September 22, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 164 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session
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VETERANS BENEFITS FAIRNESS AND TRANSPARENCY ACT OF 2020; Congressional Record Vol. 166, No. 164
(House of Representatives - September 22, 2020)
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[Pages H4685-H4687] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] {time} 1430 VETERANS BENEFITS FAIRNESS AND TRANSPARENCY ACT OF 2020 Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 7795) to amend title 38, United States Code, to improve the ability of veterans to access and submit disability benefit questionnaire forms of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Clerk read the title of the bill. The text of the bill is as follows: H.R. 7795 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``Veterans Benefits Fairness and Transparency Act of 2020''. SEC. 2. PUBLICATION AND ACCEPTANCE OF DISABILITY BENEFIT QUESTIONNAIRE FORMS OF DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS. (a) In General.--Section 5101 of title 38, United States Code, is amended-- (1) by redesignating subsection (d) as subsection (e); and (2) by inserting after subsection (c) the following new subsection (d): ``(d)(1) The Secretary shall publish in a central location on the internet website of the Department disability benefit questionnaire forms, or such successor forms relating to non- Department medical providers submitting evidence regarding a disability of a claimant. ``(2) Subject to section 6103 of this title, if the Secretary updates a form described in paragraph (1), the Secretary shall-- ``(A) accept the previous version of the form filed by a claimant if-- ``(i) the claimant provided to the non-Department medical provider the previous version of the form before the date on which the updated version of the form was made available; and ``(ii) the claimant files the previous version of the form during the one-year period following the date the form was completed by the non-Department medical provider; ``(B) request from the claimant any other information that the updated version of the form requires; and ``(C) apply the laws and regulations required to adjudicate the claim as if the claimant filed the updated version of the form. ``(3) The Secretary may waive any interagency approval process required to approve a modification to a disability benefit questionnaire form if such requirement only applies by reason of the forms being made public under paragraph (1). ``(4) Not less frequently than once each year through 2026, the Inspector General of the Department shall submit to Congress a report on the findings of the Inspector General with respect to the use of the forms described in paragraph (1).''. (b) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in section 5101 of title 38, United States Code, as added by subsection (a), may be construed to require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to develop any new information technology system or otherwise require the Secretary to make any significant changes to the internet website of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano) and the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. David P. Roe) each will control 20 minutes. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California. General Leave Mr. TAKANO. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks, and to include extraneous material on H.R. 7795. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from California? There was no objection. Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, the Veterans Benefits Fairness and Transparency Act of 2020 is legislation that was brought to the House Veterans' Affairs Committee as a result of a strong partnership between staff and the advocates that are out in the field, even through the COVID-19 pandemic, assisting our veterans in the disability benefits process. When a VA doctor evaluates a veteran's disability, they use a form known as a disability benefit questionnaire, or DBQ. These DBQs are what VA employees use to decide benefit claims and can be the deciding factor between a grant or a denial. During the height of the pandemic, VA made the decision to pull these DBQs off its public website, making them inaccessible to veterans and their representatives. The advocates told us this change was harmful for veterans because they could no longer get relevant medical information from their own treatment providers to support their claims. Now, even though VA oftentimes provides medical exams to veterans during the claims process, it is not always the same as getting that information from your own doctor. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 7795 fixes this issue by requiring VA to publish DBQs on its website and to accept DBQs completed by a non-VA medical provider. Mr. Speaker, I want to take this moment to thank Representatives Barr and Luria for introducing this legislation, and also thank our VSO partners for bringing this issue to our attention. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. DAVID P. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 7795, the Veterans Benefits [[Page H4686]] Fairness and Transparency Act of 2020, which was introduced by my good friend, Andy Barr, from Kentucky. This bill would streamline the process for veterans to submit medical evidence from their private provider to support their Department of Veterans Affairs compensation claim. As you may know, VA has recently resumed certain in-person disability exams after suspending them at the start of the COVID-19 national emergency. During those uncertain times, some veterans may have requested that their private physician conduct their disability exam in order to avoid a claims processing delay. Unfortunately, in April of 2020, VA stopped publishing the disability benefits questionnaires, or DBQs, on its website. Those forms are used to ensure that VA receives all the medical information the department needs to adjudicate the veteran's disability claim. However, if a veteran's physician does not have access to the appropriate DBQ, the provider may not include all the medical information needed to support the veteran's claim. H.R. 7795 would address this issue by requiring the VA to reinstate the public-facing DBQs on its website. As an OB/GYN physician who managed my own private practice for three decades, I believe that a physician or other healthcare provider who has had the opportunity to develop a relationship with a veteran patient over several years is the most qualified to assess the veteran's disability. If that provider is willing to perform a disability exam, they should have the same access to the DBQ that a VA examiner would have. I have heard VA's concerns about this bill, and I understand the department would like to improve the process for veterans to develop and obtain supportive evidence from their private providers. However, I am not persuaded that the veterans are well-served by eliminating the public access to DBQs right now. Instead, I believe veterans should be able to obtain these forms until VA can implement a better process. Veterans should not be penalized for seeking out a medical opinion from their private medical provider, especially when there is a backlog of over 350,000 pending disability exams caused by the pandemic that VA must address. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Congressman Barr and Congresswoman Elaine Luria of Virginia for their leadership on this issue. And, Mr. Speaker, let me explain how it is. Let's say I am seeing a patient for a disability in my office, and I have put down exactly what I think is appropriate, but it is not all the information the VA needs. I don't know what they need. They need to just send me the form so I will know what to fill out so they will have adequate information. So in your office, your staff back home are not getting these complaints about, Well, they turned my claim down because they didn't have adequate information. This is a simple solution to a simple problem. Mr. Speaker, I encourage all Members to support H.R. 7795, and I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Virginia (Mrs. Luria), the chairwoman of the Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee, and also a cosponsor of H.R. 7795. Mrs. LURIA. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise today in support and as a co-lead of the Veterans Benefits Fairness and Transparency Act. I want to start by thanking my colleague, Mr. Barr from Kentucky, for taking the lead on this. And as you know, we have heard from countless veterans and countless veterans' advocates that this is a problem; that these forms are not available to our veterans and their providers to be able to provide the best information in the most timely manner in order to process these claims. The simple fact is that we must act to make it easier, not harder, for our veterans to receive the benefits that they deserve. As mentioned, this bill will ensure that benefit questionnaires will be public-facing again on a website. Mr. Barr and I learned from many veterans' advocates that these forms were removed and that veterans that needed to provide this vital information in order to process their claim couldn't simply have the forms that they needed in order to do that. This bill also includes the use of older versions of the form, because how many times have we heard in our offices and from our constituents that a veteran has submitted their claim only to have it sent back again requesting a different version of the form, thus, delaying the process for our veterans who desperately need these claims to be adjudicated, and need the care from the VA. This will also allow the VA to make prompt decisions on the disability claims and reduce their unfinished exam backlog, which is currently nearing 60 percent. These questionnaires played a huge role in 2011 in reducing the massive claims backlog that we experienced at that time. And during our current public health crisis, while access to care at VA facilities is limited, what could make more sense than allowing veterans, in company with their civilian providers, to also be able to provide the information necessary to process their claims? In my district in coastal Virginia, I am honored to represent more than 92,000 veterans in our district. And this is among my top priorities to ensure that we make this process easier, more transparent, and more timely for our veterans. Mr. Speaker, I want to close by thanking Mr. Barr for introducing this legislation, and for allowing me to cosponsor it. And I urge all of my colleagues to support this bill in order to help our Nation's many deserving veterans. Mr. DAVID P. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Barr), my good friend and fellow member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee. Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to have my bill, H.R. 7795, the Veterans Benefits Fairness and Transparency Act of 2020 before the House of Representatives today. I would like to thank my good friend, Ranking Member Roe, for his support of this legislation, and would especially like to thank my colleague across the aisle and chair of the Disability and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee, Representative Elaine Luria, for co-leading this bipartisan legislation with me. I appreciate Representative Luria's leadership on this issue. This bill is vitally important because it will restore access for veterans and their representatives to the disability benefits questionnaires forms previously available on the VA's public website. Our veterans used these forms to submit evidence to the VA for their disability claims until the VA removed them in April of this year in the middle of a pandemic, making it harder for veterans to submit their evidence and get the benefits owed to them. The idea for this legislation was brought to me by a member of Kentucky's Sixth Congressional District Veterans' Coalition, Chief Warrant Officer Denny Hart. I know Mr. Hart, he is a good patriotic man, and he continues to serve our country by helping other veterans file their disability claims with the VA. However, after the VA removed these forms from being publicly available, they effectively shut out Mr. Hart and others from assisting our veterans. There were only 11 VA contract examiners in the Sixth District of Kentucky in January of this year. Now, to their credit, the VA has increased the number of those contract examiners, probably because of this legislation. But until we have the assurances that a sufficient number of VA contract examiners are able to assist all of the veterans with their disability claims, we need public-facing DBQs. My legislation gives the VA additional manpower to process a veteran's DBQ by maintaining the ability of a veteran's own provider to fill out the form. This is something vital to veterans in rural communities who may be far from a VA medical center or contract examiner. Furthermore, our proposal prevents veterans from having their disability claim delayed or denied because the VA changed their DBQ form during the application process without the veteran knowing. During this pandemic, we must ensure our veterans' disability [[Page H4687]] claims process is not paused or compromised solely due to a change in a bureaucratic form. We must protect veterans from unnecessary burdens while securing benefits owed to them. No veteran should be denied the disability benefits to which he or she is justly entitled solely because a DBQ is not publicly available or because the VA changed the form in the middle of the process. This is commonsense legislation supported by multiple veteran service organizations, such as the Disabled American Veterans, the Paralyzed Veterans of America, Minority Veterans of America, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and more. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan legislation and restore this vital resource for our Nation's heroes. Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. DAVID P. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, this is a commonsense solution to a problem that shouldn't have occurred in the first place. And I think that it is--I appreciate both Congresswoman Luria and Congressman Barr for their leadership on this. I encourage my colleagues to support this. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, the passage of this important legislation is necessary to continue to make it easier for veterans to submit medical evidence in support of their disability claims. I urge all of my colleagues to support the legislation, H.R. 7795, brought forward by Congressman Barr of Kentucky, and the cosponsor, the chairwoman of our Subcommittee on DAMA, Elaine Luria of Virginia. Mr. Speaker I urge support of this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 7795. The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed. A motion to reconsider was laid on the table. ____________________
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