[House Hearing, 113 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
EFFECT OF GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN ON VA BENEFITS AND SERVICES TO VETERANS
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2013
__________
Serial No. 113-38
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs
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COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
JEFF MILLER, Florida, Chairman
DOUG LAMBORN, Colorado MICHAEL H. MICHAUD, Maine, Ranking
GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida CORRINE BROWN, Florida
DAVID P. ROE, Tennessee MARK TAKANO, California
BILL FLORES, Texas JULIA BROWNLEY, California
JEFF DENHAM, California DINA TITUS, Nevada
JON RUNYAN, New Jersey ANN KIRKPATRICK, Arizona
DAN BENISHEK, Michigan RAUL RUIZ, California
TIM HUELSKAMP, Kansas GLORIA NEGRETE MCLEOD, California
MARK E. AMODEI, Nevada ANN M. KUSTER, New Hampshire
MIKE COFFMAN, Colorado BETO O'ROURKE, Texas
BRAD R. WENSTRUP, Ohio TIMOTHY J. WALZ, Minnesota
PAUL COOK, California
JACKIE WALORSKI, Indiana
Jon Towers, Staff Director
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C O N T E N T S
__________
October 9, 2013
Page
Effect Of Government Shutdown On VA Benefits And Services To
Veterans....................................................... 1
OPENING STATEMENTS
Hon. Jeff Miller, Chairman,...................................... 1
Prepared Statement of Chairman Miller........................ 40
Hon. Michael H. Michaud, Ranking Minority Member................. 3
Prepared Statement of Hon. Michaud........................... 41
Hon. Corrine Brown, U.S. House of Representatives, Prepared
Statement only................................................. 41
WITNESSES
Hon. Eric K. Shinseki, Secretary, U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs........................................................ 4
Prepared Statement of Hon. Shinseki.......................... 42
STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD
Paralyzed Veterans of America.................................... 46
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America......................... 48
AMVETS........................................................... 49
Veterans of Foreign Wars......................................... 51
EFFECT OF GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN ON VA BENEFITS AND SERVICES TO VETERANS
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
U.S. House of Representatives,
Committee on Veterans' Affairs,
Washington, D.C.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:29 a.m., in
Room 334, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. Jeff Miller
[Chairman of the Committee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Miller, Lamborn, Bilirakis, Roe,
Flores, Denham, Runyan, Benishek, Huelskamp, Amodei, Coffman,
Cook, Walorski, Michaud, Brown, Takano, Brownley, Titus,
Kirkpatrick, Ruiz, Negrete McLeod, Kuster, O'Rourke, and Walz.
Also Present: Representative McNerney.
OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN MILLER
The Chairman. This hearing will come to order. Before we
begin, I would like to ask unanimous consent from the Committee
that the gentleman from California and former Member of this
Committee, Mr. McNerney, be allowed to join us at the dais
today and participate in today's proceedings. Hearing no
objection, so ordered.
Mr. Secretary, welcome to the Committee. I appreciate,
sincerely appreciate you being here on relatively short notice.
And we are here today to understand how veterans are being
impacted by the lapse in appropriations that has the government
currently in a shutdown mode. There is plenty of blame that can
be shared as to why we are in this position, but that is not
why I called the hearing. I really called the hearing so that
we can get the best possible information available out to the
veteran community.
Veterans want to know whether their disability checks and
GI bill benefits will be paid in November and thereafter. They
want to know if their disability claims will be decided or
further delayed. Families want to know if their loved ones will
receive a timely burial at VA national cemeteries. And many of
VA's employees themselves want to know whether they will be
serving veterans on the job or whether they are going to be
furloughed.
I understand that answers to some of these questions are
entirely dependent on how long this shutdown lasts. And
although I want to be sure that most of us agree that we want
the shutdown over quickly, it is our responsibility to ensure
that the public, especially veterans, understand what the
current state of play is.
First of all, Mr. Secretary, I want to say, that in the
last couple of weeks, getting good information about VA's
contingency plans and the effect of a lapse in appropriations,
and its effect on veterans has been very difficult to get out
of your office. For example, the original field guide that VA
put out regarding the shutdown impact at first spoke of no
effect, no effect on payments to veterans, or processing of
their benefits. But in a later version, VA stated that a
prolonged shutdown would impact both, but didn't provide any
details as to how it would be impacted.
Secondly, the Veterans Health Administration is not shut
down at all because it has received a full year's appropriation
for 2014 back in March. So hospitals, clinics, and vet centers
should all be open for business. Yet the President made a
statement the day before the shutdown saying that veterans will
find their support centers unstaffed and implied that
counseling services for veterans with PTS would be affected.
Third, this Committee has consistently been told VBA's
mandatory overtime effort towards the backlog would actually
end on September 30. Yet days into the shutdown, we are now
informed that the shutdown prevented VA's planned continued
payment of overtime.
Fourth, although a shutdown should have a relatively
uniform effect across all regional offices, as suggested by
your own field guide, my staff met with several representatives
from VSOs last week, who relayed that their members are hearing
mixed messages out of different regional offices. And I think
it goes without saying none of this is ideal.
Some degree of confusion is to be expected, and we
understand that. But VA employees should be worrying about VA's
mission of service to veterans, not planning for furloughs or
managing an agency on spare change remaining from last year.
However, what can never be expected is anything less than the
full truth, as best as it is known at the time. This grave
situation does not need to be assisted by misleading statements
from anybody, statements designed to aid a political argument
by any political party, regardless of which one we may belong
to.
It is my hope that we can uphold the best traditions of
this Committee and rise above all of that today. Mr. Secretary,
I appreciate your willingness to join us in this effort. Since
this hearing was called last Friday, we have had a little bit
more clarity on some of the issues we have been asking your
staff about for the last 10 days. But I thought the public
should hear some of the same information.
Now, one last point before I conclude. Last July, we held a
hearing on a bill that the Ranking Member and I introduced that
proposed to advance fund the entire VA discretionary budget.
The administration declined to take a position on the bill,
saying, instead, it needed to conduct a review first. It is
obvious that no review is necessary given where we are today.
Mr. Secretary, I sincerely hope that you are making that
case with the administration. And I will follow up with you on
that point during questioning.
And I now recognize the Ranking Member, Mr. Michaud, for
his opening statement.
[The prepared statement of Chairman Miller appears in the
Appendix]
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MICHAEL H. MICHAUD
Mr. Michaud. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for having
this hearing today.
And I want to thank you, Mr. Secretary, for coming.
Before we begin exploring how the government shutdown is
affecting veterans and the VA, I want to acknowledge the very
real consequences the lapse in appropriation has had on VA
employees. I know that VA employees do not work solely for a
paycheck. They work because they believe in helping veterans. A
lot of them are veterans. And they have done a phenomenal job.
And now it is time for Congress to do its job.
We can do this in two ways. Number one, either the Senate
take up the MILCON/VA appropriation bill that was passed by the
House 4 months ago, or the House can take up a clean CR passed
by the Senate. I don't care which one that we choose, as long
as we get on with the reopening of government and that we fully
fund VA.
The VA contingency plan and field guide provide us with a
rough idea of the consequences of a government shutdown. Last
week, we saw the immediate shutdown, what it had on some of the
VA offices, such as the Inspector General. Yesterday, we saw
some VBA and IT accounts run dry and thousands of VA employees
furloughed. We know that the mandatory funds to pay
compensation and pension benefits are scheduled to run out in
little over 2 weeks.
We also know that furloughs and suspensions of programs in
other agencies also affect veterans. Of the roughly 2.1 million
Federal employees, more than 600,000 are veterans. Many of them
are already, or expect to be, furloughed. Also, as programs and
services at other agencies are disrupted, it affects VA's
ability to receive the necessary information and support to
deliver those services for our veterans.
We know we will hear bad news today from you, Mr.
Secretary. Important VA operations have, or will be, suspended.
Some veterans will not get what they are expecting, what they
deserve, and most importantly, what they have earned. This may
be a difficult conversation, but one that we must have openly,
frankly, and honestly.
But amidst the bad news, there is some good news. With VA's
medical accounts under advance appropriation, the Veterans
Health Administration is largely unaffected by lapse in the
fiscal year 2014 appropriation. All medical facilities are
open, as you heard from the Chairman, and operating under
normal status. This will continue, regardless how long the
current government is shut down.
It is clear now that in the midst of the shutdown, that
getting a vote on H.R. 813, as amended, the Putting the
Veterans Funding First Act, is necessary and a critical step in
ensuring veterans' benefits and services are not put at risk
when there is a lapse in appropriations.
Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for signing on the letter
with me to the Speaker asking that H.R. 813, as amended, be
scheduled for floor action. I encourage all Members of the
Committee to sign onto that letter and to send a message that
veterans should not, and cannot, and will not be disadvantaged
by party politics in the future, regardless of which party is
in control.
Mr. Secretary, I look forward to your testimony and the
questions to follow.
Mr. Chairman, once again I want to thank you very much for
having this very important and timely hearing today. With that,
I yield back the balance of my time.
[The prepared statement of Hon. Michael H. Michaud appears
in the Appendix]
The Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Michaud.
Thank you to all the Members for your attendance today. As
you might imagine, this is a critical time within our
government, and certainly for our veterans out there. And that
is why I asked the Secretary, and I am so pleased that on very
short notice, he was able to come in and give us some
indication of where we are now within the VA, and where we will
be going in the future, depending on how long this shutdown
does in fact continue.
I want to welcome to the table our first and only witness
of this morning, the Honorable Eric Shinseki, Secretary for the
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Your complete written statement, Mr. Secretary, will be
entered into the record, and you are recognized now for 5
minutes.
STATEMENT OF THE HON. ERIC K. SHINSEKI
Secretary Shinseki. Great. Chairman Miller, Ranking Member
Michaud, Members of the Committee, thank you for entering my
written statement.
Let me, Mr. Chairman, just recognize that in the room here,
we have partners for all of us from our veterans service
organizations. I would tell you they have been quite directly
helpful to me over the past 4\1/2\ years in trying to help us
understand how to be better at our responsibilities of caring
for veterans, but also servicemembers and families and
survivors that we are responsible for.
Mr. Chairman, you called this hearing to examine the effect
of the government shutdown on VA benefits and services to
veterans. And while my written testimony describes many effects
on VA due to the ongoing lapse in appropriations, let me just
say, unequivocally, that all the effects that I described, and
I am going to describe of the shutdown are negative. It is an
impediment to VA's ability to deliver services and benefits
that veterans have earned through their service.
VA continues to invest significant resources and time and
planning for this unique, infrequent, and avoidable situation.
The ongoing shutdown presents myriad legal and programmatic
challenges. The last time a shutdown occurred, in 1996, as I am
told, our Nation was enjoying a sustained period of relative
peace. That is not true today. Today, we are in the 13th year
of the war in Afghanistan, providing care and benefits to
veterans of that war, and the war in Iraq as well. Members of
this latest generation of veterans are enrolling in VA at a
higher rate than ever before. They, along with the veterans of
every preceding generation, will be harmed if the shutdown
continues.
In brief, in the last 6 months, through 30 September, the
Veterans Benefits Administration, VBA, reduced the backlog of
compensation claims, something we have all been working on, and
prodding, and encouraging them to do better. Well, they have
begun that delivery, 193,000 claims in the backlog reduced in
the last 190 days, roughly 190 days, a 31.5 percent increase in
about a little over 6 months.
Since the shutdown began on 1 October, the backlog has
stalled, and in fact has increased by about 2,000 claims. VBA
has already furloughed more than 7,800 of its employees, half
of whom are veterans. The shutdown directly threatens VA's
ability to eliminate the backlog. We have lost ground we fought
hard to take. Roughly 1,400 veterans a day are now not
receiving decisions on their disability compensation claims due
to the end of overtime. If the shutdown does not end in the
coming weeks, VA will not be able to assure of delivery of 1
November checks to more than 5.18 million beneficiaries, and
that accounts for about $6.25 billion in payments that people
are expecting in compensation, and pensions, and Dependency and
Indemnity Compensation, DIC, fiduciary, educational, vocational
rehabilitation and employment benefits, including veterans who
are 100 percent disabled, surviving spouses, and eligible
children orphaned by the death of their military or veteran
parent. Tuition and stipends for over 500,000 veteran
servicemembers and eligible family members in education
programs will also stop.
These are some of the major issues veterans face if the
shutdown continues. My written testimony includes details of
other negative impacts, to our IT initiatives, to our National
Cemetery Administration, whose employees lay to honored rest
those who have served this Nation, to VA staff offices, and to
VA employees themselves, especially those who are veterans.
While some have suggested a series of mini-continuing
resolutions, or mini-CRs, if you will, as an approach to
meeting our fiscal year 2014 budgetary responsibilities for
funding the government, that is not a solution for veterans or
for our Nation. The budget request submitted by President Obama
nearly 6 months ago is the result of an extensive, cooperative,
synchronized effort across all departments and agencies to
produce a budget request that coherently balanced priorities
and risks.
Picking and choosing parts of government to fund would
ignore two key drumbeats that I have tried to deliver over the
past 4\1/2\ years. The first is that very little of what we
work on in VA originates in VA. Much of that originates in
another department. And then, second, VA's care for veterans,
and by that I mean health care, education, employment,
insurance, housing for both the homeowner and the homeless,
does not occur without significant coordination with DoD, with
Housing and Urban Development, HHS, Social Security, Treasury,
Education, Labor, the IRS, Small Business Administration. And
frankly, it is this collaboration amongst and across the
government that allows us to be effective.
And I would add to that, we have a fourth mission, I think
as the Chairman recalls. Besides our three administrations, we
have a fourth mission in the event of emergency, national
disaster, humanitarian requirements, that I must make available
our capabilities where they are needed. So we work with FEMA
and DHS. Homeland Security is also part of our day-to-day
responsibilities. These are not insignificant connections for
this department. Without them, we are less effective in serving
veterans, our servicemembers, their families, and our
survivors.
And so, these are the facts that I present, Mr. Chairman.
At a critical time for veterans, everyone at VA, as you said,
should be focusing on how best to accomplish their missions.
And so I ask the Committee, and the rest of Congress, to help
us by resolving this fiscal impasse now, so that VA and our
Federal partners, on whom we have to rely to do our work, can
get back to work full-time, fulfilling President Lincoln's call
to care for those who have borne the battle.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[The prepared statement of Eric K. Shinseki appears in the
Appendix]
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary.
You and I both know that regular order is not the mode that
we are in today. But regular order in fact requires a piecemeal
approach of 12 appropriation bills. One hundred and twenty-six-
plus days ago this House, on a bipartisan basis, passed a VA/
military construction bill that fully funded, not just
partially funded on a short-term basis, which is what folks are
asking for now, but fully funded VA. Yet that bill languishes
over in the Senate.
To my colleagues who may not recall, because it has been so
long that we sent that bill over to the Senate, there is very
little difference, maybe a quarter of a percent difference
between the two bills on VA spending. It could very easily be
brought forward, and this would be off the table.
And so my question is and statement is, in years past,
House and Senate, regardless of parties, and the White House
have always come together and tried to find a way to prioritize
how money would be spent, who would be at the top of the list
as we started to shut the government down and run out of money.
And today, we don't have that. Even back in the shutdown of
1995, there was a prioritization, and DoD and veterans were
taken off the table, which they are not right now.
So my question, Mr. Secretary is, don't you think VA
benefits certainly should get the same priority or
prioritization today as it has in other shutdown situations?
Secretary Shinseki. I missed the last piece of your
question, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Just basically, in years past, we have in
fact prioritized spending needs. DoD and VA has always been
basically taken off the table. And my question is, what is
different this time? And don't you think veterans' benefits in
fact should be prioritized at a higher level than others within
our Federal Government?
Secretary Shinseki. Mr. Chairman, I would just tell you
this department has benefited from the leadership of the
President and the leadership and support of the Congress. If
you look at what has transpired over the last 4 years to our
budgets, I think we can all be proud of what we have done to
take care of veterans. And I will always tell you that that is
a top priority with me.
But I do understand there is a budget request presented to
the Congress, there is a process that you referred to that
requires the passage of a budget. And within that, the
individual departments are then provided guidance on what their
budgets will be. I am not sure where the Congress is in that
process, but I would ask the Congress to provide us a budget so
that not only this department, but our partners in government,
on whom we rely to do our mission well, can get on with
business.
The Chairman. I think it is important to discuss the
differences between a budget and an appropriation, because it
has been conflated in the national media that because a budget
hasn't been passed, we can't appropriate money. In fact, we
have done it for a number of years now because we haven't been
able to come to an agreement on a budget.
We did pass in this House over 126 days ago now, by a large
bipartisan measure, and I would hope you would know, or have
some type of an idea of why the Senate is holding that so
tight, has chosen not to move that legislation forward. We
passed four different full appropriation bills. And I am hoping
that maybe you can help me understand why the Senate continues
not to act on the full, not a piecemeal, partial bill, but a
whole funding bill.
Secretary Shinseki. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your
confidence in my ability to sort through this for the Congress.
I would just claim to be just an average guy trying to do a job
here.
