Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Elise Stefanik co-led the Veterans Claims Quality Improvement Act with Morgan Luttrell (R-TX), Chairman of the Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee of the House Veterans' Affairs (VA) Committee, and Congressman Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), to ensure that the VA Board of Veterans’ Appeals provides veterans and their families with legally accurate and fair decisions on their claims for VA benefits in a timely manner.
“Bringing the concerns of our veterans and service members to the highest levels of government will always be one of my top priorities. I am proud to co-lead Chairman Luttrell’s legislation to ensure our veterans’ claims are processed and results are delivered with the urgency they deserve,” said Congresswoman Elise Stefanik.
“Over the course of several hearings, I’ve heard time and again about the Veterans Affairs Board of Appeals failing to ensure quality decision making on veterans’ claims,” said Congressman Morgan Luttrell. “The legislation I introduced this week would ensure that the Veteran Affairs Board of Appeals provides veterans and their families with legally accurate and fair decisions on their claims for VA benefits. I will continue to hold the VA’s feet to the fire and do everything in my power to course correct this ship.”
“Veterans and their families have earned legally accurate and fair decisions on their claims for VA benefits. But right now, that’s not always the case. As a result, veterans are stuck in limbo waiting years on end for their earned disability compensation benefits,” said Mike Bost (R-IL), Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. “My friend and colleague, Rep. Luttrell, has introduced the Veterans Claims Quality Improvement Act, which would make vitally important improvements to the VA appeals process by implementing a robust quality assurance program so that veterans have a system at the VA Board of Veterans’ Appeals that they can trust. Rep. Luttrell and I know firsthand that we can’t take our foot off the gas when it comes to modernizing and pushing VA’s disability compensation benefits processes forward.”
“I’m grateful for Chairman Luttrell’s leadership on this important bill that will help address the glaring performance problems routinely made when the VA Board of Veterans Appeals reviews Veterans’ benefit claims,” said Congressman Gus Bilirakis. “These errors unnecessarily delay our nation’s heroes from accessing the benefits they deserve and is a concern that has been raised by many of my constituents. Our bill is an important part of the solution, as it will strengthen quality assurance metrics and provide much needed accountability.”
Specifically, this bill would:
- Require Veterans Board of Appeals to identify errors made, including errors identified by the Court, and require the Board to report this information to Congress.
- Require Veteran Benefits Administration (VBA) and Veterans Board of Appeals to learn from these mistakes through their training programs.
- Ensure that VA Office of General Counsel (OGC) trains VBA program offices on when to seek OGC’s review of policy guidance revisions so that these mistakes are prevented.
- Authorize annual performance evaluations for Board judges.
- Require the VA to develop a plan to decrease unnecessary remands.
Read the full text of the bill here.
