act of 2010, H.R. 4541, introduced by Mr. Alcee Hastings of Florida, which would prohibit VA from counting casualty windfall payments as income for the purposes of determining eligibility for the non-service connected pension benefit.

Our fourth bill is the Fair Access to Veterans Benefits Act, H.R. 5064 introduced by Congressman Adler of New Jersey which deals with the issue of equitable tolling for appeals filed before the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.  The Court recently decided in Henderson v. Shinseki that it does not have the ability to extend its 120-days filing period deadline and the Federal Circuit Court affirmed that decision.  As a cosponsor of this legislation, I clearly believe that our veterans deserve the benefit of the doubt and the CAVC should be able to exercise its judgment to give it to them unfettered. This bill would ensure that those veterans who have good cause, just like in the case of Mr. Henderson, are not shut out of the appeals process without recourse.

Our last bill is the Rating and Processing Individuals Disability Claims Act, or RAPID Act, H.R. 5549, introduced by a veteran member of the DAMA Subcommittee, Mr. Joe Donnelly.  H.R. 5549 seeks to improve on the VA’s adoption of the Fully Developed Claims Pilot provision in P.L. 110-389 by ensuring that veterans are able to protect their effective date while fully developing their claim.  It would also ensure that veterans are apprised of their appeals right when VA denies a claim.

These are all worthwhile measures that will help our veterans tremendously. I thank the Members for their thoughtful legislation.  I thank our other esteemed witnesses for joining us today and look forward to any further insight they may provide.

I now yield to Ranking Member Lamborn for his Opening Statement.