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“INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT FOR H.R. 2518, THE VETERANS AFFAIRS REORGANIZAATION ACT OF 2003” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1318 on June 20, 2003.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT FOR H.R. 2518, THE VETERANS AFFAIRS
REORGANIZAATION ACT OF 2003
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HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH
of new jersey
in the house of representatives
Thursday, June 19, 2003
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing H.R. 2518, the ``Veterans Affairs Reorganization Act of 2003''. This bill would make organizational changes in several programs for veterans in order to improve the delivery of vital benefits and services to America's former servicemen and women.
The first two sections of this legislation provide for the consolidation and improvement of programs to assist homeless veterans. Specifically, Section 2 of the bill would create a new office in the Department of Veterans Affairs to manage a number of assistance programs for homeless veterans. Section 3 of the bill would transfer the functions of the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program from the Department of Labor to Department of Veterans Affairs and include this program in the responsibilities of the newly created office.
There are at least a quarter-million homeless veterans on the streets of America every night. With the passage of the Homeless Veterans Comprehensive Assistance Act of 2001, Public Law 107-95, Congress established a goal to end chronic homelessness among veterans within 10 years. More than 2 years have passed since the President signed our legislation into law, but in this Committee's oversight activities we find that the Department of Veterans Affairs is making insufficient progress to achieve this ambitious goal.
Today, VA provides a range of services for homeless veterans including outreach, case management, clinical care, residential treatment and rehabilitation, managed residential placement, care for serious mental illnesses and substance-use disorders and supported housing. However, the delivery of these services has been hindered by a lack of focus and direction within the Department of Veterans Affairs, and frankly, a lack of will to commit the necessary funding to accomplish this mission.
The legislation I am introducing today would create a new Office of Homeless Veterans Assistance Programs within the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Director of this office would be given authority to consolidate and coordinate all homeless assistance services to help homeless veterans get back on their feet with a hand up, not a hand-
out. The new Office of Homeless Veterans Assistance would be enhanced by transferring the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program, a program now embedded in the Department of Labor, into VA. This transfer of responsibility for program administration would enable VA to better coordinate health care, financial benefits and employment services for homeless veterans. By moving all programs specifically designed for homeless veterans into VA and consolidating them, we expect to deliver better services in a more timely and cost-efficient manner.
Finally, Section 4 of this legislation would transfer the operational responsibility for the Military Personnel Records facility of the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Approximately 80 million military records are on file at NPRC, located in the federal records repository in St. Louis, Missouri. For the last 25 years, each service branch has been producing microfilm of each record and more recently has been keeping records on microfiche. The NPRC has been a source of major frustration for the Veterans Benefits Administration which has a daily need to search these records to help veterans establish claims for disability and other benefits.
While the NPRC has made good faith efforts to be responsive to VA, it continues to fall short of providing VA with timely and reliable records retrieval. As a consequence, VA's claims process has been delayed, and disabled veterans wait months, sometimes years, for service medical records or other information before their records are found. For the week ending June 6, 2003, VA had 3,051 requests pending for more than 30 days and 3,432 requests pending for more than 90 days. This is simply unacceptable.
My legislation would transfer responsibility for managing the NPRC to VA. The National Archives, which currently has final responsibility for maintenance of vital federal records, would be required to execute a Memorandum of Understanding to allow the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to assume the day-today management of the NPRC. Once this transfer of management responsibility is completed, VA will be in a better position to control its own fate in processing veterans' disability claims, and in turn, Congress will be able to hold one executive agency accountable for responsiveness to these disabled veterans who have waited far too long for the resolution of their claims.
Mr. Speaker, I believe these changes will improve the delivery of benefits and services to our nation's veterans. I hope that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will carefully study this legislation and join with me in this effort.
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