▶ 0:00:00for VA disability compensation exams. VA cannot make a decision on a veteran's claim until all development is completed. Although I hear from veterans about how frustrating the wait is for a decision to be made, many times VA effort to to obtain records and or exams leads to an award for disability compensation. On the other hand, over development is when a when VA takes unnecessary steps to obtain records or exams.
▶ 0:00:26Example, if existing documents in the veteran's claims file are sufficient to support the claim, VA should not schedule a government-funded disability exam. Over development forces veterans to wait longer than necessary for a decision on their claims and can lead to incorrect decisions. Unnecessary exams also waste veterans time and money.
▶ 0:00:48Further, if a veteran misses a VA-scheduled exam without good cause and they do not reschedule, VA automatically denies the veteran's claim even when a even when it was unnecessary for VA to schedule the exam in the first place. HR 2137, the Review Every Veteran's Claims Act, will absolutely fix this injustice. Over development also drives government waste because VA pays contracted exam vendors for every exam, even those that were not necessary.
▶ 0:01:18In fiscal year 2023, about 2.4 million exams were completed, a number that rose to approximately 3.2 million in fiscal year 2024. Contracted exam vendors were paid nearly for nearly of those exams. In December 2024 report In the 2024 report, the VA Office of Inspector General, the IG, found that VA spent about 1.4 million dollars on unnecessary exams from April through September 2023.
▶ 0:01:46The total amount of wasted taxpayer dollars each fiscal year is likely much higher. The OIG review did not cover the full fiscal year or examine all types of claims of decisions, both approvals and We have heard from OIG and the VA employees that over development mistakes are due to an inadequate training. Claims processors, as well as confusing and inconsistent guidance. To address over development, VA created an over development reduction task force.
▶ 0:02:16This task force recommended dozens of actions, including targeted quality reviews, updating policy guidance, and increased training. I look forward to hearing from VA today on the progress made in implementing the task force's recommendations. Particularly, I'm interested in whether the VA has implemented a plan to evaluate effectiveness effectiveness of its efforts using clear, result-driven metrics for success. And I would like to hear about any efforts VA is undertaking to further enhance its strategies to decrease over development.
▶ 0:02:47Finally, I look forward to discussing whether VA will implement technology to ensure that every claims processor who do over develops a claim learns from that mistake. The National Work Queue, also known as NWQ, electronically distributed the major the majority of VA claims workloads across all regional offices. The National Work Queue has largely decreased decision wait times, thankfully.
▶ 0:03:09A key feature of the National Work Queue is that when a claims processor defers a claim for development, it's returned it's returned to the National Work Queue. The National Work Queue often then routes the claim to a different claims processor at another regional office for additional We have heard about cases where one claims processor after another claims processor makes the same over development error in the same veteran's These repeated mistakes or our so-called avoidable deferrals
▶ 0:03:40have resulted in months of or years-long delays for veterans even before a claims processor realizes that the development efforts were unnecessary. The current system only notifies the most recent claims processor, to my understanding, that they committed an over development error. All of the other previous claims processors who committed the same mistake in the same claim are actually never notified, which where that's what we need clarification on and therefore do not learn from that specific mistake.
▶ 0:04:10November 2024 letter, then Under Secretary for Benefits Josh Dr. Josh Jacobs informed me that there are no technological barriers preventing VA from notifying all claims processors who have made the same over development mistake in a single claim. Mr. Jacobs told me the VA would conduct a pilot study to determine the value of additional functionality. I look forward to hearing about the study progress and any findings under the current Every veteran and survivor deserves a timely decision on their claim.
▶ 0:04:38Decisions wait times will decrease if we can reduce or eliminate over development. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today about VA's efforts to do so. I now yield to the ranking member. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you all so much for being here today. You all have heard me say this a million times. I'm going to say it a million more times. Everything we do on this subcommittee is on behalf of our veterans. It's to serve our veterans.
▶ 0:05:05And today, that means making sure that the VA systems used to process disability claims for our veterans work the best they can. It also means equipping and empowering the employees who serve the veterans. We need them to be able to do their best work without unnecessary limits or undermining their importance to the this administration continues to spread the false message that VA employees are not dedicated to their mission, that they don't have the veterans' best interests at heart.
