I have worked for the VFW approximately 18 months. When I began working in my current position, a VFW colleague welcomed me, handed me a copy of the VA’s rating schedule, and explained that I would need to become acquainted with the material in order to understand how the VBA goes about conducting its business. If you are at all familiar with this voluminous manual you would, no doubt, understand the instant panic that set in as I began thumbing through the pages.

“How on earth can anyone make sense out of this?”

I imagine that a newly hired VA rating specialist probably feels pretty much the same way on their first day, understanding that he or she will have to spend a good two years of training and referring to this manual (and other VA regulations), and at least another year getting comfortable with the VA claims system to get to the point to where the rating specialist becomes somewhat proficient in assessing veterans claims. I note this because I believe it is important to understand that simply increasing the number of VA rating specialists (as the VA has done over the past couple years) will not significantly reduce the claims backlog in a fashion considered timely by Congress, the VSO community, and most importantly the very veterans this system was developed to serve. I use this example as a starting point in order to advance our discussion to what I believe is a self-evident truth:

There is no quick fix to VBA…only the opportunity for steady and deliberate improvement.

No Magic Bullet

Perhaps it is time we recognize that the world has changed. There has been a silent paradigm shift over the past 30 years. If for no other reason than judicial review, the Veterans Claims Assistance Act (VCAA) and the budgetary environment that exists today, it may be time to acknowledge that the VA cannot be staffed at such levels as will allow it to produce quality decisions in the same period those earlier generations of VA workers achieved.

The converse of this may be to acknowledge that the better production and timeliness levels achieved in the 1950s and ‘60s may very well have been accomplished because there was less attention paid to procedural rights and that the VA may have exhibited a rather cavalier attitude when it came to interpreting the law and its own regulations.

Whether you agree with either view of history, the initial point remains; the world in which the VA operates has changed and it may no longer be realistic to expect accurate benefit decisions in a short period of time. There are still things that can be done to improve production, reduce backlogs (although perhaps not at the rate we all would like to see) and ensure claims are completed with quality. In my next blog posting I’ll highlight a few ideas that may help VA emerge from is growing backlog of claims cases and improve the manner in which veterans receive the benefits they deserve.

Bob Jackson is the assistant director for National Legislative Services for the VFW. When he is not busy hatching up political schemes with his pal and fellow co-worker Justin Brown, Bob lobbies Congress to improve VA Compensation and Pension Benefits.

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