But here is what I am facing: I didn't know there was going
to be a shutdown; I had no idea that this was intended to
happen; And so the month of September is for me the end of a
fiscal year. What usually happens is, I am trying to get people
to tell me how they have finished what I have instructed them
to do throughout the year with the funds that the Congress has
provided, generously provided, and then anticipate that I will
have a budget on 1 October in which to understand how to make
that transition.
Because these transitions in the past have been difficult.
Congress authorizes a carryover opportunity, but it limits what
I can carry over. And so in one administration, it may be as
low as 4 percent, in another, it may go as high as 10 percent.
But these are limitations. I need to understand what we are
doing to close out properly, so I know what our carryover is
going to be, so that I can understand that we are meeting
Congress' intent, and then expecting that I am going to have a
budget in which to dovetail these activities into.
It usually takes me about 10 days at the end of a fiscal
year to be able to bring this to order. So about today, is when
I would have these factors coming together, and, in fact, this
week would have been the week that I would have my fiscal year
2014 execution meetings with the various accounts. I would just
tell you these factors are coming together daily, and there are
adjustments here in how much money is available, and the burn
rate at which those funds will last. And so, we are doing the
best we can.
Two things we are doing here--we are trying to keep our
operations going for as long as possible, where we are allowed
by exception under the law, to take care of as many veterans as
we can for as long as possible. The other thing I have to do,
is make sure I am taking care of our employees so that I am not
telling people that they are going to be furloughed, when in
fact they aren't going to be. So there is a period of time here
not to be alarmist. But at an appropriate moment, when we know
we are not going to have a budget and we are going to have to
take other steps, that we will inform our employees that they
are going to be furloughed. The ones that have been furloughed,
we have gone through this process.
But it is not just telling them you are furloughed, close
the door, and leave. We are going to get a budget here at some
point, Mr. Chairman. And what I want our offices to be able to
do is come back and, as soon as capable, be up and running at
full speed. And that requires us to close out in an orderly
function. If I would, you know, forgive me, I will fall back to
my own military experience. At the end of a day, I want
everyone in a fighting position to organize for whatever might
happen that night. Grenades in one location, rifles oriented in
the right direction, left and right aiming stakes, ammunition,
water, and be prepared. I want us to be in the same position,
that, when we have a budget, people go back to work, and we are
up at full speed, so we are taking care of veterans as quickly
as we can. I don't want to spend 30 days trying to figure out
how we get back to that point.
The Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
Mr. Michaud.
Mr. Michaud. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. And I can understand
why you can't predict what the Senate will do, or the House, as
far as that goes. But as I mentioned in my opening statement,
there are two areas we can solve this. One, the Senate can pass
the full appropriation bill that we passed about 4 months ago
to fund all of VA. Or the House can pass the clean Senate CR
that will get us--unfortunately it is still a CR--but it will
still move us beyond this particular point. And I understand
that even with the full MILCON/VA appropriation bill, there are
still services that veterans will not be able to receive
because other parts of the Federal Government are not up and
operating because of the shutdown. And I totally understand
that. But it is my hope that the bulk of the VA could be taken
care of.
My question to you, Mr. Secretary, you had mentioned trying
to get the staff back up and running once the shutdown is done.
If, say, today that Congress and the President was able to get
our act together, how long will it take the VA to get up and
running full steam ahead? And when will you be able to assess
some of the damages, particularly as it relates to the backlog,
that it will take to try to get back on track again?
Secretary Shinseki. I would say, Congressman, at this
point, in some sections, hours, to days in others, other
sections. But the longer we go, then the startup will just take
longer.
The fact is, I have indicated that 1 November, I will not
be able to pay all these beneficiaries who are expecting those
checks. I need the authorization, appropriations, and a budget
to be able to do that. And I don't do that independently. In
order to make those claims decisions, I link into IRS and
Social Security, with the Department of Education, Small
Business.
So I would say that what is best for veterans, and for all
of us right now, is a budget for the entire Federal Government.
Let us get back to work. The sooner we do it, the faster I get
back up to full speed.
Mr. Michaud. We did, a couple years ago, passed advanced
appropriations for the department of VHA. Are there some
components of that, even though they have advanced
appropriation, that you are not able do because of IT or some
other components of the VA that would actually hinder VHA in
providing the services that they need?
Secretary Shinseki. Well, we have had these discussions in
the past, Congressman. And you know that we are a little bit
bifurcated here. We get the generosity of the Congress advanced
appropriations for our Health Administration, so they are fully
funded on 1 October.
So the question how much of an impact? You know, 80 percent
of VA is functioning because our hospitals are open, our
community-based outpatient clinics are seeing patients, as are
our vet centers and our mobile clinics. And so that will
continue, and the impact to them is negligible.
Where we get a little bifurcated is where we have
authorization to do something with a facility and then we have
to wait for our IT budget to clear, and then we marry the two
up. It is something we have worked in the past. Are there
easier ways to handle this? I think down the road perhaps
worthy of discussion. But for right now, that would not be able
to turn on checks on 1 November, and that is my great concern
here.
And I don't want to be alarmist, but I want to speak for
the veterans who are looking in on this. Not only do we have a
large number of beneficiaries that are looking for those
checks, I have veterans myself that I employ, a third, over
100,000 veterans. A number of them are going to be subject to
furlough. And so, if they are furloughed and they are also
recipients of disability checks, their resources go to zero.
And then, I have the responsibility of trying to figure out how
to keep them from becoming homeless. And HUD plays in that
game. So this is a much larger challenge for us.
Mr. Michaud. Thank you very much. I yield back.
The Chairman. Mr. Denham.
Mr. Denham. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Secretary, as the Chairman outlined in his opening
statement, recently the House passed the Honoring Our Promise
to America's Veterans Act that, if signed into law, would
provide immediate funding for critical veterans benefits and
services, including disability claims, education, training,
many of the items you discussed in your testimony. But you also
made an important point when you stated that many services
veterans rely on are not housed directly within VA, like the
vets employment programs, the Small Business Administration
loans are two of those examples you cite in your testimony.
Could you expand on other types of these programs that would be
outside of that bill that we passed that is now sitting in the
Senate?
Secretary Shinseki. You mean other departments that are
impacted by this?
Mr. Denham. Impact our veterans that are outside of the VA
bill.
Secretary Shinseki. Sure. Our claims processing requires,
by law, our responsibility to check with the IRS for income
data, with Social Security for other benefits. And so that is
part of the process that we go through in completing our
claims.
Mr. Denham. Are you saying then that even if the Senate
passed the VA bill and the Senate were willing to sign that VA
funding bill, that there would still be some challenges because
of the interactivity with the IRS and their furloughs?
Secretary Shinseki. Exactly. It depends on the issue,
Congressman. It could have greater impact than on others. But
the impact is there. Education. Whether it is 9/11 GI Bill,
Montgomery GI Bill, vocational rehabilitation and employment,
there are ties that go to the Department of Education. So we
are not an independent operator here. Employment, veterans
employment, a high priority for us and for all of you.
Department of Labor plays in that. And as you indicated, Small
Business Administration does play as well.
Mr. Denham. Thank you. And second question, you and I have
talked several times about French Camp, a facility that borders
mine and Congressman McNerney's district, affecting all of our
veterans. The ongoing construction projects. Can you outline
what a protracted or a long delay in funding, or a long--a long
delay in funding would affect both our ongoing construction
projects, the staff at the VA Office of Construction and
Facilities Management, or the planning for future VA
construction projects?
Secretary Shinseki. Congressman, if I might, I will get
back to you with specifics on French Camp. It is just a little
more detail than I had time to brush up on. But let me just say
that in the office that overwatches construction, they also
have acquisition, logistics, and construction. So depending on
which of those topics, they are variously affected by the
shutdown.
In the case of construction, for those construction
activities that are underway, those will continue. Our
oversight responsibilities will be reduced. But we will
continue to provide oversight as best we can, ensuring that the
requirements of the contract are met. Here I am talking about
52 projects and about $12 billion of construction. And the
major projects will continue.
Design, on the other hand, about 20 projects may be
delayed, and may be significantly delayed depending on how long
this process goes. And so your question about French Camp, I
just need to find out exactly where we are in this process.
Other aspects of this, major leasing actions, about 33
projects liable to be delayed. And here, examples would be the
Greenville, North Carolina, outpatient clinic, South Bend,
Indiana, community-based outpatient clinic. Butler,
Pennsylvania, HCC. And so, you know, I would like to see these
uninterrupted, but there will be some delays here. And the
significance will be determined by how long the shutdown
continues.
Mr. Denham. Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
I yield back.
The Chairman. Thank you.
Ms. Brownley.
Ms. Brownley. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
And thank you, Mr. Secretary, for being here with us today.
And I certainly agree with your remarks on the importance of
passing a complete and clean continuing resolution that will
provide the certainty, I think Americans are looking for in
their government, and their leaders.
As you know, last week the House passed H.J. Resolution 72,
which was an attempt, I think, to provide some funding for our
Nation's veterans in the middle of this debate that we are
having. I think that particular bill still underfunded a lot of
different areas. And I wanted you, if you could, to just sort
of speak to those.
You have already mentioned, I think, a couple. But if you
could comment a little bit more specifically around, let's say,
the medical and prosthetic budget that I don't believe was
funded in that resolution. You have mentioned something, I
think a little on the technology piece. The Office of the
Inspector General. The grants to VA homes, grants to State
cemeteries and the like. If you could comment a little bit more
specifically about the impacts there.
Secretary Shinseki. Sure. As I indicated earlier, with
advanced appropriations for our health care administration, a
large portion of VA is fully funded. I would say well over 70,
approximately 80 percent, is funded. And those activities
continue. There are pieces of our medical activities that don't
come under advanced appropriations. And so, you have cited a
couple. Research is another area. And so those activities would
stop until we had a full budget.
Ms. Brownley. Thank you. And just to follow up on an area I
don't think we have spoken too much about so far, having to do
with the GI bill, and what that will mean to veterans who are
enrolled in colleges and universities across the country, does
that mean that they can't continue, they need to drop out? How
are we going to handle that?
Secretary Shinseki. So what I would say here is two
accounts I am dealing with. One is the carryover appropriations
of money that were not expended in 2013. This carryover in the
Benefits Administration, I think roughly $40 million, was used
to keep that office open as long as possible to take care of
all the various categories of claims: education among them,
disability, pension, compensation, vocational rehab and
education claims.
That money, that was exhausted on 7 October. So on the 8th,
we furloughed over 7,800 of the workforce in the Benefits
Administration. We still have about 13,000 people working,
because we have under the law declared them excepted, and they
are excepted because in the other account, the mandatory
funding account, which currently has money in it, that will end
before the end of the month. And so we have these folks
processing claims. And where it is appropriate to make a
decision today and pay today, retroactive claims, for example,
to pay that back pay, if you will, we are doing that.
But every payment we make reduces the amount of mandatory
funds, and before the end of the month, this account will be
exhausted. At that point, these 13,000 or so people who are
doing this will have no reason to continue to function because
the necessary implication clause that allows them to work will
be exceeded when the mandatory account is exhausted. And at
that point, they will be furloughed, and our Veterans Benefits
Administration will be reduced to, you know, something over a
thousand, maybe less than 1,500 folks, who will continue to
operate in our 56 regional offices and our call center.
And the reason for that is, every veteran who submits a
claim, we are required to accept it, date stamp it, so there is
a place in line for them to be recognized when funding is
restored. For education claims, students who are currently in
school, and as those come up, we will pay those like we do the
retroactive claims. But at some point, that is a draw on the
mandatory account, and that will end before the end of this
month. And I will be required to furlough a large portion of
that 13,000 workforce.
Ms. Brownley. Thank you, sir. And again, I appreciate you
being here.
I yield back.
The Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Brownley.
Mr. Runyan, you are recognized.
Mr. Runyan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Secretary, thanks again for your testimony. You kind of
answered a couple of my questions over there. But what is the
last day of this calendar month that you can process all award
payments for timely receipt on the first of the month?
Secretary Shinseki. It is again. It will be later this
month, towards the end of the month. You know, the exact day is
going to be determined by, pardon the term, the burn rate here.
And once the mandatory account is no longer solvent, then we
will stop.
But we are processing claims as fast and as hard as we can,
as we were before 1 October, to ensure that we get as many of
those claims ready to be paid as soon as the budget is
provided. And that is the description I give our folks about
setting up your fighting position. When the budget is provided,
we go to work and we start, you know, paying benefits.
Mr. Runyan. Has there been any discussion within your
department and/or your staff on prioritization of claims, i.e.
fully disabled, that type of thing, as you get near that
deadline come the first of the month?
Secretary Shinseki. Well, there are a good portion, I would
say over 400,000, 100 percent disabled veterans who will be
affected by our inability to deliver checks on 1 November. Five
million beneficiaries, over 5 million, 5.18 million, I think is
a closer number. But there are a good portion of them, as I
indicated, who are 100 percent disabled. And amongst them there
will be survivors, surviving spouses, children orphaned by the
death of their servicemember or veteran parent.
Mr. Runyan. But there has been no discussion of priority
there? You are just doing it as they go through the process?
Secretary Shinseki. Well, we are operating at, while we
have the funds to operate, we do prioritize in our processing
of claims for financially challenged veterans or claimants,
Medal of Honor recipients, former prisoners of war, terminally
ill. And then we add to that fully developed claims, because
they are easier to process.
But in the processing business, that is where we give
priority. And then we work the remainder of the claims. And I
would say in September, we produced the biggest production
output since I have been here, 128,000 claims. But once it goes
into the payment process, Congressman, then there is a sequence
that goes along with how they have been put in line.
Mr. Runyan. Going to the--hopefully when we get out of this
mess--obviously chairing the DAMA Subcommittee here, dealing
with the claims is a project. Can you provide information on
VBA's funding and the future plans for use of mandatory
overtime to address the backlog? Mandatory use in the future to
impact the backlog.
Secretary Shinseki. Mandatory overtime?
Mr. Runyan. Yeah.
Secretary Shinseki. We use mandatory overtime. It is a
device that has been used over the last several years when we
see an opportunity, and we want to get more production because
for some reason, we have gotten a little behind. And so in May,
we declared we were going to do this until the end of the year.
Our 2014 budget has $50 million in it for overtime, and
that is essentially what I was counting on, on 1 October, to be
able to transition to that. So we do have a plan. We do need
that piece of the budget recognized so we can resume our
overtime option.
Part of what we, as we began to close out the year, before
we knew that a shutdown was going to occur, and as we were
trying to assess how much carryover we were going to have, we
thought we were going to be able to carry over $40 million to
apply, to add to the $50 million that is in the budget, to give
us a good run at the year of additional overtime, so the
numbers would be up there, closer to $100 million, $90 million
or so. That $40 million was used to keep our operation going
for as long as possible, to get as many claims lined up before
the end of the month.
Mr. Runyan. I thank you for that. Because we had a hearing
about some difficulty with Legislative Affairs a couple weeks
back, and have had issues with getting an answer like that from
them. So I appreciate that.
Yield back.
The Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Runyan.
Ms. Kirkpatrick, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
Mrs. Kirkpatrick. Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
One of the important projects that the VA has been working
on is the transition to a paperless system for claims benefit
processing. And yet in your written testimony, you say on
Monday, 2,764 OIT employees were furloughed. And then the 7,800
VBA employees furloughed yesterday.
Would you describe for me and for our Committee what impact
those furloughs are going to have on that transition to the
paperless system? Right now, give us a snapshot right now this
week, and then what it looks like if this shutdown continues
into November.
Secretary Shinseki. Very important question. Congresswoman,
as you know, we have set a long-term goal of ending the backlog
in 2015. Key to that has been the automated system we have put
into place, and we finished fielding that 6 months ahead of
schedule, in June. That is fielding the sort of, the basic
model. And much like any IT operation, you have newer versions
that add capability, give you more robustness, and then reduce
the workload.
So all of those plans that have been in place, we have had
to put a hold on. There is no new development work being done
for VBMS. And there is much to be done if we are going to get
this up to where we expected we would have it, to be able to
hold our target of ending the backlog in 2015. I haven't given
up on that. I am hoping that we will have an opportunity here
to get back on track. But the longer we go, the more difficult
that becomes.
What I would like to assure you, though, is that I am
allowed by the rules to maintain what we have. I can't add, I
can't make it better, I can't increase capability. But I can
and will maintain the operation. So if computers are having
problems, I have sufficient workforce to be able to bring them
back online.
Mrs. Kirkpatrick. But basically, what you are saying is any
progress in that project has come to a screeching halt.
Secretary Shinseki. That is correct.
Mrs. Kirkpatrick. And let me just ask you, Secretary, you
are a general with an outstanding, distinguished combat record.
And, you know, Congress voted to pay Federal employees when the
shutdown ends. So they are going to be paid. Does it make any
sense to you to not allow them to work?
Secretary Shinseki. I can't think of any. And they are
ready to work. I would just refer to the folks in the Benefits
Administration who have brought this backlog down, 193,000
claims in about 190 days. Lots of folks wondered whether we
were going to be able do it. VBMS will be important to that
effort, but VBMS is just coming online. So all of this work was
done by good folks in the benefits administration. I would
speak for them. They are disappointed that the ground they
gained is being lost day by day.
