Introduction:

Chairman Hall, members of the Subcommittee, it is truly my honor to be able to present this testimony before you. As President of the National Association of County Veterans Service   Officers  (NACVSO), I  am  commenting  on  NACVSO’s views on the effectiveness of Veterans Benefits Administration’s Outreach Efforts.

The National Association of County Veterans Service Officers is an organization made up of local government employees.  Our members are tasked with assisting veterans in developing and processing their claims.  A large percentage of the claims presented to the Veterans Administration each year originate in a county veterans office. Each day, our members sit across from those men and women who wish to file a claim each day. They are our friends and neighbors members of our communities whom we see often daily. We exist to serve veterans and partner with the National Service Organizations and the Department of Veterans Affairs to serve veterans.  Our Association focuses on outreach, standardized quality training, and claims development and advocacy. We are extension or arm of government, not unlike the VA itself in service to the nation’s veterans and their dependents.

In this changing world there is a need for multiple approaches to outreach. Today, we have in our nation veterans of WW2, Korea, Vietnam and  those just returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The Veterans Benefit Administration (VBA) has a monumental task of reaching each of these veterans and making sure they understand the benefits available to them.  

Veterans’ Outreach Improvements:

There is a clear need that veterans being discharged from active duty, especially during time of war, have access to information concerning VA benefits entitlement. Often veterans are just glad to be going home and are not concerned with what benefits may be available to them.  NACVSO  proposes  a partnership of the local County Veterans Service Officers, VA and DOD  to   reach out and assist the returning veterans in their local area.  

A first step  would be  providing the CVSO’s a copy of the DD-214 and the addition of the veterans’ cell phone number in the mailing address after separation block of the DD-214. This would provide the CVSO a ready  tool for reaching out to the veteran. Additionally, NACVSO subscribes to Chairman Filner’s solution to the problem of veterans suicides, that requires the military to use qualified physicist  to interview every member before separation and determine who is in need of treatment while still on active duty, has merit and is probably the only way to reach every soldier. Additionally we believe that anyone found to be suicidal should be retained and transferred to the VA for treatment just as a soldier with a seriously physical injury. Those who are in need of treatment for a less serious diagnosis should be given a Fee Basic Card, for use in the local community with a five year renewal with VA approval.

Veterans Outreach Background:

Across our nation there are veterans that do not think they are a veteran because they did not lose a limb or get injured in anyway.  They came home and started to work to support their families.  They have never looked for any help from the government.  When the veteran dies their families still do not know they are entitled to benefits just because their husband or father served his country.  These are the people that need outreach.   They are mostly lower income and have never reached out to the VA and therefore they don’t think they are entitled to this help. 

I look at rural and urban America and see the great need to make these veterans aware of the benefits that they deserve, that are earned entitlement not welfare.  These veterans have never made use of the VAMC’s, the GI Bill, Home Loan, Pension or Compensation Benefits.  They just served their country and came home.  It is so rewarding when you meet one of these veterans and tell them what they may be entitled to and see the hope on their face.  It sometimes means the difference in eating or buying medicine.  I am sure if a study was completed you would see a large number of rural veterans have never used the VA for any service and did not know they could.  The VA has a responsibility to reach out and make everyone aware of their entitlement.  One of the ways is for the County Veterans Service Officer to spread the word.  To go into the communities with the message those veterans and their dependents have benefits due them.  While many counties do fund a County Veteran Service Officer, the vast majority do not provide funding for outreach and other informational services.

Outreach efforts must be expanded in order to reach those veterans, dependents and survivors that are unaware of their benefits and to bring them into the system. Nearly 2 million poor Veterans or their impoverished widows are likely missing out on as much as $22 billion a year in pensions from the U.S. government, but the Department of Veterans Affairs has had only limited success in finding them, according to the North Carolina Charlotte Observer.

Widows are hardest hit. According to the VA’s own estimate, only one in seven of the survivors of the nation's deceased Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines  who likely could qualify for the pension actually get the monthly checks. What's more, participation in the program is falling. Veterans and widows are unaware that the program exists. They simply don't know about it and the VA knows that many are missing out on the benefit "We obviously are here for any veteran or survivor who qualifies," said a VA Pension official. "But so many of these people -- we don't know who they are, where they are. "The VA’s own report from late 2004 recommended that the agency "improve its outreach efforts" with public service announcements and other pilot programs. While it made limited efforts to reach veterans or their widows through existing channels, it is difficult  to determine whether such efforts have been successful.

Of all those likely eligible, only 27 percent of veterans and 14 percent of widows receive the money. It is obvious that there is a great need for outreach to into the veteran’s community and the local CVSO is the advocate closest to the veterans and widows and with minimal funding could reach the maximum number of eligible veterans and widows.

Therefore, NACVSO continues to support H.R.67, introduced by Congressman Mike McIntyre of North Carolina, and S 1315, by Feingold of California, both Outreach Bills that would allow Secretary  Peake to provide federal – state – local grants and assistance to state and county veteran’s service officers to enhance outreach to veterans and their dependents. We are already present in most communities and stand ready to assist the Department of Veterans affairs with this monumental task.

Conclusion:

This concludes my comments.  I am ready to answer any questions the committee may have.  Thank you.