Today’s hearing will give the Subcommittee the opportunity to learn more about the Department of Veterans Affairs Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment’s Independent Living Program and how it is assisting our veterans in a seamless rehabilitation into family and community life. 

As many of you know, the goal of the Independent Living Program is to ensure that eligible disabled veterans are able to maintain maximum independence in their daily living by developing learned skills that may benefit them for future employment.  Some of our panelists might recall that this Subcommittee held its first hearing back in March of last year that gave our new members the opportunity to learn about the programs under our jurisdiction.  One such program that was considered was the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment, but today we are here to specifically review the Independent Living Program.

As we will hear from our panelists, many of our most severely disabled veterans’ lives have been profoundly changed for the positive as a direct result of these independent living services.  Unfortunately, members of this Subcommittee have also heard from veterans that have raised concerns that VA staff is poorly trained to properly refer veterans to available resources, mismanagement of claims by VA personnel that causes a delay in service, and need to increase the current statutory limit of 2,500 annually.

Earlier this year, we have received a letter from a veteran who urged the full Committee Chairman to consider reviewing independent living services for veterans with chronic and severe post traumatic stress disorder.  Specifically, this veteran would like to see an expansion of independent living services to provide Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom veterans with opportunities for employment services that can also benefit older veterans who have service-connected psychiatric disabilities.  I am interested in hearing from our panelists about this and other suggestions to determine how we can best serve all our veterans, especially in light of the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General’s report dated December 17, 2007. 

A few of the issues of concern raised in this report include:

• VR&E rehabilitation rate calculations and information on total program participations and outcomes were not fully disclosed in the VA Performance and Accountability Report;
• the 2,500 statutory cap was underutilized in fiscal year 2006 and services to our veterans were delayed; and
• the VA should effectively monitor the number of new Independent Living participants and detailed information should be provided to Congress for review.

It is very important that we examine these concerns, especially at a time when the VA Secretary recognizes an increase need for independent living services over the next ten years.  Today’s service members are returning with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury, amputations and severe burns that would have been fatal in previous conflicts.

Congress must continue to reexamine the development and results of this program to provide the best services in a timely manner.  The men and women who serve our nation honorably deserve and should receive the best our country can offer. 

I look forward to working with Ranking Member Boozman and Members of this Subcommittee to explore how we can improve the VA’s Independent Living Program for our service members and veterans.