Mrs. Kirkpatrick. I just want to thank you for your
leadership under the department, and thank your employees for
their good hard work. Thank you.
And I yield back.
The Chairman. Thank you very much. I would like to remind
my colleague that only the House has passed a bill that would
allow for furloughed workers to be paid. The Senate continues
to hold fast in not helping us resolve this particular
situation.
Dr. Benishek.
Mr. Benishek. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you, Mr. Secretary, for being here today.
I, like all of my colleagues, would like to see this
shutdown put behind us as soon as possible, and frankly, wish
that the appropriation process went on in regular order, that
we would have passed the appropriate appropriations for all of
the segments of our government. I am happy that the House has
passed the military construction and VA bill in a bipartisan
fashion, and hope that the Senate acts on that. And frankly, I
think that the entire government should be funded in that usual
fashion, that this policy of continuing resolution is just a
bad policy. But nevertheless, you know, I understand that we
have to get something done.
I had a couple of questions about the communication between
the VA and the Committee here. As I understand it, and correct
me if I am wrong, is that apparently the department issued a
notice in late September that 95 percent of VA employees would
be either fully funded or exempted from furloughs. Now, is that
incorrect?
Secretary Shinseki. I would ask for the opportunity to go
and retrieve whatever this announcement you are referring to.
But I would say that if you look at VA as a whole, 90 percent
of us are in VHA, and they are fully funded. And so as of 1
October, our hospitals are seeing patients, community-based
outpatient clinics are operating. So if this is the 95 percent
that is being referred to, I would say I can understand why
that information was provided.
But again, Congressman, trying to close out 2013 and
understanding what kind of resource capability we are going to
have, expecting that we are going to have a budget on 1
October, knowing that VHA had a budget because it was passed
last year through the advanced appropriations provision that
you all have provided. So I think the 95 percent here is
referring to VHA because of advanced appropriations.
Mr. Benishek. Yeah, okay. And, frankly, I tend to agree
with you on the advanced funding issue. Frankly, I don't see
why we don't have 2-year budgeting for everything. You know, it
would allow us more time to get the appropriations done. But
the President on September 30 indicated that some PTSD
counseling would be affected by the shutdown. Is that true?
Secretary Shinseki. I would say we are open for business at
VA. And I believe, as I have said, we have ties to other
departments. The IHS and HHS, the Indian Health Service, we
have veterans being served there who, if those operations are
not funded, are not being seen for any variety of requirements,
PTSD being one.
Mr. Benishek. All right.
Secretary Shinseki. Alaskan natives who are veterans that
we provide services to through either the consortium there or
through IHS are probably not being seen. And that is why I say,
we can focus on VA as long as we understand that there is a
broader group.
Mr. Benishek. Right. And understand that the cooperation
with other departments is going to be hindered by this
situation. There is no medical centers being shut down, though,
right? All the CBOCs are going to be open. That is correct. Is
that right?
Secretary Shinseki. There is one that is affected, and that
is the North Chicago Lovell Health Care Center. It is a joint
initiative between the United States Navy and VA. It operates
off a joint account in which we each contribute dollars. So
that is affected.
Mr. Benishek. Why is that being affected? I thought we
funded, the President signed a bill that funded the military.
Secretary Shinseki. The authorization to continue to fund
that is the issue. However, we have excepted all of the
civilian staff, excepted meaning that they will continue to
work, continue to see servicemembers and veterans and families.
And then, we will look for an opportunity then to make right
their compensation.
Mr. Benishek. Okay. Well, I know I would really like to get
this behind us. And I take this opportunity to urge my Senate
colleagues to come to the table and let's get this figured out.
So thank you very much.
I am out of time.
Secretary Shinseki. Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you, Dr. Benishek.
Ms. Kuster, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. Kuster. Thank you very much.
And thank you, Secretary Shinseki, for being with us today.
My question has to do with the vet centers and the services
that in my district in New Hampshire are particularly valuable,
the counseling, the group therapy, and just having a place to
go. And I am just wondering where this falls in the shutdown.
Secretary Shinseki. All 300 vet centers will continue to
operate. They are covered under the Health Administration's
appropriation. So they are funded for the year.
Ms. Kuster. Okay. Thank you.
And then my next question has to do with the November 1st
payments. Could you give us a more accurate sense here? I mean
we very much want a clean continuing resolution to get the
country back to work, get the government back to work. But each
day that goes by seems to be critical in this. I would imagine
with the number of checks that go out there is a process and a
procedure that takes a period of time. Could you give us a
sense--you have talked about the end of the month--could you
give us a sense of the number of days that a delay in reopening
the government would cause a delay in those payments being
received after the 1st of November?
Secretary Shinseki. Sure. The mandatory account, it is the
account against which I am writing checks, so to speak,
processing claims and having them ready to be executed, but as
that account has demands written against it, it is exhausted at
some point before the end of the month. And the reason I can't
be more specific is the rate at which I am able to do this.
But before the end of the month, the mandatory account will
not support payments in November, even though I have checks,
you know, lined up to draw against it. I think I indicated
$6.25 billion of requirements, and I will be down to about $2
billion. And if I can't pay it all, it stops.
And so on 1 November, right now, unless I can provide
mandatory funding to make the account solvent again, 1
November, I will not be sending checks out.
Ms. Kuster. And could you give us a sense of the scope of
that, the types of people whose lives will be irreparably
harmed and sort of the categories and the numbers of that
devastation?
Secretary Shinseki. I think I gave sort of a rough
population here of 5.18 million beneficiaries. And these are
compensation payments, these are pension payments, these are
education payments, and vocational rehabilitation and
employment payments as well. And within this category are
veterans. There are also servicemembers, because we have active
duty members who participate in some of our programs. We have
surviving spouses and children who have lost parents.
Ms. Kuster. And I know you can't speculate as to people's
lives, but would you say that these are people that generally
don't have a lot of savings to fall back on, that missing this
type of disability check or this type of compensation check
could really set them back?
Secretary Shinseki. Our eligibility for VA benefits is
usually income-based. And so, I would say that a large portion
of the beneficiaries we service are lower waged and are in need
of our help. There will be those who, by virtue of the severity
of their combat injuries, will qualify because of that. But by
and large, our patient population is older, sicker, and in need
of support.
Ms. Kuster. Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
And I yield back my time.
I hope that--I appreciate you coming today, and I hope that
your testimony will cause all of us to redouble our efforts to
get the government back to work. Thank you for your service.
The Chairman. Mr. Secretary, did I hear you say that
disability is income-based, or--
Secretary Shinseki. No, I said there are some, because by
virtue of the severity of their disabilities, come in at a
higher category here--
The Chairman. So people--
Secretary Shinseki.--but in the broad categories.
The Chairman. So people with shaving bumps, or sleep apnea,
or hemorrhoids, or all of those disabilities that are out there
today, that is--they get that regardless of the income,
correct?
Secretary Shinseki. Well, Mr. Chairman, you are getting
into some detail here that I will probably want to give you a
better answer for.
The Chairman. Okay.
Secretary Shinseki. I would just tell you that I will do my
best to answer your questions on some of those issues, but 1
November, no mandatory account, 5.18 million beneficiaries do
not receive checks. And in response to the Congresswoman's
question, a large portion of them are compensation--or
beneficiary checks are crucial to their being able to have
order in their lives.
The Chairman. Mr. Huelskamp.
Mr. Huelskamp. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the
opportunity.
And I really find this a difficult question to ask you, Mr.
Shinseki, given the discussion we have had, but do you think
Senator Reid doesn't like our veterans or the VA in particular?
Mr. Walz. Mr. Chairman--
Mr. Huelskamp. It is a tough question. The reason I ask
that, Mr. Secretary, is that, as the Chairman has indicated,
127 days ago, the U.S. House passed the appropriations; 105
days ago, the Appropriations Committee actually sent it to the
floor of the U.S. Senate; and for 105 days now, Senator Harry
Reid has refused to bring the appropriations to a vote in the
U.S. Senate. Have you visited with the Senator and asked him,
could you please, Mr. Reid, bring that to a vote in the U.S.
Senate?
Secretary Shinseki. Mr. Huelskamp, I am happy to answer the
question about Senator Reid. Personally, I think he very highly
values veterans.
As to why we are unable, Congress is unable to do its
business, I will leave to the Members to discuss.
Mr. Huelskamp. Okay. Well, and I appreciate that, and you
mentioned Congress, but it is an issue in the U.S. Senate.
And have you visited with the Senator, to see if the
appropriations are--I know have been disappointed in the House,
that 4 out of 12 appropriations bill is all we passed through
the U.S. House, and that includes your budget. That means 8 out
of 12 have not passed here, but 12 out of 12 have not passed in
the U.S. Senate, and that has been the case now since 2009.
Is there any indication in your visits with the Senator
that they would consider at least passing your appropriations,
Mr. Shinseki, and I appreciate the work you have done to
continue to meet the needs of our veterans in this shutdown
period.
Secretary Shinseki. To your specific question, have I
visited Senator Reid over this, I would answer I have not.
Mr. Huelskamp. Okay.
Secretary Shinseki. That is not something that I would
ordinarily do. I deal with this Committee and with the
appropriate Committee in the Senate when it comes to my budget,
and that is where the work is done.
Mr. Huelskamp. And I haven't compared the budget that came
out of the Senate Appropriations Committee compared to what
came through the House by a pretty wide margin, and hopefully,
it would meet your needs. I would encourage, perhaps, that
conversation to take place.
I would ask you specifically about cemeteries. Are all of
your cemeteries still open for business, and would they be
impacted in late October, like you have indicated for other
programs?
Secretary Shinseki. Congressman, that is a great question.
I will tell you that our operations will continue. At some
point here in the next days to weeks, we will expend our
carryover moneys for NCA, and we will be furloughing a good
portion of the force.
However, our cemeteries will go into a modified burial
schedule, which means, we will continue taking care of families
and burying our honored, but it won't be at the rate that we
had planned or would like.
Our cemeteries will be open for our normal hours, which is
sunrise to sunset. You may see some of our maintenance
standards go a bit because we won't be able to maintain the
high standards we would like to have, but that is all
retrievable once we have a budget.
But the focus here is on taking care of families on a most
painful day for them and making sure that they feel that their
veteran is respected and has been accorded a dignified burial.
Mr. Huelskamp. Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
I appreciate that assurance, and your current work to make
sure that is available for our veterans and, obviously, their
families as well. I mean, you have seen the images of other
Federal places and locations that have been barricaded to our
veterans, but I want to make certain we keep the cemeteries
open, and I appreciate your work in doing that and making
certain that does occur.
And I yield back my time, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you.
And I think it does go without saying that we all care
about the veterans of this country, and what we do have is a
failure to communicate, negotiate. And there has been a
breakdown in the institutional process of how appropriation
bills are in fact passed through both Houses of Congress.
If I am not mistaken, I think the VA MilCon bill that has
been passed out of the House only had four dissenting votes. So
suffice it to say that it was an extremely bipartisan piece of
legislation.
Mr. Walz, you are recognized.
Mr. Walz. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to echo that.
I would like to give the gentleman 30 seconds to apologize
to Senator Reid if he would like to do that. That is beneath
this Congress and certainly beneath this Committee on
questioning someone's commitment to veterans.
We may have differences on policy and ideology. We
certainly don't have differences on love of this country. So I
would give my 30 seconds to the gentleman if he wishes to claim
it.
Mr. Huelskamp. Thank you, Mr. Walz, and I was asking the
question, given that it is very clear, as the Chairman has
indicated, that Senator Reid controls the calendar and has the
opportunity to move that bill to the floor. And since this
shutdown has occurred, unless there was some recorded votes
yesterday, we have had 7 days in which there has been not a
single--
Mr. Walz. I reclaim my time.
I am disappointed, to say the least.
I hope that goes on record. One of the things I would say
about this, is this Committee, and I am incredibly proud to
serve on it, is one of the few places that still works in
Congress. The collaboration in here is incredible. The work
that is done down to the granular level by Subcommittees
actually have power, and that is a testament to you, Mr.
Chairman, that you give that power to people.
And I sat in this very chair arguing and making the case
for advanced appropriations on VHA with my colleagues, and we
did that. That was progress. We have sat here and made
progress.
You know, Mr. Secretary, the work you have done, I am
incredibly proud of it, and I have said it time and time again.
I am your staunchest supporter but your harshest critic. When
you get it wrong and something happens in Pittsburgh, we bring
it up here, and we discuss it, and we figure out how to make it
better. And the conscience that sits behind you representing
millions of veterans expects that of us. And it still works and
what is so disappointing about this is, and what is so
disappointing when we get into this, we are wasting valuable
time and resources by a self-inflicted wound that should be
going toward our veterans. And it is so frustrating.
And what happens, and I appreciate my colleagues on this,
but here is what happens: It starts to be cancerous into this
Committee. Last week, when the bill came up on the veterans to
try and do them in the CR and to try and make the case, be very
clear about this, you are trying to find ways, and I respect
that, but in that bill, and Mr. Runyan was out in Preston and
held a field hearing and made a great case for a veterans'
cemetery that has been needed for decades in southern
Minnesota.
There is a grant process that you administered, Mr.
Secretary, that ranked us number one. Three weeks ago, we got
that notice, and there was a thank you from thousands, 56,000
veterans in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa, that were
going to get that.
Last week's bill zeroed that out.
Now, I know you didn't do that on purpose, to stick it in
the eye of my veterans, but I can't support that. But within
180 seconds of my vote, the campaign committee, on the
Republican side, sent out an attack that I don't support
veterans by not doing that. There is lots of reasons to tell
people not to vote for me. Not supporting veterans isn't one of
them. We worked as partners to get that right. And that is
where we get the point where people's disgust, people's anger,
people's frustration, we can come together.
And the continuous going back and forth, the continuous
question, I don't question a single person's commitment to our
veterans, or love of their country. I think you are wrong on
some of the policies. This is the place to debate that; not a
Martial Law rule that goes to the floor with no amendments, so
the campaign committees can send out an attack ad and try and
win an election while veterans are sitting at home saying, Why
do I hate Congress? Do I need to see any more proof?
So, Mr. Secretary, I am frustrated you are here. I
appreciate you trying to go at this. I understand where some of
the questions are going, that this wouldn't be just so bad if
you just prioritized differently and picked the stuff I like
and not the other stuff, but the questions I was going to ask,
you answered. Interagency collaboration is breaking down. That
is incredibly important. It helps move forward. IT, and as it
impacts electronic medical records that we fought together, for
7 years, I have been sitting here trying to get that right,
that progress is going backwards. So I don't really have any
questions for you.
I trust that you--and the thing I would say about this is,
the comment that we shouldn't be talking about furloughs or
whatever, the VA is an organization of people. Furloughs are
the most critical issue in that. There is a reason that the VA
health care is the best in the world. It is because of the
people. And when those people have uncertainty, those people
are laid off, those people are not there, it can impact. That
is why we advance appropriated.
But you know it yourself; Mr. Runyan asked a beautiful
question--I am in 100 percent agreement with him--not having
the IT budget advance appropriated has a beautiful MRI machine
unhooked in New Jersey that can't help patients in some cases,
brought that up. That doesn't make any sense, and we should be
today talking about that.
And I compliment and end with, the Chairman and the Ranking
Member have approached this the right way. The fix to this, and
the way to remove veterans, and we anticipated 3 years ago when
we did advance appropriations, remove veterans from this fight.
Don't allow people to grandstand and use them as pawns and
continue to work to go forward. Their suggestion on the
advanced appropriation on the full VA funding is the way to go.
And with that, I thank you and I yield back.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Mr. Walz.
If I can ask the Committee's indulgence for just one second
and recognize Ms. Kirkpatrick for an introduction.
Mrs. Kirkpatrick. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I just wanted to welcome to the Committee Mr. and Mrs.
Somers, who are in the back of the room. Their son, Daniel, an
Arizona veteran committed suicide earlier this year. We are
going to be doing a roundtable with them in this Committee room
at 1:30, and so I just wanted to acknowledge their presence in
Committee.
Welcome, and invite everybody to participate in the
roundtable at 1:30.
I yield back.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Ms. Kirkpatrick.
We welcome the Somers to the Committee room, and to
Congress. We certainly add our condolences to you, and thank
you for your son's service, and we are extremely sorry for your
loss.
With that, Mr. Amodei, you are recognized.
Mr. Amodei. Thanks, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Secretary, going back to the cemetery thing for just a
second, under the heading of triage until something changes, do
your present procedures allow, on a case-by-case basis, if
there is private funding available, to go ahead and either
compensate the VA personnel at cemeteries to perform burials in
a timely manner? Is there anything that would prevent if
somebody said, Listen, we want to pay the expense to go ahead
and do this in the normal, instead of warehousing people? Is
there an ability, is there anything that prohibits that from
happening?
Secretary Shinseki. Congressman, I am not aware that there
is anything that prohibits that. But again, we try to serve all
the veterans that come to us in as equitable manner as we can,
at least the appearance of equal treatment. And so just let me
research that and come back to you.
