WASHINGTON – The House Armed Services Committee met Wednesday for its second annual joint appearance of the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs lacking their headliners. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki failed to appear.
The no-shows riled the top Democrat on the Veterans Affairs committee, Rep. Mike Michaud of Maine.
“This is seen as a lack of personal engagement, a sign that they care less, that they are not as committed as they have been,” Michaud said.
Defense Department spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said the department sent qualified representatives to the hearing. Smith said she was not sure if the secretary of defense was officially invited. A spokeswoman for the Department of Veterans Affairs said Shinseki was not asked to testify, thus did not have to attend.
The two departments have been working over the past few months to fix the backlog of veterans’ disability claims that has built up to more than 611,000 cases pending for longer than 125 days as of late March. Four years ago Congress provided more than $1 billion for the electronic record integration, but little progress was made.
Transfering service members’ files from the Department of Defense to the Department of Veterans Affairs can take months. There needs to be an easier way to transfer these files in a timely fashion, said Rep. Howard McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the Armed Services Committee.
“Behind each of these claims is a veteran,” McKeon said.
An integrated electronic health record system for the two departments is expected to be completed by early 2014, according to Frank Kendall, VA undersecretary of defense acquisition.
The claims backlog will be significantly improved once service members’ files are transferred to an electronic system, said Danny Pummill, VA deputy undersecretary for benefits. Currently only 20 percent of the files are available electronically.
Recently about 4 percent of file requests made by the Department of Veterans Affairs to the Department of Defense have been backlogged, according to Jessica Wright, acting undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. This is a significant reduction, said Wright, who stated that both departments have collaborated immensely over the past few months.
Not only must the departments integrate the two systems and clear the backlog, Congress must pass appropriations bills in order to fund these efforts , said Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee.
“I hope that all parties work together to achieve what is our common goal aAd that is that our servicemen who have put their lives on the line to protect our country, at our request, our order as policymakers, are taken care of,” Smith said.