Andy Barr: “I am grateful to have my bill, H.R. 7795, the Veterans Benefits Fairness and Transparency Act of 2020 before the House…”

“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.…”