Government Executive - Authors - Tricia Miller

Veterans Affairs passes bill updating benefits claims processing

Tricia Miller — Fri, 02 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Legislation that would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to update its benefits claims processing system cleared the House Veterans' Affairs Committee this week.

The bill was passed on voice vote. Subcommittee ranking member Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., called the measure "overreaching" and expressed his concern that it would not meet the House's pay-go requirement.

In addition to enhancing how quickly veterans receive their disability benefits, the bill also calls for a study on readjusting the schedule used for rating disabilities, annual assessment of the quality assurance program, the review and enhancement of information technology by the Veterans Benefits Administration, and the assignment of partial disability ratings to eligible veterans.

Buyer complained that sections 101 and 109 of the proposal would open the door to abuse. The first section clarifies which servicemembers are eligible for benefits for service-related disabilities. Section 109 aims to get veterans their benefits more quickly by allowing them to be assigned partial disability ratings. Hall countered that he is "seeking to err on the side of helping the veterans" and offered anecdotal evidence of veterans who have not sought help.

House Veterans ranking member Steve Buyer, R-Ind., agreed that the two sections of the bill needed to be amended.

Rep. Phil Hare, D-Ill., offered an amendment that would require the VA to review disabilities ratings at least every 10 years and submit its findings to the Senate and House Veterans Affairs committees. The amendment passed on voice vote. There is currently a backlog of about 650,000 disability claims and the VA expects that number to swell to one million by the end of this year. Meanwhile, it now takes about 183 days for a claim to be processed, up from the 177 days it took in 2006.

In order to improve the deal with the backlog, the bill proposes to streamline the medical evaluation process that is required so that veterans can get on the list to claim benefits in the first place. In addition, the bill requires the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims to be more accountable by establishing annual tracking requirements for the court's workload and also give it the authority to change decisions regarding a veteran's disability status.

Still, while legislators broadly agreed during the House Veterans Affairs Disability Assistance Subcommittee markup last week a need existed for more efficiency in the system as well as better provisions for dealing with veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, there nonetheless remained disagreement about how to assess those who qualified for benefits and how much they could receive.

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Library of Congress undergoing workforce transformation

Tricia Miller — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400

"The overwhelming challenge facing the Library in its third century is how to superimpose the exploding world of digital knowledge and information onto the still-expanding world of books and other traditional analog materials," Librarian of Congress James Billington said in prepared testimony during a recent House Administration Committee oversight hearing.

But many of its staff will not make the transition. Bill Ayers, the Library's director for workforce acquisitions, said it offered a voluntary retirement incentive for librarians who had become "very comfortable" with traditional research and had no desire to update their skills for the digital era.

Nearly 200 employees took advantage of that incentive to retire early and the sections for which they worked made individual decisions about whether those workers needed to be replaced, he added. As a result, the number of full-time Library of Congress employees dropped by 130 between fiscal 2004 and fiscal 2005.

Terry Bickham, director of operations management and training, said the Library is drafting a workforce transformation initiative to help the current workforce upgrade its skills while attracting new employees whose skills match the services the library offers.

For example, Bickham said, a new online learning management program available to all library employees offers 600 courses.

"Because of volume discounts negotiated for federal agencies, our annual cost for providing these courses to employees is about $25 per employee per year. That's not per course, but access to the entire library of courses. That's a pretty good deal," Bickham said.

Workshops and discussion groups also are offered, and part of the initiative will focus on updating skill requirements and job descriptions. The third and fourth stage of the initiative set for fiscal 2006 and fiscal 2007 will enhance professional development opportunities.

Bickham stressed that the Library first wants to revamp its services before hiring new librarians to avoid the frustration that develops when new librarians are hired whose skills exceed the services that are available. Among the goals of the fifth and final stage of the initiative are training and recruiting new skills, he said.

Beyond training and changing how the Library acquires and preserves information in the digital age, Billington said it needs more flexibility in its staffing. He said the Library would be drafting legislation for the 110th Congress that will address many of these needs.

Human Resources Director Dennis Hanratty and Bickham agreed that recruiting new librarians will not be a problem since Library of Congress jobs are seen as "prestigious" and "well paying."

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