▶ 0:05:36Uh there's an email from OPM that castigated all federal workers as {quote} low productivity. It's simply not true. It's also hurtful. It hurts morale at the VA, which ultimately affects the job which hurts our veterans, which is what we are focused on in this committee, helping our veterans. The The Veterans Board of Appeals employees, the VBA employees like those in my regional office in Louisville, Kentucky, are highly dedicated to their mission.
▶ 0:06:07Many are veterans themselves, and they go to work every day in a stressful, high-pressure environment and work as hard as they can on behalf of the veterans they both serve and sometimes served with. But they are in systems where they're forced to work in um and the systems fail. They're not given adequate training.
▶ 0:06:30They're subject to arbitrary performance metrics and sometimes arbitrary discipline, and now even unnecessary insults. All of that makes it more difficult for them to do their job, which of course ultimately makes it more difficult to serve our veterans. So, I'm interested today in exploring ways that we can improve outcomes for veterans by making the job of these dedicated VBA employees easier.
▶ 0:06:56The administration's recent decision to end collective bargaining agreements with the unions representing these employees, it's a serious mistake. I think it's going to harm both the employees at the VBA and the veterans they serve. That's really important. I think it's going to have an adverse impact on our veterans because the unions are crucial to creating a workplace that helps employees perform their best, delivering better results for our veterans. They help employees feel more invested in their work, and they offer better chances for mentorship and personal growth.
▶ 0:07:26The public sector unions play an important role in creating a higher quality training for their members and providing important feedback to management and policy makers about what's actually happening on the ground in the organization. This means better retention rates. It means lower wait time for benefits and ultimately better service for our And contrary to belief, public sector unions do not stand in the way of dismissing bad employees. In fact, they often facilitate it.
▶ 0:07:53It's in their best interest to make sure that all employees are doing their job well. Public sector unions do, however, make sure an employee's dismissal is justified, orderly, and most importantly, legal. So, I'm hopeful today that the Secretary will listen to this committee and request an exemption from Trump's executive order because these employees deserve all the rights afforded to them under law and the Constitution to best fulfill their mission and of course deliver the best possible service and results for
▶ 0:08:23our veterans. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back. Thank you, Mr. McGarvey. Our lead witness from the VA is Mr. Kenneth Smith, Assistant Deputy Under Secretary for for Field Operations, as well as the Acting Executive Director for Education Services for the Veterans Benefits Mr. Smith is joined by Mr. James James Smith, Deputy Executive Director for Policy and Procedures. You guys related? Just checking. Uh procedures and and compensation service Sorry, man, I lost myself. I'm sorry.
▶ 0:08:52For the Veterans Benefits Administration. Uh Mr. Smith is also joined by Mr. Robert Orifice. Got it. We've been together long enough. Uh Executive Director for Benefits and Memorial Services for VA Office of Information and Technology. Today's witness panel also includes Mr. James Schwartz, sir, who is the President of Local 2823 in the American Federation of Government Employees. I asked that the witnesses on our panel please stand and raise your right hand.
▶ 0:09:23Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you're about to provide is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Thank you, and let the record reflect that the witnesses have answered in the Mr. Smith, you're now recognized for 5 minutes to deliver Mr. James Smith, you're now recognized. What's that? I'm sorry, Mr. Kenneth Smith, you're going to start us off with the Smiths. You're now recognized for 5 minutes to deliver your opening statement on behalf of the department. Good afternoon, Chairman Luttrell, Ranking Member McGarvey, and members of the subcommittee.
▶ 0:09:54Thank you for the opportunity to discuss VA's efforts to increase efficiency in process processing veterans disability compensation claims through the national work queue and improvements brought by the overdevelopment reduction task Joining me today are James Smith, Deputy Executive Director for Compensation Service, and Robert Orifice, Director portfolio portfolio director of for benefits appeals and memorial services off office of information and technology.