What I will tell you is, we continue our burial operations,
just at a rate less than we are accustomed to. Last year,
122,000 veterans were laid to rest.
Mr. Amodei. Well, and I appreciate that.
I am just saying, if an instance develops somewhere in a
country at a cemetery where somebody says, it is going to be a
few weeks and they say, we will go ahead and incur the expense,
or somebody comes forward and says, we will incur the expense
to have it happen in 3 days from now, or something like that,
it is not something--or I guess my question that you will get
back to me on is, there is nothing that prohibits an infusion
of funds from a non-appropriated private source to allow
somebody to do that in whatever the customary manner is in the
instance?
Secretary Shinseki. Congressman, my guess is, if it were
permitted, I would be doing it now. My guess is that these are
funded positions, and people have been put on furlough because
of the law. And I want to be careful here that I don't suggest
that we have ways to work around it. But I will take a look at
it.
Mr. Amodei. Well, and I appreciate it. When you look at it,
make very certain it is at no cost to the government, so it is
reimbursement for whatever the costs are, so if furloughed
people have to be brought back at non-government expense, then
there better be a pretty long opinion that says, no, we will
not allow somebody to pay our folks to inter these people in
the normal course of events, whatever that expense may be.
And with that, I will yield back. Thank you very much, Mr.
Secretary.
Secretary Shinseki. May I just conclude this thought, Mr.
Chairman?
The Chairman. Yes.
Secretary Shinseki. I would say that the law directed
furlough, and it is less the cost, but it is the decision that
drove us to do this, and I want to be sure that I am clear on
the law before I answer you. It is less how much it costs. I
think there is a requirement for me here to be in compliance.
Mr. Amodei. Well, then, if I may, Mr. Chairman to that, I
think there is also a requirement for you to look at the
overall mission, which is bigger than the law. So when you look
at those laws, I get the furlough. I just want to make sure
that everything in VA is looked at, so that those trying to be
interred in a cemetery get the full benefit of all of the laws
before the little situation that we are in now. Thank you.
Secretary Shinseki. I am happy to do that.
The Chairman. And Mr. Secretary, I know we are still in a
very fluid situation, but we reached out and asked, you know,
we were talking about PTS and Indian Health Service and whether
or not they could get their health provided there. The IHS
document we have says that employees at the Indian Health
Service will provide direct health service to tribal citizens,
and will largely be unaffected by the shutdown, and that they
would continue to provide direct clinical health care services
as well as referrals for contract services that cannot be
provided through their clinics.
So, you know, again, we are just somewhat confused as to
the comment that was made in regard to post-traumatic stress,
which I think everybody on this Committee is very concerned
with. And I get it. Your statement that you came in here with
today, paints the worst possible picture that is out there. But
in your statement, it does not talk about the hundreds of
thousands of VA employees that are still working and the health
care that is provided. So we just want to be honest with the
questions and the comments that are provided. I am not saying
that you were not. I am just saying that there was an inference
earlier on that veterans with post-traumatic stress would not,
in fact, get their treatment and we are finding that there
appears to be no corner anywhere in which they will not have
that treatment provided to them.
Mr. O'Rourke, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. O'Rourke. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Secretary, thank you for the presentation and your
answer and responses to our questions and statements so far. I
think they have been helpful.
I wanted to add to a comment you made about the VA and
veterans being dependent on other Federal departments and
agencies that may or may not be funded in a piecemeal mini-
continuing resolution approach. I want to note that there are
nearly 600,000 veterans who work for the Federal Government and
that constitutes nearly 30 percent of the entire Federal
workforce. So these men and women who have served our country,
who are being furloughed or who are working without a clear
idea of when they are being paid, are being hurt regardless of
what we are able to do when it comes to funding the VA and the
different agencies and departments within the VA.
That is especially important to me as a Representative for
El Paso, Texas, where we have the fifth highest concentration
of Federal employees of any community in the country; 43,000
people that I represent work for the Federal Government. And
you know, if that 27 percent holds true, well over 10,000 of
them are veterans who are being affected by this current
shutdown. So I think it adds to the point that you made that we
cannot afford to look at this on a piecemeal basis.
And when I look at the options to get out of this, I want
to, in the spirit of cooperation, join my colleagues in urging
the Senate and our Federal Government to move forward on
advance funding for military construction and Veterans'
Affairs. I think that is critical.
In the short term, I think our best option is what everyone
refers to as a clean-funding bill or a clean CR, that funds all
of your services and programs and personnel at a sustainable
level. The piecemeal approach that we saw last week, and I
appreciate those who wanted to address the issue that way, but
it had zero dollars for medical and prosthetic research, no
funding for the National Cemetery Administration, no money for
general administration, information technology, at a point
where we are trying to get veterans who want to file fully
developed claims to do that online because when they do that,
their wait time which is now 450 days in El Paso, comes down
under 100 days.
And if we are not funding IT, we are not helping them to
get the response that they need, and that they deserve, and
that they have earned. Construction on major projects and minor
projects is zeroed out, as are grants to state VA homes and VA
cemeteries. That is why I support a clean funding bill, no
strings attached. Let's fund the entire Federal Government,
perhaps on a short-term basis, where we can work out some
larger deal. That to me is the quickest, cleanest way to help
everyone involved, especially our veterans. And I think that is
why presidents and leaders of national veteran service
organizations have come out against a piecemeal approach. They
want to see us tackle this comprehensively. I know that is what
you are trying to do, and I think that is what ultimately all
of us want to do.
To add to those national VSOs, we reached out yesterday to
our local VSOs, said I am going to have a chance to ask
questions of the Secretary, would like to know what you want me
to ask. And much of it you have already addressed.
Timothy Blodgett of the DAV, Post 165, says, ``The VBA
budget is just as important as the VHA budget,'' and I think we
all agree with that and we want to see that that moves forward.
David Nevarez of the American GI Forum is concerned about
an issue that you brought up: What happens if the shutdown
persists and we have veterans who are now in homes who are
homeless? Will you have the resources to take care of them?
Richard Britton, a vice commander of the American Legion
talks about shutdown exacerbating problems that veterans
already have.
David Garcia, commander of the DAV, Post 187, talks about
veterans who are recipients of VA and Social Security benefits
having a really hard time after November 1st.
And then Kay Davis, president of Veterans of Foreign Wars,
actually came up with a solution. Her solution was term limits
for Members of Congress if we are unable to figure this problem
out.
But the frustration and the questions really are not with
you. They are with us. And with the need to respond to this in
a way that will get the government up and running, functioning
again for all departments because veterans work in all of them,
for all veteran services, because veterans are impacted by all
of them, and again, from my perspective, the quickest, cleanest
way to do this, and we could have the government up and running
tonight, is to vote for a clean funding bill.
So, Mr. Secretary, again, thank you for your presence
today, for answering our questions, and commenting on our
statements. My time is up, so I will yield back to the
Chairman, but thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Mr. Coffman, you are recognized.
Mr. Coffman. Thank you, Mr. Secretary, and also thank the
men and women that work--I like to thank the men and women that
work for your department to take care of those who have made so
many sacrifices in defense of our freedom.
My question goes to the four hospitals that are under
construction by the VA. And VA contingency plan states that
certain, quote, ``major construction and facilities management
support functions will be suspended,'' unquote during the
shutdown. What has been the status of the four ongoing major
projects in Aurora, Las Vegas, Orlando, and New Orleans during
the shutdown?
Secretary Shinseki. Congressman, I indicated that where we
have work underway on site, that work will continue. Our
administrative oversight responsibilities will be diminished,
but we will exercise those responsibilities. Payments to
contractors and therefore payments to the subs, an
administrative process that will be slowed. But, in time,
payment will be made. We just don't have the folks to do that
as robustly as we would like. But in terms of site work with
supervision, that will continue in those locations you
described.
Mr. Coffman. Mr. Secretary, as you know, the payment has
already been--the process has already been very slow according
to a GAO report that came out in April.
Secretary Shinseki. Yes.
Mr. Coffman. In terms of these setbacks that you talk
about, will they affect, in your view, the completion date and
the budget totals for each project for these four major
hospitals?
Secretary Shinseki. Our work is slowed. The longer this
goes, --I would be concerned that we begin to affect the end of
the project, that we continue to slide project execution to the
right.
Mr. Coffman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I yield back.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Mr. Takano, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Takano. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I wish to associate myself with the remarks with the
gentleman from Texas, Mr. O'Rourke. I think he stated very
clearly my sentiments about what needs to be done, a clean CR.
I also want to thank the Chairman for the tone he set for this
Committee, very bipartisan sentiments. I think you, Mr.
Chairman, understand that each of us on this Committee,
regardless of party, have a deep and sincere commitment to our
Nation's veterans.
So I thank you for that, Mr. Chairman.
Let me also state that, you know, beyond the bipartisan
bill that we passed on MilCon veterans, even the Budget Control
Act of 2011 reflects that bipartisan spirit and the fact that
it exempted the Veterans Administration from sequestration
cuts. And it is my belief that--it is my conjecture that what
is happening in the Senate and the holdup with consideration of
this bill has to do with the complexities of sequestration and
the divisions that are occurring between our two sides. I mean,
there is a reluctance to pass all of the appropriations bills
until we see in toto what we are dealing with in terms of
whether we are going to--how we are going to have to deal with
that limit, whether we are going to lift it or some negotiation
is going to happen over that.
We need to get to negotiations on the bigger picture. I
cherish this Committee. I cherish being on it because it is one
of--one corner of the Congress that is still functional. And I
want to fight fiercely to keep that spirit, and I thank the
Chairman for the small ways in this Committee that he has tried
to keep that alive.
And I have to--I yield back the balance of my time. I have
to go back to a meeting in my office.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Looks like Dr. Wenstrup is gone.
Mr. Bilirakis, you are recognized.
Mr. Bilirakis. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you for your testimony, General.
General, let's summarize again, I walked in just a little
late in your statement, but which programs I understand because
of legislation that we passed, the VA, the health care, the
outpatient clinics, the hospitals, the CBOCs are protected, is
that correct? They will not be impacted.
But tell me which programs will be impacted because of--due
to the shutdown. I think our constituents have a right to know,
and if you could briefly summarize, I would appreciate it very
much.
Secretary Shinseki. Congressman, the Veterans Health
Administration, because of its special opportunity to have
advance appropriations, courtesy of the Congress, is funded.
And so that is hospitals, medical centers, hospitals, vet
centers, community-based output clinics, and every version of
health care center in-between.
Mr. Bilirakis. No exception, correct?
Secretary Shinseki. No.
Mr. Bilirakis. No exception. They will be funded.
Secretary Shinseki. The only exception where there is
impact is North Chicago, where I say it is operating, but it is
in an excepted category. Everyone else in the VA system is
fully funded.
Mr. Bilirakis. Okay, thank you very much.
Which programs will be impacted in your opinion and if you
can give me some deadlines. I know we went through a lot of
this, but I would like for you to summarize.
Secretary Shinseki. All of the other programs that are not
advanced funded are impacted and being impacted. And some of
this is the degree to which, and when they are going to be
impacted is a function of how much 2013 residual carryover
funds we have available, a device that the Congress authorizes,
certain percentages that we are allowed to use as carryover to
transition between budget years. But if this continues, every
one of our departments will be impacted. We have a requirement
in the Benefits Administration, even if we have expended the
mandatory account and therefore have no necessary implication,
this is one of the clauses for exception, to keep people
working, at that point, there will be a significant requirement
to furlough our workforce, who will be working until the end of
this month, toward the end of this month. Thereafter, we will
have roughly 1,000 folks operating in the 56 regional offices
to ensure that we can receive, account, date stamp and control
claims that are--will continue to be submitted, both through
the normal process, and through the call centers. So there are
people working in the call center as well.
Mr. Bilirakis. Okay, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
I yield back. Thank you, General.
The Chairman. Mrs. Negrete McLeod.
Mrs. Negrete McLeod. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Secretary, I know that you said that the VA not only
deals with the VA, but other departments also, and so those
veterans receiving educational benefits and stipends under the
GI bill and that are attending school now because school has
already started at various institutions, what will happen after
November the 1st, you know, if they won't get their money? Have
you talked to the colleges, the institutions, the universities?
Secretary Shinseki. Congresswoman, we are doing everything
we can while we have mandatory funds available, at least two
accounts, two categories that we will expend money to cover
immediately. One is the retroactive aspects of a claim. So
someone who is due money for previous authorization up until
this point, to the best of our ability, we pay those, and for
students currently in school, we pay those as well.
But that draws down this mandatory account I am speaking
about. So, on 1 November, before the end of this month, it will
be in a situation where I can no longer pay. And the 1 November
payments that should be going out will not be able to do that
unless more mandatory funding is provided.
So it is, if there is funding in the mandatory account,
which has got to come through appropriation, then I can accept
people to continue to work to draw that down. Without that, by
law, I have to furlough these folks.
Mrs. Negrete McLeod. So what happens to students that are
already in classes that have already started the semester or
the quarter, whichever they are on?
Secretary Shinseki. Well, at this point, this is a crucial
question because for students who have already registered and
had their tuition and fees paid up front, I think they are
going to be okay. Where--and if they have drawn their book
stipend, then I think they are probably covered. Every
situation is different. But I will not be able to pay the
monthly housing stipend, and that would be an issue.
Mrs. Negrete McLeod. Have the schools, or the universities
or the colleges made any kind of--I am sure they are aware of
our shenanigans here.
Secretary Shinseki. I can assure you we have reached out to
schools, and are doing the best we can to get their support and
cooperation, to be able to carry this for payment.
But the schools are not involved in the housing stipend.
That is directly from VA to the students. So that is an issue.
And I would tell you that in my past experience, the schools
have been quite cooperative. There are 6,000 of them, and so we
want to be sure that we have contacted all of them.
Mrs. Negrete McLeod. Thank you so much for your testimony
today.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The Chairman. Thank you very much. Ms. Walorski, you are
recognized for 5 minutes.
Mrs. Walorski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good to see you again, Mr. Secretary.
You had mentioned earlier the South Bend CBOC would be
delayed. We were notified more than 4 weeks ago there was
already a delay in the South Bend CBOC. So my question is, it
obviously has nothing to do with this government shutdown. So
would your plan then be to expedite that CBOC, once the
furloughed workers are back and if something was delayed prior
to a shutdown, that it would be expedited after a shutdown?
Secretary Shinseki. Yes, we will do our best to get back on
schedule. It was going slower than we would like, but this has
just exacerbated the situation. But our effort will be to get
all of these projects back online as soon as we can.
Mrs. Walorski. And then my second question: I appreciate
that. My second question is, according to the most recent
Monday morning report, the Indianapolis regional office has
11,460 claims pending, has nothing to do with the government
shutdown. This is prior to the shutdown. And these claims are
taking an average of 402 days to complete, over a year, still,
in the State of Indiana to process these claims. So my first
question is, is there an urgent plan when these furloughed
workers come back to deal with these hot spots in the country?
And number two, if this Furlough Plan Retroactive Fairness Act
is signed by the President, are your employees coming back to
work the next morning?
Secretary Shinseki. I don't know about the next morning,
but as soon as they are notified, we expect that they will be
in promptly.
Mrs. Walorski. And then what would be the plan be for high-
impact areas like Indiana with 11,000 veterans by no fault of
their own, no fault of a government shutdown, sitting for over
a year still waiting for claims to be mitigated on their
behalf?
Secretary Shinseki. Well, Congresswoman, again, I think you
recall, we have made decisions that created an increase in the
inventory and increase in the backlog, and we predicted 3 years
ago that that backlog would sort of hit the high point this
year, and it did on 25 March.
Since that time, we prioritized claims that are older than
2 years, that essentially 99 percent of those are done. Claims
that are 1 year of age or older, we are well into the 80
percent of taking that down from like 300,000, down into the
double digits here.
I will have to look at Indianapolis and see what the issues
are, but they would be in this prioritization that we have been
in. Anything older than 1 year, we intended to have done here
before the end of this year. And we are on a track to do that
and would like to get back on it.
Mrs. Walorski. I appreciate that.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I yield back my time.
The Chairman. Ms. Titus, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. Titus. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you Mr. Secretary for being here.
I will apologize, if some won't, for the inappropriate
attempt by people to drag you into the politics of this
unfortunate situation.
I am the Ranking Member of the Disability Assistance
Subcommittee, and I carefully monitor those Monday morning
reports. I guess we won't be able to get those now because of
this unnecessary shutdown. And I am optimistic about the
strategy we have made. We have heard in that Committee about
the 80 percent of the 1-year backlog; the 99 percent of the 2-
year backlogs. I think it is remarkable progress, and it is
just a crying shame that some of that is going to now be pushed
back because of this shutdown.
We have spoken a number of times about what is happening in
the Reno office, which serves Las Vegas. It also has very long
waiting periods, but we have addressed some of that. General
Hickey has been out to visit. That is kind of in process and
making some progress. There is still a long way to go.
But I have been hearing some conflicting reports about the
closing of the regional offices. Some closed, some not. Could
you kind of go into some detail about how that choice is being
made, or what is happening in those regional offices during
this shutdown?
