Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Chairman Luttrell Holds Legislative Hearing on Proposed Bills to Improve VA Benefits Delivery

Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Chairman Luttrell Holds Legislative Hearing on Proposed Bills to Improve VA Benefits Delivery

Today, Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-Texas), the Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs, delivered the following opening remarks, as prepared, at the start of the subcommittee's legislative hearing to discuss potential legislation to make sure veterans and their families can access the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) disability compensation benefits they are eligible for, without government bureaucracy getting in the way. A full list of the bills on today's agenda can be found here.

The subcommittee will come to order.

Without objection, the Chairman may declare a recess at any time.

Good afternoon.

Thank you all for joining us today.

We are here to discuss 9 bills that would benefit veterans and their survivors.

The bills we will be considering today would:

• Require the VA Board of Veterans Appeals to include in their annual report the reasons why the Board has failed to decide benefits appeals in a timely manner.
  
  
• Provide equity between all veterans who are seeking transportation and private burial plot reimbursements from the VA.
  
  
• Require the National Cemetery Administration to publish an annual report, like those published by VBA, VHA, and the Board of Veterans Appeals
  
  
• Initiate the expansion of the Dayton National Cemetery, acquiring nearby land at no charge to the federal government.
  
  
• Change the eligibility requirements for DIC, VA's largest survivors' benefit, to surviving spouses under the age of 55 who choose to remarry and to the survivors whose loved one passed away from service-connected A.L.S. before the 10-year mark.
  
  
• And consider changes to how VA identifies fraudulent disability benefit questionnaires and the evidentiary standard for determining if some conditions are service connected.

This subcommittee has an important and unique responsibility.

We are responsible for overseeing veterans compensation, pension, burial, fiduciary, and survivors' benefits.

We touch many parts of the VA, including Compensation Service, the Board of Veterans Appeals, the National Cemetery Administration, and the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

But most importantly, this subcommittee makes an impact on veterans and their survivors at some of the most important times in their lives.

The work we do affects veterans when they are seeking disability benefits.

It affects them when they are under financial distress.

It affects families when their veteran loved one passes away.

It also affects how those veterans and their loved ones are honored long after they are gone.

We are responsible for reviewing legislation that impacts veterans throughout their lives

I am grateful that today we will be considering these bill that ensure veterans and their families are honored in their life, and that they are properly cared for in death.

I do want to highlight that the bills we are considering today are not yet offset.

That means that no mechanism has been identified for how we will fund these bills and ensure good policy and fiscal responsibility go hand in hand.

Our responsibility as legislators and current law requires that new spending must be offset by a reduction elsewhere, to minimize the growth of our national debt.

Until a proper offset can be identified for many of these proposals, we will be unable to consider that legislation at a full committee markup.

I look forward to working with Chairman Bost, Ranking Member McGarvey, and the other Members of this subcommittee on these important proposals today.

I also look forward to hearing from the witnesses who have joined us today about how we can improve these bills.

I now yield to Ranking Member McGarvey for his opening remarks.

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