Youngstown Daily Legal News

House Republicans urge prompt delivery of military veteran benefits

TIFFANY L. PARKS
Special to the Legal News
Published: May 23, 2013

Ohio House Speaker William Batchelder and Rep. Terry Johnson are sponsoring a resolution requesting President Barack Obama, Congress and the U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs to take immediate action to reduce the processing time for veterans’ disability benefit claims.

In introducing House Concurrent Resolution 21 last week, Batchelder, R-Medina, and Johnson, R-McDermott, said the waiting period for such claims has “continued to worsen over the past several years.”

“Many of these veterans are in tough shape,” Batchelder said. “They deserve having decisions made and provisions made for their health.”

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, between fiscal years 2009 and 2012, the average length of time for the Department of Veterans Affairs to complete a disability claim increased from 161 days to 260 days.

The number of backlogged claims, claims that have been awaiting a decision for more than 125 days, more than tripled since September 2009.

A statement from Batchelder and Johnson said the office also reports that appeals processing at the department’s regional offices has slowed by 56 percent in the last several years.

“These are service people, men and women, who were willing to protect our nation, who were willing to go into foreign countries of great difficulty and they were willing as well to run the risk of losing their lives — at least their health in many cases,” Batchelder said.

HCR 21 states the number of veterans applying for disability benefits has increased in recent years because of the large number of new veterans and the expansion of eligibility for benefits for certain service-connected diseases.

“We make a contract with our military personnel when we put them in the field,” Johnson said.

“We tell them, ‘Go and defend our nation and when you come home, we will take care of you and your family.’ So we urge the president of the United States and we urge the Veterans Administration to do all they can to rectify the situation as quickly as possible.”

The statement from Batchelder and Johnson said House Republicans hope that HCR 21 will “stress the urgency of rectifying this issue, making the process more efficient and giving veterans access to much-needed benefits.”

HCR 21, which is co-sponsored by more than a dozen lawmakers, has been assigned to the House Military and Veterans Affairs committee.

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