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President Joe Biden's Veterans Administration (VA) annual budget requests have increased by double-digit percentages—positive steps to take care of the nation's nearly 20 million veterans. The VA's request for Fiscal Year 2022 was roughly $270 billion, up 10 percent from 2021. For Fiscal Year 2023, it is $301 billion.
Yet like a lot of things in Washington, such impressive numbers fail to tell the whole story. Throwing money at a problem doesn't automatically mean better results.
First, skyrocketing inflation levels not seen in 40 years will mostly render such increases moot. The government simply printing money to fund higher spending is a root cause of inflation to begin with.
Second, and what caught my attention as a veteran, is that these VA budget increases are happening as some in Congress push for major changes that would sharply limit the ability of veterans to file disability claims. Curtailing such options couldn't come at a worse time. During the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting work-from-home policies, out of over 500,000 pending claims, over 200,000 were considered backlogged—meaning no action after 120 days.
This already enormous backlog is about to get far worse if some in Congress get their way.
Under current law, veterans have four channels to process a disability claim: individually, VA-accredited agents, private consultants, and Veteran Service Organizations (VSOs).
Since 2019, multiple bills in the Senate have sought to prevent anyone who is not a VA-accredited claims attorney—or the veteran themselves—from helping veterans file claims. On the House side, some have sounded a similar tone through public hearings and direct pressure on the VA. In contrast with typical Washington partisanship, those pushing for such changes include a balanced mix of Republicans and Democrats.
Since navigating the VA benefits systems can take years of back-and-forth correspondence, it's difficult for many veterans to successfully file their own claims. The VA bureaucracy can be challenging for individuals, especially those who may be suffering severe injuries and do not have family members in a position to help.
Accredited agents are attorneys recognized by the VA to process claims who get paid by the VA regardless of whether they obtain benefits for the veteran or not. Private consultants are typically veterans who only make a profit if benefits are awarded or increased. And the VSOs are mostly staffed by volunteers—patriots who aren't paid at all.
So what's driving the effort to criminalize two of the four existing channels?
The stated reason is to prevent scammers from taking advantage of veterans. Yet behind the scenes there's a battle in the benefits sector as the number of veterans sharply declines.
The math is pretty simple. According to the VA, 16 million Americans served in the military during World War II. Very few are still with us. By contrast, just 3 million served over 20 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The pool of American veterans who might need claims assistance is shrinking fast as our heroes from the days of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam pass away.
By eliminating private consultants and VSOs from the picture, VA-accredited attorneys will have a near-monopoly on claims services and related revenues.
The big VSOs, American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, count membership of nearly 2 million and 1.5 million respectively, and thus have enough member dues and donations to hire accredited attorneys to process claims. So they'll stay in business under the proposed reforms. Meanwhile, smaller VSOs without the resources to hire claims lawyers will be driven out of business as donor money naturally shifts to the big VSOs that will be able to demonstrate more services. Private consultants, including many service-disabled veteran owned businesses, will also be driven out.
The importance of VSOs, both large and small, and veteran-owned businesses is that they can relate to challenges facing our service members. The big guys shouldn't be able to drive out the little guys for their bottom line.
The last 20 years of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have left our veterans with significant scars. They are paying an extraordinarily price, as indicated by skyrocketing suicides. The current suicide rate of 36 per 100,000 for Army veterans is the highest since 1938.
As we have just celebrated the Fourth of July, it is worth issuing a call to action to care for those to whom we owe so much—our veterans. Let's not limit their options to file disability claims. They deserve better.
Sergio de la Peña is a Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired) and Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
