Elizabeth Esty: “Thank you very much. And again, I want to thank the Chairman and Ranking Member for holding today's hearing.”

I want to thank the under secretary and his team for staying.

I am happy to welcome everyone here today as we enter the home stretch on the implementation of the Appeals Modernization Act.

I want to make sure that VA is using RAMP to inform the new system, and not as a means to disguise a true size of the appeals backlog.

On behalf of the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO (AFGE), and its National VA Council, which represents more than 700,000 federal and D.C. Government Employees...