| Offices : Beckley • Charleston • Fairmont • Martinsburg • Washington, DC | E-mail Senator Rockefeller |
February 27, 2001
ROCKEFELLER SPURS ACTION TO SPEED PROCESSING OF VETERANS' CLAIMS
Washington, DC -- Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) announced today that the Secretaries of the Air Force and the Navy have agreed, at his request, to assign additional staff to the Armed Services Center for Unit Records Research (CURR) to help speed processing of veterans' disability claims. Veterans seeking certain disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) often must seek help from CURR to research their service records and find evidence supporting their claims.
Securing information regarding in-service traumatic incidents is often vital to verifying "stressors" to support a veteran's claim for post-traumatic stress disorder. However, delays occur because CURR must often research combat unit organizational records at outside locations for each individual claim, on a case-by-case basis.
"The lengthy process veterans must go through to get disability benefits is abysmal," Senator Rockefeller said. "These delays often add to the stress many already feel. I am delighted by any action we can take to speed up the VA disability process."
CURR is operated by the U.S. Army on behalf of the Army, Air Force, and Navy. The Center has been woefully understaffed, resulting in a 10-12 month backlog of 4,000 claims cases. The delays at CURR compound the already lengthy waits veterans face at VA, where new claims cases average 200 days to process.
Rockefeller and Senator Tom Daschle (D-SD) wrote to the Secretaries of the Navy and Air Force on January 6, 2001, urging their departments to assign staff to assist the Army personnel at CURR. Both services have agreed, with the Navy assigning personnel to begin March 1. The Army predicts that with this additional staff, the CURR backlog could be reduced to less than 6 months.
Rockefeller and Daschle are also exploring automation options with CURR that could provide a better, long-term solution, such as computer imaging of the 80,000 records requests that CURR has completed to speed up future searches for similar evidence.
E-mail Senator Rockefeller | Click here for more contact information.