It's unacceptable the federal government is doing nothing but continuing to
promise what they promised before. 183 days the average processing time for a
claim. It's unacceptable. More unacceptable is that the fact that the error
rate is 16%and perhaps higher in some regions. Veterans who appeal the system
face multiple years 883 days, three years in order to be adjudicated. The
system was broken during the Vietnam war when I enlisted. The system has never
been fixed so today we're going to concentrate in this Committee on hearing what
you're going to do. But understand, we've heard it before. Today, you will be
judged by what you say and what you do. You will no longer be allowed to come
back again with promises of reform a year away. Today, I understand, you will be
talking about getting better over the next year -- perhaps talking about ways in
which you have improved recently. In 1970, the system was paper and the system
failed veterans miserably. Today the system is computerized but not
harmonized. Today the Veterans Administration continues to claim that they will
get better be but they have not.
-- House Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa at Wednesday's House Oversight's Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense and
Foreign Operations hearing (see C.I.'s Wednesday "Iraq snapshot" for more).