Former Rep. Tiahrt: Congressional bill would make life harder for veterans | Commentary

It is unthinkable to treat a broken arm with a band-aid, but the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) is encountering such a diagnosis. Historically, the VA has had a multitude of troubles which unfortunately have plagued veterans for decades and for many of them, the VA benefit application process has been more of a pox than a cure. Like a cast for a broken arm, fundamental reforms of the Veterans Benefit Administration (VBA) processes are needed.

Here in Kansas, only 20% of veterans currently receive VA disability compensation trailing the national average of 23%. Nationally, a quick survey of the most Veterans Benefits Administration Reports shows that the agency is overwhelmed. Of the roughly 673,000 pending VA claims for disability compensation and benefits, nearly one in four of the claims is backlogged or over 4 months delayed. That is like an online purchase for Christmas arriving on Memorial Day. A private sector business could not survive such inefficiency. Clearly, reforms are required.

Recently, the VA received $272 million in the American Rescue Plan of which $150 million for digitizing records which should help the benefits claims process but it is still just a band-aid. The good intentions of bringing the VA into the digital world certainly will aid some but will not relieve the need for outside groups such as VSOs, lawyers, and consultants who currently help veterans navigate the bureaucracy.

Following along the lines of good intentions, Congress is considering another band-aid, through a bill labeled Governing Unaccredited Representatives Defrauding (GUARD) VA Benefits Act. Like many congressional efforts this too will be more for good will than good intentions, and ultimately it is still just a band-aid far from the needed VBA process reforms.

In short, the bill would reinstate criminal penalties on private sector actors who charge fees for assisting veterans with filing a claim for disability benefits. This would make it more difficult, if not impossible, for the private consultants to provide such services and would expand the VA’s mandate by requiring the agency to determine these “unauthorized fees.” Help navigating the initiation phase of the claims process would fall therefore either to veterans’ service organizations — VSOs — or veterans themselves who would be on their own negotiating the bureaucracy’s thousands of pages of rules and regulations.

While VSOs are filled with good-intentioned volunteers who do their best to help take care of our men and women who served, the fact is expertise and funding are not distributed evenly across VSOs. In Kansas, for example only 44 of 68 VSO reps in the state even have a phone number and email address listed. Considering there are nearly 150,000 veterans that call Kansas home, it appears that this community could benefit from additional options and choice.

That is where private consulting agents can fill the void. By harnessing the power of the free market, these agencies leverage extensive staff expertise and systems to streamline the VA benefits claims process and make it as efficient as possible. They also operate differently from VA accredited attorneys who can also help in the process but only step in upon appeal and are paid to handle the case regardless of whether they win or lose. By working on contingency – i.e. only getting paid if there is a benefit increase for the veteran – private consulting agents have further harnessed the profit motive to advance positive outcomes.

Instead of limiting the help available to veterans, a better way forward would involve amending the accreditation system to support this for-profit model, expanding access and choice. Considering more government as an answer for government’s inefficiency, as the GUARD Act would, only results in more inefficient government. The GUARD Act is not a solution. It is just another band aid for the broken arm and will simply restrict veteran’s options for pursuing VA benefits, likely leaving them lost in the underbrush of VBA rules and regulations.

This story was originally published December 9, 2022 at 12:00 AM.