By By ANDY HAMILTON / Niles Daily Star
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – U.S. Reps. Fred Upton, R-Mich., of St. Joseph, and Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., of South Bend, teamed up to introduce legislation to reduce the wait time for veterans in line to receive disability benefits.
The Fairness in Veterans Disability Benefits Act, H.R. 1490, introduced Wednesday in Washington, D.C., would speed up the process for veterans in line for service-connected disability claims, the congressmen said. Both Upton and Donnelly appeared together to announce the proposed legislation – Donnelly's first since taking office – Friday morning at the Indiana Democrat's office in downtown South Bend.
Upton said the bill came partly in response to the recent news of the poor outpatient conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and also of learning that the average time from when a veteran applied for disability to approval was 177 days. More than 30 co-sponsors have already signed on in support of the legislation, he added.
"Joe and I were both very troubled to see that we had actually a 400,000 caseload backlog of processing our veterans coming home for the benefits they deserve. That's not right," Upton said.
"We need to treat every one of our veterans, particularly with service-connected injuries, the best that we can."
Donnelly, who is on the Congressional Veterans Committee, added, "I, like Fred, have been to Walter Reed. I've seen the sacrifices our service men and women have made, and this is the very least that we can do. There should not be a family out there, a veteran out there, who has to wait 177 days or 200 days to receive benefits they are entitled to."
Upton said 87 percent of the disability claims from troops that served in Iraq or Afghanistan have been approved by Veterans Affairs. Many of the injuries reported are hearing loss, tinnitus – ringing in the ears – and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), said Gary Whitehead, Elkhart County (Ind.) Veterans Service officer.
Director of the Berrien County Veterans Service Office Donald Olivia, Sr. said there are about a dozen to two dozen veterans in Berrien County that served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"They're trickling in now, and I find that the PTSD, we're applying for that quite often," Olivia said.
Upton said that in the Vietnam and Korea conflicts for every one soldier that died, two were injured, in large part because the medical facilities were not up to today's standards.
During a visit two years ago to a U.S. medical facility in Germany, Upton said he was told that the hospital had treated more than 12,000 men and women coming out of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and less than 20 of them had died.
Now, Upton continued, for every U.S. soldier killed there are 16 injured.
"Decades ago many of those 16 would have died. But when we bring them home they're then faced with disabilities," Upton said.
The aim of the bipartisan legislation is to streamline the process through which all veterans learn whether their injuries are considered service-connected under existing law.
According to a press release from Upton and Donnelly, the number of backlogged cases is expected to increase exponentially as an estimated 44 percent of the 1.4 million troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan will need some form of disability.
"What our bill does is that when they show that it was a service-connected injury and in service of the country, that they are able to get the median disability level on day one," Upton said.
"So rather, then wait in essence 180 days … they're going to get their disability on the first day.
"This legislation would become effective the day of enactment, so it won't be able to reach back and look at folks who's claims perhaps have been not allowed or dismissed. It's only from that point on that the soldiers coming back applying for disability would get the benefits they want," Upton added.
The claim of disability is presumed to be service-connected unless the Veterans' Benefits Administration can provide evidence to the contrary.