Secretary Shinseki. Congresswoman, I sort of laid out a
timeline here, that I have roughly the Benefits Administration
just round figures about 20,000 people. Nearly 8,000 of them
have been furloughed 2 days ago. The remaining 12,000, 13,000
continue to work because there are mandatory funds available in
the account, and I continue to draw down on that.
At the point that mandatory account is depleted before the
end of this month, that will happen. At that point, I have no
necessary implication to continue to have this workforce
present. And at that point, I will--we will be forced to
furlough these individuals. The law requires it. Beyond that,
we will keep a small workforce present. My understanding is all
of the regional offices and the national call center will have
presence in order to receive claims, date stamp claims, and
control that property for the veterans who have made the effort
to submit them. But it will be a much reduced operation,
receipt only, and no processing.
Ms. Titus. But you won't be making choices, say, between
the Waco office, and the Reno office, or the Indianapolis
office? It is going to be across the board?
Secretary Shinseki. That is correct.
Ms. Titus. And if somebody walks in will there be somebody
there to receive a claim? They just won't be able to get
information about the progress of their claim? Is that
basically how it will work?
Secretary Shinseki. I will say, yes, the claims can be
submitted. I will have--by location, we are in facilities that
are run by the General Services Administration, and merely
walking in, I will have to find out exactly how that goes. But
we are not sole occupants of many of the regional offices, many
of the buildings in which our regional offices are located. But
that is a good point. I mean, that is something I will go check
on.
Ms. Titus. And if they called, or if they call and they
can't get you, they are going to call our office to find out,
so if they call your office to get an update about claims, what
will they--what will happen?
Secretary Shinseki. Our national call center will be taking
calls, and they are going to be up and running for just that
reason.
Ms. Titus. But not the regional offices?
Secretary Shinseki. The regional offices will be much
reduced, and my sense is they will be fully engaged in
receiving and date stamping claims, and they won't be running a
call center out of the regional offices.
Ms. Titus. Well, thank you very much, and thank you for
what you are trying to do to make the most of a bad situation.
I can only imagine that the challenges you are facing are much
greater than those that you have even outlined for us here
today because of this unnecessary shutdown. Thank you.
I yield back.
The Chairman. Mr. Flores.
Mr. Flores. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Shinseki, for being here today. Thank you
for your service to our country, and to our Nation's veterans.
I want to start by giving a shout out to the Waco Regional
Office. I visited with them several times over the last 2
years, and they were making remarkable progress on taking care
of their disability backlog, and Director Limpose and the team
there have done an outstanding job. I, just like you, are very
concerned about the impact that this shutdown could have on
their operations, and what could potentially happen to our
veterans.
So I have a couple of questions in that regard. The first
one is: Why is the GI bill hotline closed when other VBA
hotlines remain open?
Secretary Shinseki. Say that again. Why is the--
Mr. Flores. Why is the GI bill hotline closed when other
VBA hotlines remain open?
Secretary Shinseki. The one hotline I know will remain open
is our crisis, veterans' crisis hotline. That is funded by the
Health Administration.
Mr. Flores. I am talking about the call center in Muskogee
is apparently closed.
Secretary Shinseki. I will go and--if you permit, try to
provide you a better answer on exactly which ones are open.
Mr. Flores. Okay, that will be fine, you can follow up. The
next question is fairly simple, but it is going to take a
little bit of time to give you the background so we can build
up to it. And it is--it goes back a few months, starting with
the newer information that says that the White House had some
involvement in the IRS targeting of certain groups. And then it
builds from there by saying that the Park Service has said that
they have been told to make it as tough on Americans as
possible during this shutdown period.
So again, that doesn't have anything to do with you or me
right now. But back on September the 19th, this Committee held
a hearing, and it had Assistant Secretary Joan Mooney. And I
asked her a question about whether or not the Office of
Congressional Legislative Affairs had ever been influenced by
the White House in terms of its responses to Congress. She
replied at that time that they had not. But then she sent me a
follow-up letter a few days later, and she said that sometimes
that the White House does intervene on correspondence between
the VA and Congress.
So, again, this is still setting up the background for this
information. And then if you go through the timeline of
activities that we have seen recently: There was a field guide
that was issued on Friday, September the 27th, the VA stated
that disability claims processing would not be affected. Then,
on September the 28th, the VA notified the House Veterans
Affairs' Committee that they would not be able to send the
November benefit checks because funding would run out in late
October. You have confirmed today so there is nothing new
there.
But then, on September the 30th, President Obama had an
interview and he stated that veterans, and I quote, ``Veterans
will find their support centers unstaffed,'' which was a direct
contradiction of the field guide that said that the vet centers
would not be affected from a couple of days earlier. And then,
in that same interview, the President also intimated that the
shutdown would affect somebody in the VA office who is
counseling one of her vets who has got PTSD.
On October the 1st, the VA updated the field guide, or it
was amended to add that the end-of-month caveat to benefits
payments bullet in the original field guide.
Then yesterday, I get the news that the Waco Regional
Office has had to lay off a third--or furlough a third of its
staff.
So, again, this goes back to my question, which is fairly
simple, and that is, did someone at the White House, or the
Office of Management and Budget, or the Treasury, or any other
Federal agency, or any other Federal employee ask you or anyone
else in the Veterans Administration to modify the timetable
under which the VA was going to begin its operational wind
down, if you will, to deal with the lapse in appropriations?
Secretary Shinseki. Fair enough. I think if your
perspective is that there is the ability to reach in and
understand and influence how we operate, I would say it is just
the opposite. Now, look, we are faced with an unusual event. A
shutdown of government doesn't occur frequently, and we have no
good plans in place. We had to go back and look at what
happened in 1996 to have some idea what the requirements were
going to be.
At the same time, we have a 13 close up, and you know, if
on the 5th of September, whenever Ms. Mooney testified, if
someone had said we are going to shut the government down, I
will guarantee you, between the 5th of September and 30th of
September, there would have been actions that I would have
perhaps taken differently. That didn't become obvious to us
until the last week, maybe Wednesday of the last week of
September. And then we had to do these assessments. And if your
complaint is that we changed--
Mr. Flores. Let me reclaim my time for just a minute.
I am not complaining. I was asking you a simple question on
whether or not the White House had any influence over the
timetable for the VA shutdown process. I think you have
answered it no. And I just wanted to say--
Secretary Shinseki. No, the answer is no.
Mr. Flores. I am glad to hear that answer. You and I both
agree that, I think that--well, let me rephrase that. I think
most of us in here agree that the House has done its work by
passing two appropriations bills that would deal with this
issue. One is the MilCon VA bill, which would fully fund VA. We
wouldn't be sitting here having this discussion today. Also, we
passed H.J. Res. 72 last week, which would fund the VA so that
we wouldn't have this conversation. Both of those bills passed
on a bipartisan basis. So I would urge those folks that are
listening to this hearing to be sure to influence the Senate to
take up on those two bills.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Ms. Brown, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. Brown. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Secretary, for being here.
Let me be clear, I keep hearing ``the Senate, the Senate.''
I put the responsibility straight here with the House.
We could pass a clean CR, and you would not be sitting
there. I have done, my entire career, all I could do that
veterans would not be caught up with the House and the Senate
politics.
I don't blame the Senate. I thank God for the Senate.
The bad politics of this House, and at some point, you
know, let's don't confuse nobody with the facts.
Now, we have been talking about November 1. I want to talk
about October the 17th. If we do not pass the full faith and
credit, if we default, what will happen to all of the mothers
and the spouses in the TRICARE and the checks that go out for
the VA, period? Tell us what is going to happen when these
people in the House let us default on our credit? What happens
to the VA, and the people that have been talking to me aren't
Federal employees. They are contractors. And the contractors
are not going to get any back pay. They are being laid off in
droves because the Government is not effective and the House is
responsible.
This House could pass a clean CR. For the first time ever
in the history, I voted against a VA bill because this
piecemeal bill was $6 billion less than the full spending bill
we passed out of here. So, now, please respond.
Secretary Shinseki. Well, Congresswoman.
I would just repeat what the President has pointed out.
What he looks for the Congress to do is two things: One,
provide a budget so we can operate as a government; and two,
pay the bills that have already been incurred. And both of
those issues are at play here. I am looking for a budget and so
is the rest of the government, so we can do what we are charged
to do. And then paying the bills is the issue, the debt
ceiling, and that--those are authorizations that have already
occurred.
Ms. Brown. But what happens on the 17th if we default? What
happens to the VA? Will--the veterans ask me--will they get
their checks?
Secretary Shinseki. Congresswoman, I am planning to operate
as long as I can this month, but at a certain point here in
days, I will begin to furlough people, and that will have to do
with my inability to continue to operate under the carryover.
And so whatever occurs with the discussions of debt ceiling, I
imagine will be even worse, but beginning here, in days to
weeks, before the end of this month, for the most part, VA will
be reduced in operations. My office will be 90 percent shut
down, my office.
And the Legislative Affairs, with whom you deal frequently,
will be down to one person; Public Affairs down to one person.
And then for the rest of our operation other than receiving
claims and looking after families that are expecting us to
provide the appropriate burial services, all of that will be
reduced.
Ms. Brown. So I just want to be clear. I want you to know,
this is a self-imposed disaster on the veterans and on the
country. There is no need, as we sit here. I mean that the
Senate and the President had agreed to the poor levels of the
House. They have agreed to it. Clean CR, and we could move
forward. But yet, we have people that want to blame the Senate,
want to blame the President. At 20 minutes to 12, we want a
conference. It was over.
The House is inept. I have been in here for 22 years, and I
have never seen anything like the people who serve in this
House that act like they care about the veterans. They talk the
talk, but they don't walk the walk. They are out at the
cemeteries or out at the memorial saying, Oh, we don't know why
it is shut down. Well, you voted to shut it down a few hours
earlier. This is a sad state of affairs.
This Committee used to be bipartisan. And now you got a few
Members that are dragging the House of Representatives down,
the People's House.
I yield back the balance of my time.
The Chairman. Thank you. The gentlelady's time has
completely expired.
And for the Members of this Committee and those that may be
listening today, the VA Continuing Resolution that the House
actually put on the floor that has been berated by a couple of
Members, saying that it was less than folks wanted by $6
billion, was exactly the same piece of legislation that Senator
Sanders filed Monday night. And so folks that are out there
saying we shouldn't do this by piecemeal, Senator Sanders,
along with Ms. Hirono, Mr. Begich, Mr. Tester, and Mr.
Blumenthal, which coincidentally held a news conference at the
very same time we have been having this hearing with the
Secretary, to say that we should not be using him as a punching
bag.
Mr. Secretary, I trust that we have not used you as a
punching bag today. We are trying to get the information out to
the veterans, and again, you have talked in depth about those
things that we will not be able to do. But my question, how
many employees within VA will still be on the job after
November 1st if this shutdown continues?
Secretary Shinseki. Again, Mr. Chairman, I--let me take
that one for the record to give you the specificity that you
are looking for. As I say, there are still factors coming
together to tell me how long I operate. I have told you that
the mandatory funds are expected to be depleted before the end
of this month, affecting both the 1 November checks and
affecting the VBA in large measure. Their present workforce of
about 13,000 people will be severely reduced, will be down to
about 1,100, and roughly 1,000 people in VBA. So we will have
people functioning in VBA.
NCA will likewise have to furlough a significant portion of
their workforce and will go to modified operations. VHA is
fully funded, and so when you look at the account, it will look
very large, but that is because VHA is about 80 percent of our
workforce and our budget.
Ms. Brown. Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. But I do think it is important to remember
that, you know, that your total employees are about 335,000.
And so when we talk about numbers of 10,000, 4,000, those are
big numbers, but as it relates to the overall number of
335,000, I would appreciate, and you have already said that you
would take it for the record. I would appreciate you getting
that information to us.
Ms. Brown. Mr. Chairman, I have just a quick question.
The Chairman. The chair does not recognize the gentlelady
from Florida. Her time has expired.
Mr. Secretary--
Ms. Brown. I have a question, Mr. Chairman, on the question
that you were asking the Secretary.
The Chairman. Madam--
Ms. Brown. You are asking about the number of employees. My
question is, how many people that receive checks will not be
getting those checks? I think that is a bigger question.
The Chairman. Again, the gentlelady is not recognized for
her question. And I appreciate what she is asking.
But, you know, I would--we knew the possibility of this
some time ago. I don't believe anybody in this room wanted to
be where we are today. Do you believe the same thing, Mr.
Secretary?
Secretary Shinseki. From my background, I would say you
look at all the options. This is not one I believed would
happen. I just didn't think the august Members of this
Committee or the Congress would allow this to happen.
So I had plans, and we have quickly dusted them off, and
within 72 hours gone into emergency procedures to continue to
take care of veterans as long as we could, and then ensure the
orderly shutdown of our activities. So we are taking care of
our people as well.
So, Mr. Chairman, if you knew a shutdown was going to
happen, it wasn't shared with me. Yes, you always look at the
possibilities. I didn't think, I just didn't think you would
allow this to happen.
The Chairman. And I think most Members of this Committee
would say that we do not want to be here. This was not an
intended consequence. But we are here. And we have asked you to
come in and talk to us. And my question, I guess, is at what
point did you start doing extraordinary measures to prepare for
this and begin to scale back some expenditures so that you
would not be perceived as making foolish expenditures of funds
that may be necessary? You probably can gather where I am going
with this question.
Secretary Shinseki. I don't gather where you are going.
The Chairman. How did we end up with the $500,000 worth of
art in Kansas?
Secretary Shinseki. Sure, I would be happy to answer that.
The Chairman. Why have we been spending over a million
dollars in the Washington, D.C., area on PR ads?
Again, I think those that are being furloughed want these
questions asked. It is not a political question. It is a
question as to prioritization, because we are talking about the
people not getting the benefits that they have earned, not
being able to be buried in a timely fashion, yet we can spend
hundreds of thousands of dollars on things that probably the
general public would think were inconsequential to taking care
of our veterans.
Secretary Shinseki. You raised artwork. And I think the
suggestion that this was year-end spending, that is not the
case. There were three facilities that have been in the process
of being constructed and/or major refurbishment. In the case of
the Miami facility, it is an 843,000-square-foot facility, 11
floors. Major renovations in this facility hadn't been done
since 1980s. And that project is completed. And part of the
project was to replace wall hangings, photographs, prints that
add to that environment that says it is a healing environment
and welcoming to veterans.
West Los Angeles, a 16,000-square-foot facility in which
homeless and mental health clinics have been provided. And then
the Jacksonville Community Based Outpatient Clinic, a new
construction project, 102,000 square feet needed to be
outfitted. All total, about 1,400, a little over 1,400 wall
hangings, photographs, prints, pictures of veterans, pictures
of local scenery that veterans in that area would recognize. I
think artwork is probably an inappropriate description here. I
think the average cost is under $400, all expenses included.
Those were part of the project. They were funded and part
of the execution. If there was a way to have anticipated the
shutdown and redirected some of those moneys, I probably would
have done it. But again, I say that it is not until the last
week in September that it was clear that what was going to
happen would happen. And we went into emergency procedures.
The Chairman. And I apologize for not recognizing Mr.
McNerney for your question. Thank you for your indulgence. And
you are recognized.
Mr. McNerney. Thank you. I want to thank you, Mr. Chairman
Miller, and also Ranking Member Michaud, for inviting me to the
Committee hearing, and the other Members of the Committee for
not objecting. It is good to be back here. It is a great
Committee. This is a terrible hearing, though, to make that
happen.
So I do want to say the situation is dire. On November 1st,
we are going to cut off hundreds of thousands of disability
recipients, of students that are depending on the GI Bill,
families whose veterans or active servicemembers who have died.
I think the American public needs to know the dire situation.
We are going to be sending hundreds of thousands of people into
dire straits, maybe making them homeless. And there is no
excuse. We need to solve this problem. We need to solve it in
the next week.
So I do have some specific questions. Mr. Secretary, in
addition to Mr. Denham, my colleague and neighbor, I would like
to know from you about the impact of the shutdown on the French
Camp project. I would like to know specifically its priority.
And I will take that offline.
Now, as you know, the veterans service organizations staff
members, the VSO staff members, use the VA regional offices to
help counsel veterans. But the VSO staff members are not
members, are not employees of the VA. Could the VA allow them
to continue to use the facilities? I understand a lot of them
are shut out from the facilities. Can they continue to use
those facilities to help counsel our veterans?
Secretary Shinseki. I am told that we are not allowed to do
that. But again, this is a day-to-day assessment. We go back
and check to make sure that the interpretation of the law is
clear. But these are some pretty well-defined rules that we
operate under. The Anti-Deficiency Act has provisions for two
categories. One is protection of life and property and the
other one is necessary implication.
Mr. McNerney. Well, are there any other functions that the
VSOs normally perform that they are not able to perform now?
Secretary Shinseki. We will look for every opportunity to
help them be successful in their mission. It is part of our
mission as well. But, frankly, we are trying to process as many
claims as we can before the mandatory account is depleted. And
then thereafter we are into receiving and date stamping claims.
