Dina Titus

His legislation seeks to address the appeals backlog, a high priority issue for this committee.

The purpose of this legislation is to ensure that all veterans and their families are receiving the benefits they have earned.

I fully support his legislation and believe that this will build on VA's successes fighting the backlog.

This legislation will increase the rates of compensation for veterans with service-connected disabilities.

We have lots of time. Go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank the VA for your assistance on the bills that are before us today.

I believe this is a commonsense approach, and I hope we can move the bill to the floor as quickly as possible.

I fully support this legislation and believe that it will build on the VA's successes to date fighting the backlog.

Like you, I wish we could make this permanent, but in the short term we certainly need to raise the compensation for this year.

It is the lack of a qualified workforce.

But we know it is not enough. There are waiting lines for children to get into these programs...

The cuts in the budget are not the President's policy, but are a result of a 1998 statute with the hold harmless provision.

While PVA has been encouraged by many of the effects that the integration and wide-spread implementation of technology has had, we still have concerns.

I know in Reno 5,000 cases have been brokered to other places around the country. And my question is, that is kind of lipstick on a pig.

I appreciate all of your concerns about the standardized form, and I know that Beto has some legislation that would address it.

Your help is very much appreciated by both the veterans and by us.

You reduced the time veterans have to wait for their claims and you cut the backlog by 35 percent.

I want to commend the VA for its efforts to address the claims backlog.

As I listen to you, it seems that a theme which is emerging is kind of a lack of coordination.

We have got to have the infrastructure in place there to welcome them, speed them along, serve them effectively, efficiently, and in a friendly manner.

I agree with you, I don't want to sit next to you talking on your cell phone, so I appreciate that.

Why are we not looking at being able to marry them and being able to be a little bit more proactive in that area?

This is a race for relevancy and a race for vibrancy.

We just don't want to make it more difficult for our veterans to be able to track where their claim is or understand what's happening with it and when it's happening without scattering it around or making it more complicated.

And will there be safeguards in place so that you do not just pay a veteran off for a few things and think he will go away, as opposed to really completing the entire claim?