Press Releases

Today, Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-Texas), the Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs, delivered the following opening remarks, as prepared at the start of the subcommittee’s legislative hearing to discuss potential legislation to improve and streamline the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) appeals process for veterans, caregivers, and families. A full list of bills on today’s agenda can be found here.

The subcommittee will come to order.

Good afternoon.

Thank you all for joining us today.

We are here to discuss 12 bills that would benefit veterans and their survivors.

These bills would:

•                    Ensure that veterans, their caregivers, and their survivors all receive fast, accurate, and fair decisions on their claims for V.A. benefits.

•                    Build on the Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act of 2017 by further streamlining and modernizing the V.A. appeals process.

•                    Provide employees from across V.A. the technology, training, and resources they need to efficiently process and decide V.A. claims and appeals.

•                    Ensure that rural veterans can receive disability compensation exams where they are.

•                    Expand survivors’ benefits and ensure that fallen servicemembers and veterans are properly commemorated.

•                    And require V.A. to obtain and track necessary information concerning disabled veterans who have died by suicide.

I am proud to have one of my bills on today’s agenda.

H.R. 3983, the Veterans Claims Quality Improvement Act of 2025, would ensure that veterans and their families receive accurate and fair decisions on their claims and appeals for V.A. benefits. 

The V.A. Board of Veterans Appeals has reported to Congress quality rates of roughly 95%.

However, this subcommittee has heard that this rating is flawed.

We have heard that the way the Board calculates quality does not fully account for the legal errors identified by the U.S. Court of Veterans Appeals.

In fact, the Court reported in 2024 that 83% of Board appeals were returned to the Board because of legal errors.

Many of these mistakes the Board continues to make over and over again.

For too long, the Board has been passing the buck to the Court, leaving veterans waiting longer for a decision on their claims.

My bill would change that and would require the Board to carry out a robust training and tracking program, using the proper data measurements so Board judges and attorneys can learn from their mistakes.

When the Veterans Benefit Administration at V.A. denies a benefits claim, that veteran has the option to appeal to the Board.

We have heard that the Board often sends veterans cases back to V.B.A. instead of deciding that claim.

In fact, the Board reported it sent back nearly 50% of all the appeals it received in 2024.

These unnecessary remands are a waste of time and resources.

They can add months, or even years, to the wait times for a veteran to receive  a final decision on their claim.

This is unacceptable.

It’s the responsibility of Board judges to ensure that all remands are correct, fair, and timely.

But under current law, performance reviews of Board judges are only required every three years.

My bill would change that, requiring Board judges to undergo annual performance reviews.

My bill would also hold V.B.A. claims processors accountable for “avoidable deferrals” of a veterans claim.

It would ensure that when a V.B.A. claims processor mistakenly requests additional evidence for a veterans’ claim, all claims processors who may have made the same mistake on that case are notified—not just the last one to work on the claim.

It provides an opportunity for the claims processors to correctly address claims going forward and become better at their job.

The VA has a hard job, but veterans deserve a claims and appeals process that puts them first.

My bill helps make sure that we have an adaptable VA, that learns from its mistakes to better serve our veterans.

Chairman Bost and I have both gone through the disability claims process, and it is a top priority for us to ensure that the process works for every veteran, caregiver, and survivor.

I look forward to working with Chairman Bost, Ranking Member McGarvey, and the other Members of this subcommittee on these important proposals today.

I also look forward to hearing from the witnesses who have joined us today about how we can improve these bills.  

I now yield to Ranking Member McGarvey for his opening remarks.