News & Opinion

Veterans' advocacy groups, Congress and the Department of Veterans Affairs have a variety of explanations for the backlog of disability claims, but one fact remains clear: Far too many disabled vets are waiting far too long for the benefits they need. Read more »

Veterans Affairs Department officials pledged Wednesday that its backlog of benefits claims will begin to shrink, with hopes for a modest 5 percent improvement by the end of the year and a more significant drop in 2013 as changes in claims handling and employee training take root. Read more »

Express service is on the way for tens of thousands of pending veterans benefits claims. Veterans Affairs officials on Wednesday announced plans for a new processing model designed to get through those claims more efficiently, including an “express lane” for simpler or fully documented claims. Read more »

The House of Representatives moved Monday to try to eliminate one bit of financial uncertainty by passing a bill guaranteeing a Dec. 1 cost-of-living adjustment in veterans disability and survivor benefits that will match whatever increase is provided to Social Security beneficiaries. Read more »

VA’s goal within two years is to have a claims-adjudication system that gets a first-time claim decision to a veteran within 125 days with 98% accuracy. The agency has a long way to go. Read more »

Congressional negotiators have taken a big leap in expanding veterans’ health care by proposing Veterans Affairs Department treatment for veterans and dependents exposed to contaminated well water at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Up to 750,000 people — Navy and Marine Corps members and their families — may have been exposed to water found to be contaminated by carcinogens from the 1950s into the 1980s. Read more »

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs opposes many of the fixes proposed by Congress members to address flaws in the national fiduciary program, which serves more than 130,000 disabled veterans and oversees $3.3 billion in assets nationwide. Read more »

If ever a topic called for the bipartisan support that seems to be developing, it is the shameful situation involving the fleecing of vulnerable veterans by fiduciary agents appointed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to watch out for them. Read more »

With just 10 days before a new education benefits is launched to help unemployed veterans learn a new skill, the VA has rushed to fix a problem that could have left community colleges in 18 states and Puerto Rico ineligible for participation. Read more »

Efforts are underway to strengthen oversight of the fiduciaries appointed to handle the affairs of mentally incapable veterans — without making the rules so strict that family members are discouraged or prevented from taking on that role. Read more »