Mr. McNerney. Well, you said, I believe, that the VA
processing claims are continuing. Are there decisions being
made about these claims? And if so, are the veterans being
notified about those decisions? Or is that on hold?
Secretary Shinseki. In those circumstances where we are
able to pay, and I described the retroactive aspects of this,
we won't be able to pay continuing monthly benefits. But for
those veterans who have a date stamp that goes back some time,
when that is awarded, we try to pay the retroactive portion of
that. The monthly cycle picks up in November.
Mr. McNerney. So they will be notified if a decision is
made even if they are not able to get their check.
Secretary Shinseki. Well, they will be notified if we are
able to pay the retroactive aspect of that. And then we will
process the remainder of the claim and put that in the line.
For students who are currently in school, I think I
answered a question earlier that says that, as long as we have
mandatory funds remaining, we will honor as many of those
requests as we can. But those all draw the mandatory account
down. And before the end of the month, it will be depleted. And
then we will look to furlough the workforce that has been doing
that.
Mr. McNerney. Are the prescription drug benefits being
impacted, veterans' prescription drug benefits?
Secretary Shinseki. Say that again. I am sorry.
Mr. McNerney. Are the veterans' prescription drug benefits
being impacted by the shutdown?
Secretary Shinseki. Prescriptions, Veterans Health
Administration is fully funded, and so medications are
available and will be filled.
Mr. McNerney. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for
allowing me to participate today.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Mr. Bilirakis, you have any other questions?
Mr. Coffman?
Mr. Coffman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just one more
question.
Mr. Secretary, my Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee
uncovered that the VA's cybersecurity protection measures were
inadequate, even when the VA has been fully funded before the
shutdown. In fact, the investigation discovered numerous
occurrences when foreign state-sponsored hackers infiltrated
the VA network. How has the shutdown affected the private
information of veterans and their families? Are these 20
million individuals in the VA system now at even greater risk?
Secretary Shinseki. Congressman, I will tell you of what we
know. We will have the ability to respond to what we know. But
there is, as you would expect, more to this than sometimes even
we are able to know. So we do take steps to assure the security
of our system. Every event better prepares us for the next. And
we are active here.
Mr. Coffman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
The Chairman. Thank you.
Mr. Michaud, you are recognized.
Mr. Michaud. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Just a quick follow-up question, Mr. Secretary. You
mentioned about the delays and the overtime you already had in
your original budget you presented to Congress, as well as
anticipating, I think it was $40 million to carry over for next
year's budget. Since you have utilized that $40 million, you
can't carry it over, and since the delays have caused the
backlog to creep back up again, will you be requesting an
additional supplemental to deal with replacing that $40
million, as well as more overtime money to get you back where
you have to be as far as the backlog?
Secretary Shinseki. I think the basic question is, am I
going to try to reconstitute that $40 million? I will find
every way I can internal my accounts. And if I am not able do
that and I need to look for support here to get that funding in
place to be able to get veterans the care they need, I will
seek it.
Mr. Michaud. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you.
Mr. Huelskamp?
Mr. Huelskamp. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I did want to take
a note, a little bit of time, I would like to apologize to
anybody on this Committee that might have been offended by my
trying to find out exactly why the U.S. Senate has not voted on
these appropriations. I do appreciate the bipartisan nature of
this Committee. But I think we all agree here that our veterans
should not be used as pawns in this particular debate. And I
appreciate the work in terms of the Secretary.
But the language that I have seen, in particular reference
to the individual in the Senate that I asked a question about,
has used some language that I don't think anybody in this
Committee has used, has not called anybody an anarchist or a
fanatic or insane. That is the language we hear coming out of
here, and it does no service to our veterans. So I apologize if
anybody took offense at trying to figure out why we have not
seen a vote in that.
I appreciate the Secretary continuing to try to work with
the Senate, encourage them to bring that to a vote. I am pretty
confident, based on what we hear here, that that can go right
to the President and keep those doors open.
I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Mr. Huelskamp. We have
asked the other Members if they have any--Mr. Ruiz, do you have
a question?
Mr. Ruiz. Yes, sir.
The Chairman. Sorry, Mr. Secretary.
Mr. Ruiz, you are recognized.
Mr. Ruiz. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Secretary Shinseki, thank you for your service to our
country.
The government shutdown has caused a crisis that could have
been avoided had Congress simply worked together to put people
ahead of politics and solutions above ideology. It is
unconscionable that Congress continues to put political
gamesmanship above the needs of our veterans.
The best way to help veterans in my district and across the
country is to end this reckless shutdown. Now that the VA is
required to furlough thousands of employees, how will that
affect the veterans claims backlog and constituents,
specifically in my district? Meaning, how will furloughs impact
the LA regional office and the San Diego regional office which
review claims for veterans in my district?
Secretary Shinseki. Congressman, as I indicated earlier,
our availability of carryover funding for 2013, roughly $40
million, we exhausted that on 7 October, and then had to
furlough about 7,800 people. We have about 13,000 benefits
employees who are doing what they always do, and that is, you
know, process claims as quickly and as accurately as they can.
With the end of mandatory overtime, we are doing that at 1,400
claims each day less than we were doing, you know, before 30
September. So there is a cumulative effect here.
These employees will continue to work until such time as
something we call the mandatory account, that currently has
some residual funds, they will continue to process claims until
that point. And where we can pay for a retroactive claim or for
a student claim, we will continue to do that. But as we do
that, we draw down the mandatory account. When the mandatory
account is exhausted before the end of this month, then the
vast majority of these people will also be furloughed, and that
will begin to have a great impact on the backlog. Today, the
backlog is already 2,000 higher than it was on 30 September. So
it is already beginning to have an effect.
Mr. Ruiz. Well, I want you to know that we will continue, I
will continue to advocate for pragmatic solutions so that we
can open our doors, specifically for our veterans. My office in
the district has not shut down. We have extended hours, and we
are even working weekends, if a veteran needs it, to come and
pick up that mantle, because the mantle that has been dropped
by this ridiculous shutdown. And we will be there for our
veterans. And I look forward to collaborating with you so that
once we open our doors, those veterans that have been ill-
affected by this will have expedited, prioritized treatment so
that we can continue to serve the veterans to the best of our
abilities.
So I appreciate your service to our country, and thank you
very much.
Secretary Shinseki. Thank you. That is my intent as well,
Congressman.
Mr. Ruiz. Thank you. I yield back my time.
The Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Ruiz.
I would like to recognize for a final question Ms. Brown.
Ms. Brown. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And Mr. Chairman, I
would like, before I ask my question, the four service
organizations sent a letter to Congress not supporting the
piecemeal VA bill on the floor. So is it possible that I could
submit that to the record?
The Chairman. Without objection.
Ms. Brown. Thank you.
Now, because, you know, to talk about what a Senator
introduced, I don't want to talk about the Senate, I want to
talk about the House, the House of Representatives, where I
serve. And, Mr. Secretary, my question to you is, come
November, or the third week in October, will 3.8 million
veterans not get their checks in the mail? Benefits, that is a
nice thing, but checks is what they live on. Most veterans that
get those checks are on fixed income. Explain to me how they
are supposed to make it.
Secretary Shinseki. Congresswoman, effective 1 November, if
we don't resolve this, those veterans will not receive pension
compensation. For veterans who are in school, their education
checks, vocational rehab. And those beneficiaries are not just
veterans, that is 3 million veterans, but when you add
surviving spouses and children, it is over 5 million
individuals who will be involved. I mean this is serious, and I
am hoping that the leadership of this Committee will help us
resolve it.
Ms. Brown. Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
You know, I was told that the House, somebody fed them some
snake oil. So I went home and tried to find snake oil. I think
it is just in Texas. So I did look for some holy oil, and I did
bring some back.
But this is not a joke. This is very serious. Veterans have
come up to me in church Sunday, because that is the only place
I went Sunday, two services, and I needed more, and they wanted
to know about their benefits. And I told them, as of October
the 17th, if we default, they will not get their benefits. And
I told the Social Security people the same thing. You know, is
this true? Will they not get their benefits? Is this a game?
Secretary Shinseki. That is not a game, Congresswoman.
There are veterans and servicemembers, families, children
counting on us. And they expect us to deliver. Five million of
them will be impacted here severely.
Ms. Brown. I hope that there is some leadership on this
Committee that will work with the leadership in the House and
come up with a clean continuing resolution, because the problem
that we have is that so many of the people that has been
furloughed, they are contract people, they will not get back
pay. And many of them are veterans. Do you all have contracted
employees also?
Secretary Shinseki. We do.
Ms. Brown. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank the gentlelady.
Thank you, Mr. Secretary, for being here, again on short
notice, and for over 2\1/2\ hours. We appreciate you taking the
questions. We do have other questions that we will submit to
you for the record.
The Chairman. And in particular, I want to ask that you
help this Committee in furthering a bill that was passed out of
this Committee in a 100 percent bipartisan fashion, that is
advance funding for the remainder of VA's budget, so that we
don't get into this type of situation any more.
All members will have 5 legislative days with which to
revise and extend their remarks.
Mr. Secretary, thank you.
This hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:48 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
----------
Prepared Statement of Hon. Jeff Miller, Chairman
Good morning. This hearing will come to order. Before we begin I'd
like to ask Unanimous Consent for the gentleman from California, and
former Member of this Committee, Mr. Jerry NcNerney to join us at the
dais. Hearing no objection, so ordered.
Mr. Secretary, welcome. I appreciate you being here on short
notice.
We're here today to understand how veterans are being impacted by
the lapse in appropriation that has led to the government shutdown.
There is plenty of blame to go around as to why we're in this position,
but that's not why I called this hearing. Put simply, we're looking for
the best information possible on what all of this means for veterans.
Veterans want to know whether their disability checks and GI Bill
benefits will be paid on November 1 and thereafter. They want to know
if their disability claims will be decided or further delayed. Families
want to know if their loved ones will receive a timely burial at a VA
national cemetery. And many of VA's employees want to know whether
they'll be serving veterans on the job, or whether they'll be
furloughed.
I understand that the answers to some of these questions are
entirely dependent on how long this shutdown lasts. And although I want
it to be over quickly, it is our responsibility to ensure that the
public, especially veterans, understand precisely what the current
state of play is.
Mr. Secretary, we've had some difficulty in the last couple of
weeks getting good information about VA's contingency plan and the
effects a lapse in appropriation would have on veterans. For example:
First, the original field guide VA put out regarding the
shutdown's impact at first spoke of no effect on payments to veterans
or processing of their benefits. But in a later version, VA stated that
a prolonged shutdown would impact both, but didn't provide precise
details as to how.
Second, the Veterans Health Administration is not
shutdown at all because it received its full year appropriation for
2014 back in March. So, hospitals, clinics, and Vet Centers should all
be open for business. Yet the President made a statement the day before
the shutdown saying that veterans ``will find their support centers
unstaffed,'' and implying that counseling services for veterans with
PTSD would be affected.
Third, this Committee has consistently been told that
VBA's mandatory overtime effort towards the backlog would end on
September 30. Yet days into the shutdown, we were informed that the
shutdown prevented VA's planned continued payment of overtime.
Fourth, although a shutdown should have a relatively
uniform effect across all Regional Offices as suggested by VA's field
guide, my staff met with several representatives from the veterans'
organizations last week who relayed that their members are hearing
mixed messages out of different Regional Offices.
I want to be clear that none of this is ideal. Some degree of
confusion is to be expected. VA employees should be worrying about VA's
mission of service to veterans, not planning for furloughs or managing
an agency on spare change remaining from last year.
However, what can never be expected is anything less than the full
truth, as best as it is known. This grave situation does not need to be
assisted by misleading statements designed to aid a political argument
by any party. It's my hope that we can uphold the best traditions of
this Committee and rise above all of that today.
Mr. Secretary, thank you for your willingness to join us in that
effort. Since this hearing was called last Friday we've had a bit more
clarity on some of these issues we have been asking your staff about
for the last ten days, but I thought the public should hear that same
information.
One last point before I conclude. Last July we held a hearing on a
bill the Ranking Member and I introduced that proposed to advance fund
the entire VA discretionary budget. The Administration declined to take
a position on the bill, saying instead it needed to conduct a review
first. It is obvious that no review is necessary given where we are
today. Mr. Secretary, I sincerely hope that you are making that case
within the Administration, and I'll follow up with you on that point
during questioning.
I now recognize the Ranking Member for his statement.
Prepared Statement of Hon. Michael H. Michaud
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Before we begin exploring how the government shutdown is affecting
veterans and the VA, I want to acknowledge the very real consequences
the lapse in appropriations has had on VA employees. I know that VA
employees do not work solely for a paycheck. They work because they
believe in helping veterans. You have done your job, now it is time for
Congress to do its job.
We can do this in two ways, either the Senate can take up the
MILCONVA appropriation bill passed by the House, or the House can take
up the clean CR bill passed by the Senate. I don't care which we choose
as long as we get on with re-opening the government with a fully funded
VA.
The VA ``contingency plan'' and ``field guide'' provided us a rough
idea of the consequences of a government shutdown. Last week, we saw
the immediate shutdown of some VA offices, such as the Inspector
General. Yesterday, we saw some VBA and IT accounts run dry and
thousands of VA employees furloughed. We know that the mandatory funds
to pay compensation and pension benefits are scheduled to run out in a
little over two weeks.
We also know that furloughs and suspension of programs in other
agencies affect veterans. Of the roughly 2.1 million Federal employees,
more than 600,000 are veterans. Many of them are already, or expect to
be, furloughed. Also, as programs and services at other agencies are
disrupted, it affects VA's ability to receive the necessary information
and support to deliver veteran services.
We know we will hear bad news today. Important VA operations have
or will be suspended. Some veterans will not get what they are
expecting, what they deserve, and most importantly, what they have
earned. This may be a difficult conversation, but one we must have -
openly, frankly and honestly.
But, amidst the bad news there is some good news. With VA's medical
accounts under advanced appropriations, the Veterans' Health
Administration is largely unaffected by the lapse in fiscal year 2014
appropriations. All medical facilities are open and operating under
normal status. This will continue regardless of how long the current
government shutdown lasts.
It is clear now, in the midst of the shutdown, that getting a vote
on H.R. 813, as amended, ``The Putting Veterans' Funding First Act,''
is a necessary and critical step in ensuring veterans' benefits and
services are not put at risk when there is a lapse in appropriations.
Mr. Chairman, I appreciate you signing a letter with me to The Speaker
asking for H.R. 813, as amended, to be scheduled for floor action
immediately. I encourage all members of the Committee to sign onto our
letter and send the message that veterans should not, cannot, and will
not be disadvantaged by party politics in the future.
Mr. Secretary, I look forward to your testimony. With that Mr.
Chairman, I yield back.
Prepared Statement of Hon. Corrine Brown
Thank you, Chairman Miller and Ranking Member Michaud, for calling
this hearing today.
Thank you, Secretary Shinseki, for briefing us today on the effect
on Veterans by this Republican Government Shutdown.
We are currently in Day 9 of the Republican Government Shutdown.
There is no end in sight and now the full faith and credit of the
United States is being put at risk regarding the debt limit needing to
be increased.
I want to thank the Secretary for coming here today to brief this
Committee on how this Republican Government Shutdown will affect our
Nations veterans.
However, it seems as though the Republican Majority has lost the
focus of this issue: there would be no effect on veterans, claims would
still be filed, veterans would still be receiving the services they
spilled their blood for if this Congress would just do its job and pass
a clean funding bill for the Federal government.
House Republicans continue to drag out this damaging shutdown by
voting a cynical, piecemeal approach to funding government. This is no
way to govern and no way to run the largest economy in the world. It's
time for House Republicans to drop the political games and join
Democrats to bring a vote to the floor immediately to end the shutdown
and get our government working again for the American people.
Even the mini-veterans appropriations bill would not have fully
funded the VA.
I am appalled that the House considered a bill that only partially
funded the Department of Veterans Affairs, to take one small portion of
the budget to help those men and women who have sacrificed so much and
use it as a club to hammer the American people over the head while you
argue about the Republican Government Shutdown.
The House has not considered funding:
the National Cemetery Administration
the Office in charge of Construction of VA facilities
Office of Inspector General
Grants to state veterans homes
Grants to state cemeteries
We need to stop this charade and fund the entirety of veterans
programs, no matter what department they are funded out of.
Prepared Statement of Hon. Eric K. Shinseki
Chairman Miller, Ranking Member Michaud, Members of the House
Committee on Veterans' Affairs:
The Committee invited me here today to examine the effects of the
government lapse in appropriations on VA benefits and services provided
to Veterans, their families, and survivors. It is important for you to
know the following:
When appropriations lapsed, we had to discontinue
overtime, slowing our review of benefit claims. This has led to delays
for an average of 1,400 Veterans a day. As a result, we are no longer
making the significant gains we have made in recent months toward
eliminating the backlog in claims.
Yesterday, we exhausted carryover funds for Veterans
Benefits Administration (VBA) employees. Therefore, consistent with our
contingency plan, as of October 8th, VBA furloughed more than 7,800 of
its employees, half of whom are Veterans.