▶ 0:10:22The Veterans Benefits Administration has undertaken substantial efforts to enhance training and quality review programs by focusing on high standards of performance and continuous learning opportunities for VA staff. Today, I will highlight three specific ways VA is better supporting our employees and veterans. The first improvement is enhancing the exam scheduling assistant, which helps employees correctly determine if an exam or medical opinion is necessary.
▶ 0:10:49Originally launched in 2023, this tool was refreshed last year through the most recent work of the overdevelopment reduction task force. Exam errors specific to overdevelopment have been one of the top categories of error and delay resulting in avoidable deferrals and rework.
▶ 0:11:06Recent enhancements increase the tools used by 48% and contributes to a reduction in monthly errors cited for exam In fiscal year 25 to date, these errors have decreased by 7% over fiscal year VBA will integrate this tool into the Veterans Benefits Management System, which we expect to launch in fiscal year The second improvement involves training In June 2024, VBA launched interactive hands-on learning modules
▶ 0:11:37and updated training content, including comprehensive lessons on requesting These efforts reinforce concepts through interactive activities, ongoing assessments to gauge mastery of the content, remedial training, and follow-up assessments for those who need additional repetition. As recommended by a recent OIG audit, VA added PACT Act specific related medical opinion requirements to all training products, ensuring employees are well trained to address common disabilities.
▶ 0:12:07During VBA's quality stand-down on March 20th of this year, claims processors were provided additional training and live instructor engagement activities focused on ordering exams and medical Third, VBA and the Office of Information Technology are developing a solution to complete claims actions correctly the first time through improvements to the Veterans Benefits Management System.
▶ 0:12:31This upgraded functionality is being designed as an error check for the employee, providing real-time feedback on potential errors before the claim is recalled to the national work queue. This effort is aimed at reducing instances of misdevelopment while improving first touch efficiency and reducing avoidable deferrals.
▶ 0:12:50This functional enhancement is currently in development and is planned for initial testing beginning in fiscal year On the topic of avoidable deferrals, VA has recently completed preliminary data analysis for a pilot study. The study aims to develop a reporting solution for employees to receive feedback on any claim they touch that resulted in a in an avoidable deferral. I look forward to providing results to the committee on the study and its impact on training and mentoring.
▶ 0:13:20VA is also working on additional improvements to the national work queue to support improved timeliness through better workload management. These include advanced data analytics and predictive modeling to prioritize claims in near real time and distribute claims based on complexity, urgency, and employees skill and experience to speed up the claims process. These improvements will also allow employees to request additional work in real time directly from the work queue and promote supervisory focus on coaching and quality.
▶ 0:13:49Together, these upgrades ensure claims are handled by the most suitable staff, leading to a faster decision and continued reduction of the claims backlog, and higher quality decisions for veterans. This project is estimated for completion in fiscal year 26.
▶ 0:14:05VBA remains committed to delivering the highest standard of service to our nation's veterans, their families, and While significant progress has been made, we recognize the need for continuous improvement and adaptive adapting to evolve needs of those we Thank you for continued support and collaboration as we honor our veteran sacrifices. Mr. Chairman, this concludes my statement.
▶ 0:14:29My colleagues and I are ready to answer any questions you or other members of the subcommittee may The résumés of Mr. Smith will be entered into the hearing record. Mr. Swartz, you're now recognized for 5 minutes, Chairman Luttrell, ranking member McGarvey, and members of the committee. On behalf of AFGE and NVAC, I appreciate the opportunity to testify today. My name is James Swartz.
▶ 0:14:54I am president of AFGE Local 2823, representing the Cleveland, Ohio regional office. I'm a US Army service-connected veteran, and I have the privilege of continuing to serve my fellow veterans. First as an RN at the Cleveland VA, and then in VBA for the last 23 years.
▶ 0:15:11On behalf of over 320,000 VA employees AFGE represents, including thousands of claims processors, it is a privilege to offer AFGE's views on the national work queue, training, and how VBA can enable employees to more efficiently and effectively process veterans and the beneficiaries claims.
▶ 0:15:31VA should modify the national work queue so that a claim remains within the same regional office for the duration of its Variations between regional offices can cause claims processors from different to misunderstand each others work resulting in a correct claim being unnecessarily deferred or delayed. Furthermore, by keeping a claim in a single regional office, managers have more control to send claims back to the original VSR who worked on it.
