A special task force may soon be formed to help evaluate and navigate the backlog issue in the Department of Veterans Affairs. Congressman John Carter (R-TX31), Vice-Chairman on the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Subcommittee, voted in favor of commissioning such a task force and is calling on the Senate and President to approve the commission.

On Monday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 404 to 1 for H.R. 2189, a bill introduced by Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL), to establish a task force to evaluate the backlog of claims within the VA.

Congressman Carter has long been fighting to fix the backlog issue, especially for veterans in central Texas.

“Our veterans deserve the very best from this country. They have served and sacrificed yet sadly continue to sacrifice due to the backlog in claims. This is unacceptable but I believe this task force can help tackle this issue,” said Congressman Carter. “I will continue working with and challenging the VA, especially in central Texas, to permanently fix the backlog issue for our veterans.” 

Waco Regional Office (RO) Background (according to Department of Veterans Affairs)

• The RO serves 920,593 Veterans in 164 counties in central, north, east, and west Texas.
• Each month, compensation payments administered by the RO total approximately $186 million.

Waco RO Workload (according to Department of Veterans Affairs)

• As of July 31, 2013, the RO had 35,385 rating claims pending. This is a 28% decrease in inventory over the past 10 months. Of these, 24,452 claims (69.1%) are backlogged (pending more than 125 days).

Rep. Carter co-sponsors Gold Star Fathers Act of 2013
Chairman Carter has also signed on as co-sponsor of the Gold Star Fathers Act of 2013 which will give preference eligibility to fathers of deceased or disabled veterans when applying for civil service jobs. Currently, only mothers of deceased or disabled veterans receive the eligibility preference.