Two Florida congressmen worked together across party lines and sent a letter to U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald on Tuesday, asking him to give members of Congress access to veterans electronic claims.
U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., and U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Fla., who is running in next years election for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., rounded up more than 60 members of Congress to sign on to their letter and insisted they would be able to better service their constituents with the additional access.
Yoho and Murphy noted that congressional offices often intervene with the VA on behalf of constituents and said the process would be smoother if they had more access. Currently, only the VA and some veterans services officers (VSO) have access to the claims.
When veterans cant get regular updates about their claims, they turn to congressional caseworkers in their district, Yoho said on Tuesday. Caseworkers can only provide them the answers they need by contacting regional VA offices. This adds another layer between the veterans and the answers they are so desperately looking for -- which in turn causes frustration. It is my hope that with this common-sense solution, Veterans Affairs Sec. McDonald will take the necessary steps to streamline the claims process and grant congressional caseworkers read-only access to veterans claims files. This will help give our nations veterans peace of mind about the status of their claims and expedite the process.
The VA is constantly working to remove the claims backlog and this effort is one more way we can do it, Murphy said. By giving certified, congressional constituent advocates access to view the claims status, well get veterans more timely updates and free up VA officials to process claims quicker. Every effort should be made to get our veterans the information they need as fast as possible, and I am hopeful the VA will work with us to make that happen.
The proposal won the support of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
The VFW believes that allowing congressional caseworkers to view the electronic claim files of veterans who have requested their assistance will provide swifter service for veterans and allow VA regional office employees more time to do their jobs, said Ray Kelley, the VFWs national legislative director.
Besides Yoho and Murphy, nine other congressional representatives from Florida signed the letter. Florida Republican U.S. Reps. Carlos Curbelo, Ron DeSantis, Mario Dia-Balart, Rich Nugent and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen signed on; so did Florida Democratic U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch, Gwen Graham, Alan Grayson and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. Both DeSantis and Grayson are looking at running for the Senate.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
