{"id":37059,"date":"2013-08-12T12:27:44","date_gmt":"2013-08-12T16:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=37059"},"modified":"2013-08-12T12:27:44","modified_gmt":"2013-08-12T16:27:44","slug":"obama-va-has-reduced-backlog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=37059","title":{"rendered":"Obama: VA has reduced backlog"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, President Obama told the Disabled Veterans of America that the Department of Veterans’ Affairs has reduced the backlog of disability claims and he’s pleased, from the Washington Post<\/a>;<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, I can report that we are not where we need to be, but we\u2019re making progress,\u201d Obama said during a speech at a Disabled American Veterans\u2019 convention in Orlando. \u201cIn the last five months alone, it\u2019s down nearly 20 percent. We\u2019re turning the tide.\u201d<\/p>\n

White House officials told reporters that the administration has reduced the backlog \u2014 claims pending for more than 125 days \u2014 from 611,000 at the end of March to 500,000 in August, according to an Associated Press report.<\/p>\n

In May, the Department of Veterans Affairs began what it described as a \u201csurge\u201d to address the buildup. The plan required all VA employees who process disability claims to work a minimum 20 hours of overtime each month through September to tackle the delays.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Our buddy Pete Hegseth at Concerned Veterans of America<\/a>, think that the problem is systemic;<\/p>\n

Today, President Obama addressed the Disabled American Veterans national convention, outlining what his administration is doing to keep America’s promises to our nation\u2019s heroes.<\/p>\n

Pete Hegseth, CEO of Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) issued the following response:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor months now, a multitude of problems at VA\u2014especially the bureaucratic disability claims backlog\u2014have fallen on deaf ears in the White House, so we applaud the President for finally taking the time to address this long overdue issue. It’s unfortunate that it took efforts of groups like Concerned Veterans for America and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, along with sharp words from many Members of Congress, to finally get the President to give the topic the issue it deserves. This speech was long overdue.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the past year, CVA has brought attention to the VA backlog problem by significantly raising public awareness, thereby forcing VA to respond with short-term measures to reduce the number of pending and backlogged claims. These temporary steps \u2014 like mandatory overtime and provisional rulings \u2014 have created the perception of improvement. Yet, 800,000 veterans are still waiting. <\/p>\n

“If the president is truly committed about fixing the VA backlog\u2014and the prospects of future backlogs\u2014he should empower Secretary Shinseki, and all future VA secretaries, with the authority needed to hold VA employees accountable for their work. VA employees have one obligation\u2014to serve America’s veterans; and VA employees at all levels should be hired, fired, and rewarded based on the merits of their efforts alone. Bad employees are nearly impossible to fire at VA, and we have seen countless examples of VA employees receiving bonuses when none were deserved. This unacceptable culture must change.<\/p>\n

“Only this type of systemic civil service reform will allow VA to forge a culture of excellence that ensures the needs of veterans are met in a timely, accurate, and appreciative manner. To this end, CVA has gathered more than 25,000 signatures calling on President Obama to instill accountability in the department and fix the VA backlog. CVA will deliver this petition to the White House on August 20th, and continue our efforts from there.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, President Obama told the Disabled Veterans of America that the Department of Veterans’ Affairs has reduced the backlog of disability claims and he’s pleased, from the Washington Post; \u201cToday, I can report that we are not where we need to be, but we\u2019re making progress,\u201d Obama said during a speech at a Disabled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-veterans-affairs-department"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ozh1-9DJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37059\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}