Congresswoman Fudge's Statement on Veterans Day

WARRENSVILLE HEIGHTS, OH- Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11) released the following statement in observance of Veterans Day, November 11, 2013:

"I thank our veterans for unselfishly defending our freedom and protecting our democracy," said Congresswoman Fudge. "Their dedication should be honored with the commitment of a grateful nation that is responsive to their needs. However, during the recent government shutdown the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) was unable to fully serve our brave men and women, including the 42,849 veterans in my district. I remain committed to working with my colleagues to help ensure that such breaks in service do not happen again.

“The shutdown delayed efforts to reduce the unacceptable backlog of veterans’ claims. That is why I have been a strong supporter of H.R. 2189, legislation recently passed in the House and pending in the Senate, that is designed to speed up the processing of disability claims. It also would ensure that the VA can secure the information necessary to process claims in a timely manner, and encourage the expansion of automatically processed claims. Since disability claims peaked in March of this year, the backlog has been reduced by 34 percent. Even so, there are still more than 700,000 disability claims pending nationally, and 400,835 in the backlog. The Cleveland Regional VA office has 21,835 pending claims, which sit for an average of 220 days and take 411 days to complete.”

In 2013, Congresswoman Fudge cosponsored three veteran bills that are pending in the House: H.R. 2056, the Veteran Employment Transition Act, would extend the work opportunity tax credit to recently discharged veterans and make the tax credit permanent for qualified veterans; H.R. 1739, the Veterans Backlog Reduction Act, would allow veterans whose claims have been deemed non-adjudicated to receive a provisional payment if the claim is not processed within 125 days; and H.R. 595, the Veterans Education Equity Act, would provide the same educational benefits to veterans whether they choose to enroll at a public or private college or university.

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