Elizabeth Esty: “Thank you, Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Johnson for holding today's hearing on the Environmental Protection Agency.”

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.

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

I hope we can take the lessons that are being learned there and make sure that those are used every time with forward-going programs.

If they cannot see--the VSOs who are on the front line are unable to see the legacy claims, then we are not really getting the benefit--the promised benefits of this IT innovation.