The Office of Information and Technology (OIT), as of
Monday, has furloughed 2,754 of its employees, approximately 56 percent
of whom are Veterans. While support for existing operations continues,
all improvements to our systems have ceased. This threatens to delay
updates to the Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS) that allows
us to help take down the backlog and give Veterans quick and accurate
decisions.
If the shutdown continues through late October, claims
processing for compensation, pension, education, vocational
rehabilitation, and employment benefits will be suspended due to lack
of funding. Once mandatory funds are depleted at the end of this month,
nearly 5,600 Veterans a day will not receive a decision on their
disability claims. We have brought down the backlog by over ?30
percent, or 190,000 claims since March. This lapse in funds will likely
increase the backlog instead of continuing the progress.
If the shutdown continues into late October, November
compensation payments to more than 3.8 million Veterans will halt.
These include thousands of Veterans who have the most severe
disabilities. Payments will also stop for over 364,000 survivors and
over 1,200 children receiving special benefits, such as children with
Spina Bifida born to Vietnam Veterans and certain Korean War Veterans
as well as children of women Veterans with birth defects.
In addition, should the shutdown continue into late
October, pension payments will stop for almost 315,000 Veterans and
over 202,000 surviving spouses and dependents. As you know, these
Veterans have very low incomes and depend heavily upon these benefits.
If the shutdown continues, education benefits and living
stipends under our ??GI Bill programs will stop for over 500,000
Veterans and Service members.
These are simply the facts. Mr. Chairman, this shutdown could end
today if Congress would fully fund government operations so that VA and
the rest of the Federal government can get back to work. There are
those who have suggested a piecemeal approach, to pick and choose which
parts of the government to fund. This is not the best solution for our
Veterans or our Nation.
Veterans depend on government services beyond just those provided
by VA. First, there are important programs and benefits that are the
result of partnerships between VA and other agencies. For example, the
Department of Labor (DoL) is a close partner with VA on Veterans jobs
programs. However, the shutdown requires the suspension of functions of
DoL's Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS). The work VA does
in partnership with the Department of Housing & Urban development (HUD)
to end Veteran homelessness has also been impacted by the lapse.
Veteran entrepreneurs are impacted by the loss of Veteran programs at
SBA, particularly the assistance granted through the Veterans Business
Outreach Centers and the Small Business Development Centers. These
organizations help Veterans start and build their small businesses,
including helping them locate sources of capital. Veterans just leaving
the military will not have access to programs intended to educate them
about becoming entrepreneurs.
Additionally, service-disabled Veteran-owned small businesses that
are involved in status protests in any agency other than VA will not
have their protests determined, thus holding up procurement actions at
the issuing agency.
Veterans, of course, are affected like other Americans by the
government shutdown - more than 600,000 Veterans are employed by the
Federal government, many others work for impacted Federal contractors,
or work for other businesses that are suffering from the shutdown.
They, like other Americans, could be impacted in other ways. For
example, they and their families are likely feeling the effects that a
shutdown has had on small business loans.
Over the past week the Department of Veterans Affairs has worked to
refine and implement closure plans, prepare for multiple contingencies,
and communicate with our employees and stakeholders--all while
continuing to fulfill our primary mission of serving Veterans and their
families.
We are working diligently to keep the delivery of services and
benefits seamless for our Veterans to the greatest extent we can in
light of the lapse in appropriations. In some areas, like healthcare
delivery, there are fewer adverse effects. In others, such as reducing
the claims backlog, we have already seen a negative impact due to the
lapse in appropriations.
VA's Appropriations Lapse Contingency Plan outlines the activities
being undertaken by the Department during the government shutdown. This
plan is designed to ensure that VA can perform an orderly suspension of
its programs and operations during the shutdown. As the shutdown is a
dynamic and evolving process, we continue to evaluate our contingency
plan as time passes.
Under applicable law, VA has a limited ability to continue
``excepted functions'' under a lapse in appropriations to ``protect
life and property'' or that are a ``necessary implication'' of
functions that are funded. An example of an excepted function is the
work performed by personnel from the Office of Information and
Technology, who support the provision of health services at Veterans
Health Administration (VHA) facilities. VA functions and offices not
funded by advanced appropriations will have to operate with very few
excepted employees, as set forth in detail in the VA shutdown planning
materials available on our website. VA does have the flexibility to use
a very limited amount of unexpended fiscal year 2013 funds to continue
some offices' operations for a limited time. For some offices, such as
OIT, VBA, and the Office of Inspector General, those limited funds have
already been exhausted and non-excepted employees furloughed. For those
remaining, it is a day to day determination.
Following is a brief status update from each of our Administrations
and major offices.
Veterans Benefit Administration (VBA)
During the last six months, VBA had made significant progress in
executing its Transformation Plan to improve the speed and accuracy of
disability claims processing. Between March and September, VBA reduced
the claims backlog from a high point of 611,000 down to 418,000 - a
drop of approximately 31 percent. As of October 8th, claims processors
had completed approximately 99 percent of claims over two years old,
and nearly 81 percent of all claims pending over one year - from
333,000 to less than 68,000 - giving Veterans who have waited the
longest a decision on their claim. Most importantly, while increasing
productivity, VBA also increased the quality of claims decisions. In
June 2011, processing of disability claims was approximately 83 percent
accurate. By August 2013, VBA's three-month average for claims accuracy
had risen eight percentage points to approximately 91 percent. When
measuring accuracy at the individual medical issue level - which is a
truer measure of VA's proficiency because it captures how well
employees rate each condition in a Veteran's claim - the rating
accuracy is approximately 96.7 percent.
The momentum achieved over the past six months has now stalled with
the government shutdown. Since October 1st, claims production has
slowed by an average of 1,400 per day, and it may slow further as
support personnel began their furloughs on October 8th. VBA currently
has enough unobligated FY 2013 funds available in its mandatory account
to pay benefits and continue to process claims until about the end of
October, assuming current year spending mirrors prior years. With no
further appropriations, however, VBA will not be able to pay Veterans,
their families or survivors on November 1st for all our benefit
programs including compensation, pension, Dependence and Indemnity
Compensation (DIC), fiduciary, education, and Vocational Rehabilitation
and Employment. Quite simply, without the passage of appropriations
soon, Veterans won't be paid their earned benefits on November 1st.
On October 1st, when the lapse in appropriations began, VBA had
roughly five days of carry over funding available in its General
Operating Expense (discretionary) account for staff and operating
expenses. Discretionary funding was exhausted on October 7th, requiring
the furlough of over 7,800 VBA employees on Tuesday, October 8th,
leaving 13,097 excepted and funded employees across all VBA programs to
process claims and provide other benefits activities.
The remaining claims processing operations and staffing have been
reduced to the minimum levels necessary to continue mandatory payment
processing. Consequently, VBA's progress in reducing the claims
inventory and backlog is now stalled. The duration of the shutdown is
directly impacting VA's ability to eliminate the backlog.
Once the mandatory appropriations are exhausted near the end of the
month, there will be 1,100 excepted personnel to staff VBA's 56
Regional Offices and National Call Centers to date stamp incoming
claims receipts. As a result of the exhaustion of available funding, VA
will not be able to pay the on average $6.25 billion in monthly
compensation, pension, education, and vocational rehabilitation
benefits to over four million Veterans, Service members, and Survivors.
This includes the following, specific impacts:
Over $4.5 billion in recurring monthly compensation
benefits payments will not get paid to 3.8 million Veterans, including
an estimated 433,000 service-connected 100 percent disabled Veterans.
Over $514 million monthly compensation benefits will not
be paid to over 360,000 surviving spouses and children of wartime
service Veterans.
Over $304 million monthly pension benefits will not get
paid to nearly 315,000 wartime low-income Veterans who are permanently
and totally disabled or who are over the age of 65.
Over $132 million monthly pension benefits will not get
paid to over 200,000 low-income Survivors.
No tuition, fees, or housing allowance benefits will be
paid for Veteran education programs - impacting 500,000 Veterans,
Service members, survivors and their designated beneficiary.
Over $65 million in monthly Survivors and Dependents
Educational Assistance will not be paid to an estimated 60,000 eligible
spouses and children of Veterans.
Over $42 million in Vocational Rehabilitation and
Employment Program subsistence allowances will not be paid to 41,000
service-connected disabled Veterans.
All Volunteer Force Educational Assistance: Nearly $77
million in All Volunteer Force Educational Assistance benefits will not
be paid to 35,000 Veterans and Active Duty personnel.
Over $12 million in Specially Adapted Housing and Auto
Equipment Grants will not be provided to over 2,000 severely disabled
Veterans for home and automobile adaptations.
Even though most VBA funding is `mandatory' (connected with cash
payments established by eligibility for programs), almost all of the
funding for VBA-administered benefits has to be approved in annual
appropriations. Areas continuing to fully operate throughout the lapse
in appropriations are the VA Home Loan Guaranty program and the self-
supporting Insurance program that operates through trust funds. VBA
Compensation & Pension and Readjustment Benefits accounts are
entitlement accounts requiring annual appropriations from Congress. The
FY 2014 VA request of $86.1 billion included $84.4 billion to pay
Compensation & Pension and Readjustment mandatory benefits.
National Cemetery Administration (NCA)
The National Cemetery Administration has sufficient funding to
continue regular operations through late October. After available funds
are exhausted, NCA will implement its lapse in appropriations shutdown
plan. Of the 1,802 NCA employees, 1,046 will be non-excepted and
subject to furlough. NCA employs the highest percentage of Veterans in
the Federal workforce. Of the 1,046 non-excepted employees in NCA who
may be furloughed, 757, approximately 72 percent, are Veterans. Many of
them are disabled Veterans, who will also lose their disability
compensation from VBA, if the shutdown continues.
There will be 756 excepted employees, approximately 91 percent of
whom are located in the field. Each national cemetery will conduct a
reduced number of burials each day. This could cause some families to
pay for storage of their loved ones' remains until burials can be
scheduled. Although there may be possible delays in scheduling
internments, NCA will continue to provide services to our Veterans and
their families during their time of need with the utmost dignity,
respect and compassion.
Administrative and maintenance operations beyond emergency or
essential functions will cease until the government reopens, and this
reduced support may impact cemetery appearance. Requests for
Presidential Memorial Certificates will not be processed. Several
burial benefits are funded from the Compensation and Pension account.
When these mandatory funds are exhausted, NCA will not be able to
provide headstones, markers, medallions and outer burial receptacles to
Veterans and eligible family members.
Veterans Appeals Processing
Based on applicable legal standards, the processing of appeals will
be suspended once funding is exhausted as of October 7th. The Board of
Veterans Appeals (the Board) estimates that FY 2013 funds for its staff
will be expended in early November, while funding for VBA's regional
offices and AMC has already been exhausted. Employees who process
appeals at VBA's 56 Regional Offices and the AMC have already been
furloughed, and Board employees will be put into furlough status when
remaining funds are expended. Once this funding is exhausted, all but
one member of the Board staff will be furloughed. Hearings in Veterans'
appeals are being cancelled each week, and appeals decisions will not
be issued, leading to longer wait times for Veterans.
Office of Information Technology (OIT)
The Office of Information and Technology provides critical support
to VHA, VBA, NCA, and Central Office staff that ensures the delivery of
benefits and health services to our Nations' Veterans.
As of Monday, October 7th, 2,754 OIT employees were furloughed.
About 551 OIT employees are paid from a revolving fund with a capital
reserve; these positions are fully funded for approximately 3 months.
An additional 4,670 employees are excepted to provide support for
healthcare delivery and for benefits determination and delivery,
support for staff offices, and ensuring our Veterans information
continues to be protected. This number will decrease as the shutdown
continues and additional staff members are furloughed. Most, if not
all, improvements to our existing IT systems, as well as
implementations of new capabilities, are suspended. Specific examples
include; the Veterans Benefits Management System, the Veterans
Relationship Management (VRM) Initiative, the Integrated Electronic
Health Record (iEHR) IOC 2014, the Internal Classification of Diseases-
10 (ICD-10), and Personal Identify Verification (PIV)-only
Authentication rollout.
While these IT systems will be maintained, no new development
upgrades will occur after October 7th. One system, VBMS, is one of the
critical initiatives to reducing the backlog of disability claims over
the next several years. On Monday, October 7th, all VBMS development
ceased.
Veterans Health Administration
Advanced appropriations have allowed VHA to continue its operations
with its fiscal year 2014 funding in place, with some exceptions, such
as funding for medical research and prosthetics, and operation of the
Lovell VA-DoD joint facility. Lovell is fully operating with all staff
on excepted status. Advanced appropriations only apply to selected VHA
accounts.
Staff Offices
In most VA staff offices there is a limited pool of FY 2013 funds
to support a short period of continued operation. After this short
period, the majority of the functions will no longer be performed as a
result of the majority of the employees being non-excepted.
In other offices, there are revolving fund programs that will
continue to operate. Staff offices also have personnel who provide
support to VHA and are reimbursed by VHA with advance appropriations.
These staff will continue to work and perform their regular duties as
``fully funded'' staff. Finally there are some staff who will continue
to work, due to ``necessary implications'' or ``protection of life and
property.'' Details by staff office are provided on the VA webpage in
our VA Contingency Plan, Advance Operation in the Absence of
Appropriations.
Summary
While VA planned for an orderly shutdown in the event of a lapse in
appropriations, a government shutdown of this scale is a new
responsibility with unprecedented legal and programmatic questions. VA
depends on coordination and synchronization with other Federal
departments and agencies. There are functions in other agencies
impacted by the shutdown that, in turn, impact our plan in
unanticipated ways. Every department and agency is doing the best they
can to deal with this evolving situation. With the predicted
uncertainty that accompanies this lapse in appropriations, VA will do
its best to keep this Committee informed. However, un-forecasted
impacts of the shutdown are difficult to predict.
President Lincoln's charge, to care for those who ``shall have
borne the battle,'' remains clear and undiminished. Congress must
resolve this fiscal impasse so that VA and our partners can fully
deliver its mission of caring for and serving our Nation's Veterans.
Statement For The Record
Paralyzed Veterans of America
Chairman Miller, Ranking Member Michaud, and members of the
Committee, Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) would like to thank you
for the opportunity to offer our views on the effect that the federal
government shutdown is having and could potentially have on the
operations of the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) and the
payment of veterans benefits. As the shutdown has now stretched into a
second week, veterans anxiously await a solution that will ensure
benefits and services are not disrupted. Unfortunately, that prospect
of a solution seems more and more unlikely with each passing day.
Without question, the number one concern that has been raised by
our members is whether or not they will receive their compensation and
pension benefits at the end of October. Similarly, we have received
some questions about payment of Dependency and Indemnity Compensation
as well. Everyone has been caught off guard by this problem because no
one seemed to realize that an authorization would be required in order
to pay veterans benefits. While we appreciate the intent behind the
various legislative measures that have been considered to establish
this authorization during the shutdown, we must emphasize that we
cannot support this method of doing business. If Congress is serious
about addressing this problem, then it should fully fund the Department
of Veterans Affairs (VA) and its programs immediately.
It is our understanding that many parts of the operations of VBA
will be shuttered this week. While VBA retained some carryover funds to
continue operations for a limited period of time, those funds are
drying up quickly. As a result, more employees will be furloughed as
the days and weeks progress. Interestingly, we have received
conflicting reports as to what affect the furloughs and office closures
are having on our own field operations. It is our understanding that
some Regional Offices are all but closed while some remain at least
partially open. Some of our National Service Officers (NSO) have access
to federal facilities while others do not. Additionally, the
information available to our NSO's will be limited to what can be
obtained from the VBA systems which remain functional during the
shutdown. It is also more widely understood that while our NSO's may
still be working, veterans seeking claims assistance will be unable to
come into the Regional Offices to meet with them. We have real concerns
that given the wide-ranging feedback we have received from the field,
it seems that VA has no clear and consistent plan for the Regional
Offices to handle the shutdown, as well as why the veterans' service
organizations have been kept in the dark about what the plans are
moving forward.
It is our understanding that VA Call centers that provide
information and assistance on a broad range of VA benefits and services
will not be available. Claimants will thus be in danger of losing
entitlement to benefits which are time sensitive. VA has informed us
that during this period it will date stamp any mail that it receives
for claims purposes in order to preserve the date of claim. However, we
question what will happen to claimants who were unable to obtain
relevant information that would have prompted the timely submission of
a claim.
Similarly, we have serious concerns about the impact that the
government shutdown will have on the process for providing Specially
Adapted Housing (SAH) benefits. SAH claims require expeditious follow-
up to the multiple step processes that are required to provide a safe
environment to catastrophically disabled veterans. Many veterans with
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) experience rapid exacerbations of
their terminal illness which require appropriate modifications to their
home to protect them from the hazards of everyday living. The role of
VA employees who handle SAH in these cases is to evaluate the needs of
the veteran and coordinate the various building codes and other related
issues to facilitate the implementation of the needed home
modifications as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, the decrease in
the VBA workforce as a result of the shutdown will certainly cause
unnecessary delays to SAH claims that may result in severe consequences
for veterans who need the greatest assistance.
