Committee on Veterans Affairs Ranking Member Corrine Brown Reflects on Memorial Day
Washington, D.C. – Ranking Member Corrine Brown releases a statement honoring our troops this Memorial Day.
As we are about to honor the men and women this Memorial Day who served our country and paid the ultimate sacrifice, it is a perfect time to reflect on the sacrifices our young men and women made to protect the freedoms we hold so dear.
There are 21.6 million brave men and women who are veterans of our nation’s military service. This includes more than 2 million women, 2.7 million African American men and women, 1.5 million Hispanic men and women, 342,000 Asian American Pacific Islanders, and 178,000 American Indians.
“When these men and women come back to receive the care they have earned on the battlefield, they should not,” as President Obama said, “have to fight a bureaucracy at home to get the care that they’ve earned.” The VA must be veterans’ best advocate, supporter and partner on Day One of their civilian life.
First priority is to get the earned benefits to the veteran. The best way is by the new Fully Developed Claims (FDC) program. This is an optional initiative that offers Veterans and survivors faster decisions from VA on compensation, pension, and survivor benefit claims.
Since implementing Fully Developed Claims program, more veterans are now getting access to their benefits faster than ever. The program allows veterans to elect to submit all of the relevant records in their possession, like private medical records, at the time of their claim to receive a decision on their claim more quickly. What’s more, the program has helped bring down the backlog of veterans benefits claims that haunted the VA several years ago (611,073 claims during its height) to manageable levels. Without celebrating the reduction in claim the VA is working hard to speed the time it take to process an initial claim.
Another important benefit is access to health care. This includes physical as well as mental care. The Veterans Choice program was a temporary program that was authorized in the wake of the wait time scandal that was endemic across the VA in 2014. Since then, the VA has made progress in addressing the situation while administering an additional 1.6 million appointments in 2015 than they did in 2014. The VA has proposed following the current Choice program with a more permanent program with a long-term strategy for consolidation of community care programs.
The plan would streamline eligibility requirements for veterans to receive increased access to care in their communities from non-VA providers. These changes will be dependent on VA and Congress working together. The goals of the new Choice program include making access to community care easier to understand, improving the veterans’ experience, clarifying the program for VA staff, and make it easier for community providers to partner with VA, provide seamless connections between VA and community providers and apply best practices from the private sector.
Women veterans are the fastest growing cohort in the VA, mirroring their increasing service in the military. Across the services, women have continued to prove themselves patriots by putting their lives on the line in war in Iraq and Afghanistan. One hundred sixty one have lost their lives in the effort. Another 1,003 have suffered life-altering physical wounds (Defense Manpower Data Center, Defense Casualty Analysis System). But in all, more than 280,000 have served and returned home to transition back into civilian life.
The percentage of female veterans today is 9.2% of the total current veteran population which is about 2,020,000, and it is projected to grow to more than 10.5% by 2020. Meeting the needs of women veterans in the next two decades will fall heaviest in the area of healthcare services. The rate at which women veterans are seeking care from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has seen an increased. The VA has seen the rate of 7% per year in its 151 medical centers and 985 outpatient clinics.
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that veteran unemployment is at a seven-year low. As of April 2016, veterans face an overall unemployment rate of 3.9%, which is better than the national unemployment rate of 4.5%. According to the Advisory Committee on Veterans’ Employment, Training, and Employer Outreach at the Department of Labor, certain cohorts of the veteran population face challenges and aspire to career paths that differ from the broader population of transitioning service members.
To ensure that we as policymakers are ahead of a developing trend regarding the unique needs of these sub-groups of transitioning veterans, the House of Representatives recently passed H.R. 5229, the Improving Transition Programs for All Veterans Act. This bill will determine the degree to which their needs are different, and look for innovative approaches toward meeting these unique challenges.
The make-up of our modern military force is changing. In a few short years, there will be a substantially greater percentage of female veterans than there are now. And thanks to modern medicine, more veterans survive injury to return to productive lives even with service-connected disabilities. But women veterans face a higher unemployment rate than their male counterparts, and veterans with high disability ratings have an unemployment rate much higher than that of veterans with low disability ratings.
The bill requires the VA to initiate a research program, in collaboration with the Department of Labor and the Department of Defense, to better understand if and how current veterans transition programs address what may be differentiated needs, challenges, and post-service aspirations of women veterans, veterans with disabilities, Native American veterans, “insular veterans” – who are veterans from the U.S. territories – and other subgroups that the Secretaries identify.
A final benefit is a burial at a national cemetery. Burial benefits are available to any eligible veteran or spouse in any of the 134 national cemeteries. The recently passed H.R. 3715, the Final Farewell Act authorizes the VA to offer weekend burial to any family for any reason. Many cultures traditionally hold funerals on weekends. This bill will make it possible for the family to be comforted when they need it most.
As Abraham Lincoln said, ““Honor to the soldier and sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country's cause. Honor, also, to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field and serves, as he best can, the same cause.”
Thank you.
Corrine Brown
Ranking Member
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