Veterans groups divided over claims backlog, VA leadership

[unhappycamper]

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/04/06/2545670/veterans-groups-divided-over-claims.html

Veterans groups divided over claims backlog, VA leadership
TOM PHILPOTT
Published: April 6, 2013 at 12:05 a.m. PDT

With the backlog of compensa-tion claims at the Department of Veterans Affairs having ballooned in recent years, one would expect major veterans service organizations to be among the VA’s harshest critics.

If so, they would join a rising chorus. Network news programs have turned cameras and commentary on the mountain of 598,000 overdue claim decisions pending, suggesting bureaucratic neglect of returning ill and injured vets from Iraq and Afghanistan. Time magazine columnist Joe Klein even asked VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign.

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But most veteran service organizations aren’t joining that chorus, for perhaps two major reasons. One, they believe they understand better than the loudest critics why the backlog has grown so. Some contributing factors are things these groups actually fought for.

Two, criticism of Shinseki and his team rings hollow to many veterans groups given the administration’s support over the past four years for robust funding of the VA, unprecedented cooperation with vet advocates, and the depth of its commitment to reform a paper-driven claims process.