Thank you, Chairman Hall, Ranking Member Lamborn, and Members of the Subcommittee, for considering H.R. 5985, the Compensation for Combat Veterans Act, at your hearing today.  It is an honor to testify before you in support of this legislation. 

I introduced the Compensation for Combat Veterans Act in May in order to address a problem faced by too many of our veterans.  Today, combat veterans are required to provide official evidence that they were wounded in a specific combat incident in order to demonstrate that their injuries are service-connected.  I believe that Congress should overturn this requirement, and that service in a combat zone should be sufficient evidence to demonstrate that a veteran received their injuries in combat. 

The Compensation for Combat Veterans Act would clarify that evidence in a veteran’s record of assignment in a combat zone is sufficient for a veteran to prove their combat service when other military documents are unavailable.  This bill would remove the documentation barriers that in some cases are preventing combat veterans from receiving compensation for their disabilities, or which cause unnecessary delays in providing veterans with the benefits they deserve. 

A law passed in 1941 liberalized the requirements for proof of service-connection in cases involving veterans who participated in combat.  Under this existing law, veterans who can establish that they participated in combat do not have to produce official military records to support their claim that their disabilities or injuries are service-connected. 

However, a Department of Veterans Affairs General Counsel opinion issued in 1999 requires veterans to establish by official military records or decorations that they “personally participated in events constituting an actual fight or encounter with a military foe or instrumentality.”  Under this opinion, some veterans are being delayed or denied compensation for combat injuries because they are unable to produce official military documentation – like certain medals, unit reports, or news reports – proving their personal participation in a specific combat incident.

While the VA accepts certain medals as proof of combat, only a fraction of those who actually participate in combat receive a qualifying medal.  In addition, making, maintaining, and transmitting records in combat zones can be difficult and chaotic, and military records usually do not document actual combat experiences. 

Mr. Chairman, I believe that the last thing our wounded veterans returning home from war should have to do is engage in another battle with the VA to prove that they were wounded in a specific incident in order to receive disability benefits.  How can the VA conscionably force a veteran suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), or from a physical injury incurred in combat, to track down official proof – proof that may not even exist, considering the poor records keeping in combat zones – of their engagement in battle?   How can the VA force wounded veterans to wait indefinitely for help as the VA conducts research to determine whether the veteran’s unit engaged in combat?   

This requirement is just one more example of an unnecessary bureaucratic barrier, another piece of arbitrary red tape, which our wounded veterans must face.  I am especially concerned with this bureaucratic hurdle because, as we saw at the Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing at Walter Reed last year, the layers and layers of VA and DOD bureaucracy directly contributed to the systemic breakdown and the mistreatment of veterans there.  Unless we start to peel away these bureaucratic layers, I’m afraid we are in danger of repeating the shame of Walter Reed and denying veterans the treatment and benefits they deserve. 

Indeed, unnecessary red tape and unnecessary delays in receiving benefits continue to plague veterans all over the country, and continue to be identified by veterans and those who work with them as one of the most significant problems facing returning veterans today.  The astounding number of backlogged VA benefits claims – currently over 648,000 – is evidence of this problem.  I am concerned that this number is only going to increase as more veterans return from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan unless we address some of these paperwork and documentation problems.  The Compensation for Combat Veterans Act would do just that: VA Regional Offices have estimated that the passage of this bill would speed up their claims processing by weeks. 

David Woods, the Director of Veterans Affairs for Scott County, Iowa, who is testifying before the Subcommittee today, estimates that he has helped 75-100 injured veterans who have had problems proving that they were injured in specific combat incidents.  This includes veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Vietnam veterans experiencing PTSD triggered after several decades by the current wars.  As David has said, soldiers engaged in combat are often from several different units and do not know who is there fighting along with them when a battle breaks out.  Soldiers engaged in combat are focused on survival – not documenting where and when the battle is taking place. 

My office has also worked with at least one veteran who has experienced this problem.  This veteran came to my office last August asking for assistance with his service-connected disability claim for his wounded shoulder and other injuries. Though the VA treated his shoulder, since his medical records from Iraq are missing, the VA won’t approve service-connection.  This veteran has served two separate deployments in Iraq, and I believe that it is unacceptable that he is being denied the benefits that he deserves. 

That is why I believe it is so important to pass the Compensation for Combat Veterans Act.  My bill would overturn the VA General Counsel precedent opinion, and allow for utilization of non-official evidence as proof of in-service occurrence for establishing service connection of combat-related diseases and injuries.  This bill would eliminate the requirement for further evidence in cases in which a veteran can demonstrate service in a recognized combat area, alleges disabilities related to their service in that combat area, and has a disease or injury consistent with the circumstances, conditions, or hardships of their service in that combat area.  This bill would lower the evidentiary standards for veterans suffering from physical injuries, as well as from mental wounds like PTSD or Traumatic Brain Injury, the hidden and hallmark wounds of the wars which often do not materialize for months after a veteran has returned home. 

Again, thank you for allowing me to testify in support of the Compensation for Combat Veterans Act today.  I hope that the Subcommittee and full Veterans Affairs’ Committee will act quickly to move this important legislation forward to ensure that combat veterans receive the benefits they deserve in a timely manner.