Chairwoman Herseth Sandlin, Ranking Member Boozman, and members of the Subcommittee, on behalf of Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) I would like to thank you for the opportunity to testify today on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)  Independent Living Program which is administered by VA’s Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment  (VR&E) Program. 

PVA believes that the VR&E Program is one of the most critical programs VA administers in assisting veterans with disabilities to successfully transition to civilian life.  The primary mission of the VR&E program is to provide veterans with service-connected disabilities all the necessary services and assistance to achieve maximum independence in daily living and to the maximum extent feasible, to become employable and to obtain and maintain suitable employment. In VR&E’s mission statement, independent living services is mentioned first, emphasizing the importance of the independent living program and the Congressional intent for the VR&E program to focus on providing services to veterans with severe disabilities.

In 1980, when the Independent Living (IL) program was first developed, it was implemented as a pilot program and imposed a 500 new case cap to the new program.  In the succeeding years, the program grew and proved successful in helping veterans with severe disabilities to gain greater independence in their daily living activities. The 500 new case cap seemed to be forgotten and the caseload for independent living continued to grow well beyond 500 new cases a year.  Following years of dealing with the 500 case cap, VA met with Congressional staff members to request that the cap be removed. Congress at that time was not willing to remove the cap as they wanted VA to implement stronger guidelines for the program.  Congress did, however, increase the cap from 500 to 2,500 new cases in 2001.   

Even though the new case cap was increased, VA continued to bump up against the cap for many years. This meant that starting in the fourth quarter of each fiscal year VR&E had to constantly monitor the number of new IL cases opened around the country.  As VR&E approached the cap limit, they had to slow down or delay delivery of independent living services for new cases until the start of the next fiscal year.  When the VA approached the cap limit, VR&E tried to ensure that veterans most in need would be served without delay.  VR&E did this by requesting that counselors submit their new IL cases to Central Office for review.  VR&E staff at Central Office then tried to make the determination as to who needed services immediately and who could wait. Unfortunately, this procedure is quite disruptive and can endanger the success of the rehabilitation process. Imagine engaging in outreach activities, developing new cases, and then having to explain to veterans with the most severe disabilities that they must wait to receive any services.  

In addition to the delay in services, the cap has placed an unnecessary burden on VR&E staff.  Time devoted by VR&E counselors in the field preparing requests to serve new IL cases and time spent by Central Office staff reviewing such requests as well as the  constant monitoring of the new IL case count can certainly be used in more productive ways to provide services to veterans. While VR&E may not have reached the cap in the last year or two, the cap still presents an unnecessary burden and seems to be in direct conflict with providing the necessary services to veterans with severe disabilities.              

PVA strongly opposes any unnecessary delay in services for veterans, especially services to severely disabled veterans. PVA is extremely disappointed that VR&E staff is still forced to abide by the arbitrary 2,500 new case cap. At this point in time when the continuation of our military efforts associated with Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF) are unfortunately resulting in ever increasing numbers of veterans who sustain serious injuries, any limit placed upon the delivery of services to severely disabled veterans is at best contrary to the intent of Congress and the American public.

The VR&E program provides services to approximately 95,000 veterans each year. In FY 2007, VA reported that the VR&E program rehabilitated 11,008 veterans with service-connected disabilities.  Of the total number of veterans rehabilitated, 8,252 veterans were determined rehabilitated through obtaining employment and 2,756 veterans were determined rehabilitated through achieving their independent living goals.    

To achieve these outcome results, VR&E has made progress through continual improvement in its programs.  In 2004, VR&E hired an IL Coordinator to manage the program.  In 2005, IL Standards of Practice were issued to VR&E field staff providing detailed guidance.  Over the last three to four years, VR&E Central Office staff have provided numerous training sessions on the delivery of IL services.

Yet there is still much more that can be done to ensure that veterans with severe disabilities are well served in the areas of independent living and vocational rehabilitation.  Outreach activities targeting severely disabled veterans can be enhanced. Stronger linkages with other advocacy and community-based programs can be established.  Finally and perhaps most importantly, VR&E needs to direct more time and attention to assisting those veterans who after achieving their independent living goals are ready to move toward developing vocational goals that may include volunteer work, part-time employment, and even full-time employment.

With the removal of the IL cap and greater attention directed at serving veterans with severe disabilities, PVA recommends that VR&E be given additional professional full time employee positions for IL specialist counselors.  These experienced counselors should be fully devoted to delivering services to those veterans determined to have serious employment handicaps and to partnering with other programs in the community to bring to veterans the full range of IL services available.  These specialty counselors will be able to target their efforts on enhancing both the accessibility and quality of independent living services available to veterans with severe disabilities. 

PVA’s recommendation for IL specialist counselor is based upon our own experience.  PVA has developed and implemented a new Vocational Rehabilitation Services program to ensure that all veterans with spinal cord injury or disease have equitable employment opportunities and that the estimated 85% unemployment rate among PVA members becomes a grim statistic of the past.  In partnership with VA and cooperate sponsors (Health Net Federal Services and Tri West Healthcare Alliance), PVA has been able to open two vocational rehabilitation services offices: one at the VA SCI Center in Richmond, Virginia and more recently at the VA SCI Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.  We also anticipate opening a third office in San Antonio, Texas this fall.  PVA’s vocational services at these two offices are delivered by Mr. Rick Schiessler and Ms. Diane Acord.  Both rehabilitation counselors have many years of experience and proper credentials to specialize in providing services to individuals with SCI disabilities.  Our new program appears to be very promising and in less than a year’s time, we are serving well over 100 veterans and have assisted 20 veterans with severe disabilities obtain employment.  The average starting salary of our employed veterans is $39,400.  We believe a large part of our success so early in the development stage of the program is due to our specialty counselors who are able to devote all of their attention to providing services to veterans with SCI disability. 

In addition to specialty IL counselors in the field, PVA also recommends that staff at Central Office responsible for managing the IL program be increased.  As stated earlier, VR&E has an IL Coordinator who manages the program.  However, having only one individual trying to manage an entire national program appears unrealistic, especially if the IL cap is removed and VR&E places more emphasis on serving veterans with severe disabilities.  PVA recommends that if Congress wishes VR&E to improve the IL program, then management of the program should be properly resourced.    

Chairwoman Herseth Sandlin, Ranking Member Boozman, and members of the Subcommittee, Paralyzed Veterans of America supports your efforts to review and improve the existing vocational rehabilitation programs of the Department of Veterans Affairs, especially those programs designed to serve veterans with the most severe disabilities.  We look forward to working with you to ensure that the best services are available particularly for veterans with severe disabilities. This concludes my testimony.  I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.