Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. LUTTRELL. Madam Speaker, I am honored to speak on H.R. 8371, the Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act.

H.R. 8371 includes provisions from H.R. 4461, the Modernizing Department of Veterans Affairs Disability Benefit Questionnaire Act. Current practice does not require VA contractors who perform disability exams to submit disability benefits questionnaires, or DBQs, in a format that can be easily processed by VA claims automation software. This currently leads to backlogs and delays that can be avoided by submitting the DBQs based on a standard that computers can read.

Computerizing the data is the key to helping VA process and adjudicate veterans' claims faster. The Modernizing Department of Veterans Affairs Disability Benefit Questionnaires Act would improve these DBQs which are a critical part of the disability compensation process. As the VA moves forward with automation, standardizing the DBQ data will be critical to timely and accurate claims processing.

Our veterans, who have sacrificed so much for our country, deserve a system that works for them. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 8371.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source