Yesterday, congressional candidate Tammy Duckworth spoke at the
Democratic National Convention. Duckworth, a former Army officer
who served in Iraq as a Black Hawk pilot under President Bush and
subsequently as Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs under
President Obama, praised
Obama for working to help veterans:
Then President Obama asked me to help keep our sacred trust with
veterans of all eras at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. We
worked to end the outrage of vets having to sleep on the same
streets they once defended. We improved services for female
veterans. I reached out to young vets by creating the Office for
Online Communications.
Unfortunately, other testimony about the state of things at the
Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) is not as
positive. According to an August 10
column by Al Poteet, a former Vietnam-era Army gunship pilot
and former Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Department of
Veterans Affairs, there is a backlog of 900,000 claims at the DVA.
This number has grown significantly in the last several years.
According to Poteet, “the growing backlog exists due to four
external factors.”
- Ten years of war with increased survival rates;
- Post-conflict downsizing of the military;
- Additional medical presumptive conditions; and
- Successful outreach encouraging more veterans to submit
claims.
While all Americans should be grateful that increased survival
rates have been a part of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan,
and that more veterans have been reached to submit claims for
injuries received in service, the fact is that this backlog is not
a new problem. From Poteet’s column:
In fact, these four “external factors” actually parallel a
similar situation that occurred at VA during and after the Vietnam
War. However, in VBA, the past is often prolog so veterans continue
to be subjected to more half-hearted plans that are essentially
dilatory tactics by the Under Secretary’s senior staff.
So the Simon Lagree’s of VBA operations continue to trot out one
lame horse after another to explain why the backlog now grows
beyond their control.
By taking an old page from prior VBA game plans, the
latest “transformation” appears to be designed to kick the can down
the road for a few years beyond the 2012 elections while
simultaneously claiming spectacular productivity improvements are
right around the corner.
Nonetheless, the plain fact is VBA has had numerous, less than
successful attempts to reinvent the bureaucracy usually ending with
limited strategic success.
As usual, these “half-loaf” transformations sound plausible,
complete with the kind of hype and hyperbole we have
come to expect from the Under Secretary’s staff.
This concern was given national attention by MSNBC host Rachel
Maddow, who interviewed Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA), the Ranking Member
of the House Veterans Affairs Committee about statements the
Congressman made in a Committee hearing. According to Filner,
“People die before they can get that final adjudication, or they
may commit suicide.” The interview, which is embedded into Poteet’s
column, is unflinchingly critical of the DVA’s failure to take care
of those who have served our nation so valiantly. As Filner — a
self-described opponent of the wars — pointed out, veterans
deserve all the care and respect a grateful nation can offer them,
regardless of one’s thoughts on the conflicts themselves.
The story about backlogs was first brought to my attention last
week by Ed Timperlake, a former Marine fighter pilot and the first
Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Public Affairs for the
VA. He is also the editor of the site at which Poteet’s column was
published. According to Timperlake, he contacted the DVA about some
of his own issues and was told there was a 500-day wait. When he
asked whether the wait would be less if his issue was terminal —
theoretically, since Timperlake does not have a terminal illness —
the DVA told him the wait would be five months.
As always, veterans deserve all the care they have earned.
Duckworth, who “lost
both legs and part of the use of her right arm” in combat in
2004, knows that better than most. Unfortunately, her testimony
praising Obama’s efforts on behalf of young and female veterans
pales in light of the kinds of delays Timperlake, Maddow, Filner,
and Poteet are bringing to light.
Note: I contacted Duckworth’s campaign for comment about
the DVA’s delays, but they were unable to get a comment to me
before my deadline. If and when they respond, I will add an
update.
