About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 (2013)

handle is hein.cbhear/fdsyshearqf0001 and id is 1 raw text is: AUT-ENTICATED U.S. GOVERNMENT INFORMATION GP MILITARY CONSTRUCTION, VETERANS AF- FAIRS, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPRO- PRIATIONS FOR 2014 THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS BUDGET WITNESS HON. ERIC K. SHINSEKI, SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AF- FAIRS CHAIRMAN OPENING STATEMENT Mr. CULBERSON. Good morning. The Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs will come to order. We delighted to have with us the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and we have got a lot of questions for you and a vote coming up in about an hour, and I know the members of the committee all have questions for you, Mr. Secretary. And we are delighted to have you here and ap- preciate your service to the country. As each and every one, we are grateful to your service to the Nation and our men and women who have served our country so faithfully. And I would like at this time to introduce my friend Mr. Bishop for any statement he would like to make. RANKING MEMBER OPENING STAETMENT Mr. BISHOP. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we have done a lot to ease the burden of military service. For example, Congress passed the 9/11 GI bill, the Hiring Heroes Act, and the Caregivers Act all with very strong bipartisan majorities. However, we are still struggling in one area that can make a world of difference to a veteran, and this is the area of the claims process. We have a serious problem in the country when there are over 850,000 veterans waiting compensation claims and over 600,000 that have waited in excess of 125 days, commonly referred to as backlogged. I have heard from many on the reasons for the backlog, and the inclusion of the Agent Orange, the winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the complexity of the new wounds, both physical and mental, to our veterans and others, but what I want to hear today and what I would like to discuss is what is ac- tually being done to fix it. I want to talk about results and how this fiscal year 2014 budget is going to achieve those results. How are the initiatives and fund- ing in this budget going to meet the Department's goal to end the (1)

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most