Meanwhile, the function of the Veterans Benefits Management System
(VBMS) and its widespread implementation is jeopardized by the
shutdown. VBMS roll outs are already falling behind schedule and the
furlough will further erode the progress of this critical VBA
initiative. The incremental releases which build on the ability of
VSO's to better support the claims adjudication process will be delayed
and will likely have a reverse catalytic effect to the progress that
has been made. Additionally, the system, which requires significant and
ongoing maintenance through the Information Technology (IT) management
structure just to remain operational, will likely experience
considerable down time.
Similarly, the Stakeholder Enterprise Portal (SEP) and other IT
initiatives will not be supported and related problems will go
unresolved. SEP is used to obtain the status of claims and payment
history. The program is user friendly when it operates properly, but
intervention at the current stage of development is often required to
reconcile technical issues for individual issues and to develop patches
for more broad based problems. With IT staff that support VBA's
operations furloughed, any problems that arise with the IT support
systems will simply languish, further slowing the ability of VBA to
process claims in a timely fashion.
Finally, what will be the long term impact on claims processing in
general? The longer the government shutdown continues, the greater
inevitable effect it will have on the increase in the claims and
appeals backlog. This is of particular concern as it relates to the
erosion of the progress made since April and the ability to meet the
2015 target set by Secretary Shinseki. The shutdown will have an
impact, but we do not want it to become an excuse for failure to meet
the stated goals.
Ultimately, the partisan bickering and political gridlock that have
put veterans' benefits and services at risk is unacceptable. We cannot
emphasize enough our opposition to funding the operations of the VA
through short-term continuing resolutions (CRs) or other stop-gap
measures, such as the partial funding measures that have been debated
in the House of Representatives. While we recognize the fact that the
House did in fact complete the ``FY 2014 Military Construction and
Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act'' earlier this year, it is time for
the political grandstanding to stop. PVA, along with our partners in
The Independent Budget--AMVETS, Disabled American Veterans, and
Veterans of Foreign Wars--just last week called on the leadership of
the House and Senate to take immediate action to enact the full year FY
2014 appropriations bill for the VA.
Additionally, the activities in Congress over the last two weeks
(and really for many years) further affirm the need to approve
legislation to make the VBA and all other VA programs a part of advance
appropriations. Advance appropriations have shielded VA health care
from most of the harmful effects of the current government shutdown as
well as prior continuing resolutions. The Independent Budget called on
leadership last week to immediately bring H.R. 813, the ``Putting
Veterans Funding First Act,'' to the floor for consideration, amendment
and approval. We hope that you will continue your efforts to see this
critical legislation through to final enactment.
In the end, PVA, the co-authors of The Independent Budget, our
partners in the veterans' service organization community, and the
millions of veterans that we represent will no longer tolerate Congress
leveraging veterans' health care and benefits to achieve unrelated
political ends. The actions of Congress in the last couple of weeks
reflect a failure of leadership. Congress' obligation to veterans does
not start in the eleventh hour of a national crisis; you have an
obligation to pass a timely, sufficient budget for all veterans
programs, benefits and services.
We appreciate the bipartisan atmosphere that this Committee has
often experienced. And yet, even that has now been tarnished. It is
time for this nonsense to stop.
PVA thanks you once again for allowing us to submit comments for
the record. We will continue to keep the Committee staff updated on the
impact of the shutdown on VBA as well as our own operations. We would
be happy to answer any questions that you may have.
Information Required by Rule XI 2(g)(4) of the House of Representatives
Pursuant to Rule XI 2(g)(4) of the House of Representatives, the
following information is provided regarding federal grants and
contracts.
Fiscal Year 2013
No federal grants or contracts received.
Fiscal Year 2012
No federal grants or contracts received.
Fiscal Year 2011
Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, administered by the Legal
Services Corporation--National Veterans Legal Services Program--
$262,787.
Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans Of America
Chairman Miller, Ranking Member Michaud, and Distinguished Members
of the Committee:
On behalf of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), I
would like to extend our gratitude for the opportunity to share with
you our views, thoughts, and concerns regarding the ongoing government
shutdown and its impact on the ability of the Department of Veterans
Affairs (VA) to provide benefits and services to America's veterans.
IAVA is the nation's first and largest nonprofit, nonpartisan
organization for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and their
supporters. Founded in 2004, our mission is critically important but
simple - to improve the lives of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and
their families. With a steadily growing base of nearly 270,000 members
and supporters, we strive to help create a society that honors and
supports veterans of all generations.
In partnership with other veteran service organizations (VSOs),
IAVA has worked tirelessly to see that veterans' needs and concerns are
appropriately addressed by the VA. IAVA has fought hard over the years
to not only hold the VA accountable on its promises to our nation's
veterans, but also to ensure that veterans are fully aware of the
status of operations within VA.
Lately, however, the political climate in Washington has made doing
this a very difficult task. Congress, VSOs, and the public have often
received incomplete, inaccurate, and/or inconsistent information from
the administration and the VA about how the government shutdown would
impact veterans and VA services. These inconsistencies have left
veterans confused, concerned, and dismayed.
Since the federal government shutdown began, IAVA has fielded
countless calls and received numerous emails, tweets, and Facebook
messages from veterans all over the country asking about the impact of
the shutdown on their benefits and services. We have heard from a
number of veterans who rely on disability and GI Bill benefits and
don't know if they'll get their next check. In fact, demand for
education resources at IAVA has tripled in just a week.
One recent call came from a female veteran who is 100% disabled
with three kids and no savings. If she does not receive her November
disability check on time, she worries that she will not be able to pay
her rent and electric bill or even buy food for her family. She shared
that several other veterans she knows in her own hometown are in the
same situation as she is, and they all are worried about what is yet to
come.
Another IAVA member veteran recently relayed that he had applied
for a VA home loan and had already received his Certificate of
Eligibility and appraisal for the home he purchased when his mortgage
lender indicated that it may not be able to proceed with the loan due
to the government shutdown. While VA's most updated version of its
public guidance on the shutdown states that VA home loan processing
should not be impacted by a lapse in appropriations, this veteran's
story is evidence of a common concern we are starting to see: the
impact of uncertainty and doubt on businesses that interact with
veterans and impact their lives and livelihoods.
Stories such as these are only the tip of the iceberg. We also hear
from veterans who are furloughed federal government employees, veterans
unsure of what a new wave of furloughs at VA means for services on
which they rely, and veterans in the VA disability claims backlog who
are worried that their wait will be even longer.
In recent months, we have seen a significant and laudable reduction
in the backlog, due in part to a variety of factors such as the special
claims processing initiatives, veterans filing more fully developed
claims with the guidance of VSO service officers, mandatory overtime
for VA claims processors, media attention, and public pressure. But if
the shutdown continues, we may not only see a slowdown of this trend,
but a potential reversal of the trend. This would represent a major
setback for the VA, for veterans, and for the country.
The men and women who served our nation did their jobs without
question and without delay, and those currently serving, continue to
perform their duties even while questions about whether or not our
government will default on its commitment to compensate and care for
them and their families. IAVA urges Congress to end this standoff and
will restore funding to the government so that it can properly and
fully serve our nation's veteran population.
Veterans are hurting during the shutdown. They need the shutdown to
end so they can receive and benefit from the services and support they
have earned. But until Congress can re-open the government, our
veterans deserve clear, reliable, and accurate information.
Mr. Chairman, IAVA again appreciates the opportunity to offer our
views on this important topic, and we look forward to continuing to
work with each of you, your staff, and this Committee to continue to
improve the lives of veterans and their families.
Thank you for your time and attention.
AMVETS
Introduction
Distinguished members of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, it
is my pleasure, on behalf of AMVETS, to offer this testimony outlining
our questions and concerns related to the effects on the government
shutdown on VA benefits and services to veterans.
I would like to begin today by commending the committee for all of
its work on behalf of American veterans everywhere, especially its
efforts to improve efficiencies by eliminating redundant and/or
counterproductive programs and its unwavering commitment to all of the
men and women whose job it is to protect and defend this country.
As the United States absorbs the aftereffects of more than a decade
of continuous war and in the face of the planned draw-down of military
personnel, the VA has been, and will continue to be, severely stressed
for the foreseeable future. Nothing is more important for our veterans
than adequately meeting their physical/mental health care needs and the
accurate and efficient processing of their disability claims.
Thanks to improvements in battlefield medicine, swift triage,
aeromedical evacuations and trauma surgery, more combat-wounded than
ever before are surviving horrific wounds and will be applying for the
benefits they were promised and earned on the battlefield. Your
committee has a responsibility to ensure that the VA and our nation
live up to the obligations imposed by the sacrifices of our veterans.
It is encouraging to acknowledge at this time that, despite the
extraordinary sacrifices being asked of our men and women in uniform,
the best and the brightest continue to step forward to answer the call
of our nation in its time of need. I know that each of you is aware of,
and appreciates, the numerous issues of importance facing our military
members, veterans, retirees, families, and survivors.
Background
In the early 1980s, Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti pointed out
that the Anti-Deficiency Act, which was originally enacted in 1884,
required government agencies to close if their funding expired. This
legislation is one of the major laws that gives Congress constitutional
control over public funds. All funding lapses since the 80's, have
resulted in actual government shutdowns, although most of them
shutdowns were of very limited duration. The most significant
government shutdown to date came during the Clinton Administration and
lasted 21 days in 1996.
As mentioned above, this current government shutdown is not a
situation without precedence, even excluding the shutdown in 1996.
Continuing with our historical look back, we find that since 1976,
there have actually been 17 occasions when Congress failed to meet its
annual funding deadline, six of which took place in the 1970s. Not all
of these funding gaps actually lead to physical shutdowns.
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Comments
The focus of the remainder of my remarks will pertain to the
current situation we find ourselves in, the second government shutdown
in 17 years and its effects on VA. And even though the underlying cause
of these shutdowns, the inability of Congress and the president to
agree on a spending bill, have a lot in common, there are also many
differences. The result, not surprisingly, is that there is a lot of
confusion, frustration and outright hostility being experienced, not
only by American Veterans and federal employees, but also by ordinary
citizens and even government decision-makers.
It goes without saying, that the government we have today is not
the same as the one we had in 1996, thanks to technology and government
overhauls, etc., so we cannot depend on previous experience as a guide
to what may or may not happen. This unknown factor is creating undue
fear and anxiety for the millions of American Veterans receiving a
myriad of VA services and benefits and this is unacceptable to AMVETS
and the larger veteran's community.
Since anything that effects VA has cascading effects on all VA
stakeholders, AMVETS is seeking clear guidance to share with our
members as this shutdown continues. Currently, AMVETS National Service
Officers and the AMVETS National Service Director's office are being
inundated with urgent requests for information from veterans all around
the country who are concerned that their earned benefits may lapse as a
result of the government shutdown. It must not be forgotten that for
many veterans, especially the most vulnerable, their VA benefits may be
their sole source of income. Additionally, veterans want to know:
if they'll be able to file new claims;
if they'll be able to file appeals;
whether they'll be able to check the status of a pending
claim or appeal;
what will happen to their G.I. Bill benefit payments;
if NCA interments will continue in a timely manner;
why they are being prevented from visiting monuments
dedicated to their own service and sacrifice;
what effect the shutdown will have on the backlog;
will disabled veterans continue to receive their
compensation or pension benefits;
whether or not they'll be able to meet with Service
Officers in VA Regional Offices;
how will the furloughing of 2,754 Office of Information
Technology employees and contractors impact the development of
important VA programs such as, VBMS, Data2Data (D2D), DBQ's (Disability
Benefit Questionnaires), and VBMS Calculators;
what are the long-term ramifications of an extended
shutdown; and
for those with security clearances, there are concerns
about possible negative effects during their next background check to
renew their clearance if they are not paid in a timely manner.
Concerning meeting Secretary Shinseki's goal of eliminating the
backlog by 2015, back of the envelope calculations show that since the
beginning of calendar year 2013, VA has been reducing the backlog by an
average of 5,420 claims a week. With 98 weeks left until the end of
FY15 if the VA is able to continue reducing the backlog at the same
rate, VA will have successfully eliminated the backlog by 2015.
Additional calculations show that the VA has a buffer of 112,000 claims
if they continue reducing the backlog at the current rate; however,
every week that the shutdown continues reduces the VA's ability to meet
the Secretary Shinseki's goal by 2015.
Of major concern to AMVETS is the information coming out of VA
indicating that it may not have enough money to pay disability claims
and pension payments beyond the end of October, which would drastically
affect some 3.6 million veterans.
Closing
I would like to conclude this testimony, by noting for the record,
that AMVETS fully supports both Secretary Shinseki and Under Secretary
for Benefits Hickey. Both of these leaders have struggled to fulfill
their obligations to their fellow veterans thanks to the antiquated
civil service system current in place. While we appreciate that this
system, and its attendant protections, was originally established to
rightly protect against patronage, worker exploitation, and political
manipulation. But instead of protecting the best employees and creating
an environment in which excellence can thrive, civil service
protections now serve to lock the worst employees into place, making it
virtually impossible for managers to fire poor performers. Neither VA
Secretary Eric Shinseki, nor any future VA secretary, can be fully
expected to fix a system in which they are unable to fire bad employees
and reward good employees based on merit (instead of tenure). We need
to give the VA's leadership the tools they need to fix the system.
This completes my statement at this time; thank you for the
opportunity to offer our remarks on this critical issue.
Veterans of Foreign Wars of The United States
MR. CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE:
On behalf of the men and women of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of
the United States (VFW) and our Auxiliaries, I would like to thank you
for the opportunity to present our views on the effects of the
government shutdown on the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) and
the VFW's ability to provide service officer assistance to veterans and
active duty servicemembers.
Now in the second week of the government shutdown, veterans are
raising concerns about receiving compensation, pension and Dependency
and Indemnity Compensation at the end of October. We have asked our
membership to call and write their members of Congress to tell them to
pass a fully funded budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
Included in this call-to-action is a request to pass H.R. 813 and S.
932 to ensure that VA will be fully funded through Advance
Appropriations in the future.
In conversations with VA personnel and VFW service officers, the
effectiveness of our service officers to represent veterans will be
greatly impaired. VA has informed the VFW that all service officers,
whose offices reside inside the Regional Offices (RO), will continue to
have access to their offices to make phone calls and to review claims,
but veterans will not be allowed into the buildings for face-to-face
meetings. As the ROs begin closing, VFW service officers will have to
reschedule meetings off-site to continue to assist veterans. Even if
all service officers are granted access, there will be a loss of
productivity in taking claims, counseling veterans and, responding to
calls and reviewing decisions prior to promulgation.
Our service officers are working to reschedule appointments at
locations that range from local Vet Centers to VFW Posts. Aside from
the logistics of changing these meeting locations, service officers who
do not have access to encrypted laptop computers will have to rely on
filing paper claims as opposed to helping veterans file claims
electronically. This is counterproductive to the desire of VA to move
to an all-electronic claims process.
Currently, our service officers are in their offices to take calls
from veterans, allowing for timely responses to questions and concerns.
With our service officers rescheduling meetings outside the office,
those calls will go to voicemail, leaving our service officers trying
to reconnect with the veterans at a later time.
The Transition Assistance Program (TAP) operates on military
installations around the country. It is a perfect opportunity for our
service officers who are on or near a military installation to
introduce themselves to service members and describe how we can assist
them in filing a claim. TAP operations are halted by the shutdown at
most locations where VFW pre-discharge counselors work. Currently, our
service officers at military instillations are working from their usual
worksites after being denied access early on. Our service officer at
Joint Base Lewis-McCord, Wa, will be relocated to the Veterans Home at
American Lake VA Hospital if the shutdown continues beyond this week.
At some of our pre-discharge locations, the intake sites are closed, so
our service officers are either faxing claims to our Department service
officer or hand delivering claims to the RO for a date stamp. The VFW
also predicts a fall off of service members and veterans who will reach
out to us because weekly TAP classes are being disrupted.
It is our understanding that the Board of Veterans Appeals is
operating day-to-day. Once this office closes, our service officers who
assist at the Board will no longer have access to the building and
their work - again, slowing the claims process and denying veterans of
their disability and pension claims decisions and appeal denials.
These are the known setbacks of the government shutdown on the
everyday work the VFW conducts on behalf of veterans, and the partial
impact the shutdown will have on veterans and VA. It is time to stop
leveraging veterans against larger political agendas. Partial funding
measures or short-term Continuing Resolutions will only continue to
adversely affect the care and benefits veterans have earned. So again,
the VFW asks Congress to pass a full-year Fiscal Year 2014
appropriations bill without delay, and pass H.R. 813 and S. 932 to
ensure veteran programs and services are not disrupted in the future.
Mr. Chairman, thank you again for allowing the VFW to submit our
views for the record. We will continue to inform your Committee of the
impact this shutdown has on our daily operations and the veterans we
serve.
Information Required by Rule XI2(g)(4) of the House of Representatives
Pursuant to Rule XI2(g)(4) of the House of Representatives, VFW has
not received any federal grants in Fiscal Year 2013, nor has it
received any federal grants in the two previous Fiscal Years.