▶ 0:15:57This would allow the VSR to learn from this error and not repeat it. This would also let the VSR and RVSR, who are already familiar with the claim, to efficiently address follow-up work, saving other employees from wasting time to familiarize themselves with a new If VBA, despite record production and quality from employees while working from home during COVID-19 pandemic, is going to require claims processors to report to the regional office, why continue to
▶ 0:16:27shuffle work throughout the country and not instead leverage employee ability to collaborate with the colleague sitting next to them? As Congressman Self asked about the last time I testified, despite the claims one of the most com- consistent complaints from the claims processors is they don't have enough work to meet the performance metrics and must waste time asking for more work. The reason for this problem is the internal controls VBA has put on the national work queue.
▶ 0:16:57To address this, AFGE recommends, first, the national work queue should automatically provide claims to individual claims processors work queue when they're out of cases to develop or Second, claims processors should have a limited ability to temporarily hold on to the claim before it is retracted by the national work queue. Having the claim stay with them one regional office for its duration would avoid delays and give ROs more control over their workload.
▶ 0:17:25It would also allow secondary claims to be associated with the primary claim and worked on simultaneously. Third, the national work queue must better filter automatic ready-to-rate claims, ensuring employees not waste time on cases that are not ready to Fourth, VBA should program the national work queue so employees who have previously worked on the claim have the claim returned to them. This would allow claims processors to learn from any mistakes that were previously made and improve efficiency and quality.
▶ 0:17:56New employees don't understand the claims process or VA lingo that is critical for employees to do their job. This is an easy problem to fix. All training should require hands-on experience using the tools employees will actually use. Training must also focus on mastering the basics, including learning the claims process, VBA terminology, and what a claim looks like.
▶ 0:18:19AFGE urges VBA to reorder its curriculum to allow instructors to reference the material that was just taught, reinforce the concept, and use this to teach higher level concepts. VBA must also improve PACT Act training. As TMS self-review courses are ineffective, especially considering constant updates to the SOP and manuals that are not reflected in the training.
▶ 0:18:44Finally, on behalf of AFGE and NVAC, partners who have long worked with this committee to help improve the VA and its delivery of benefits and health care to our nation's heroes, I respectfully urge you to to ask Secretary Collins to use the authority granted to him by President Trump's executive order to certify VA employees, including the employees under the jurisdiction of the subcommittee at the Veterans Benefits Administration, National Cemetery Administration, and the Board of Veterans Appeals are
▶ 0:19:14not involved in national security and are in turn exempt from the executive order. The rights guaranteed in our collective bargaining agreement are critical to our ability to support the VA's mission and better serve veterans and their VBA has two generations of employees, both the mentors with institutional memory who are close to retirement, and the next generation who are just beginning their journey of caring for Within 5 to 10 years, this knowledge will be lost forever if there are no exemptions made
▶ 0:19:44combined with the proposed risks. AFGE and NVAC stand ready to work with the House VA Committee and VBA to address these issues. Thank you and I look forward to your questions. The written statement of Mr. Schwartz will be entered into the hearing record. We'll now move to Mr. Smith, Kenneth Smith. Mr. Schwartz seems like he nailed it right on the head. Now, this is kind of the conversation you and I have been having for the past couple of years. I Can we have a totally granularly dive into the National Work Queue 2.0?
▶ 0:20:15You mentioned first touch efficiency. I think that's brilliant. And then what Mr. Schwartz said how a specific claim will return to a particular VS VSO before it is so it can be completed or repopulated into the work queue and then out to another regional office. Thank you for the question. Um so, we are working on new capability um to uh focus on direct feedback to employees at the development action.
▶ 0:20:43Um this is a solution that we've been thinking carefully about since our conversations over the last year or year and a half. And the idea here is to provide an error check um right right after they've completed their actions and before it returns to the National Work Queue to prevent delay on that claim. This is part of an interactive discussion between my VBA and the Office of Information and Technology is working on that solution right now.
▶ 0:21:09As we're as we're doing our best to inform in anyone that they've made a mistake from the top down, what are we doing from the bottom up as far as training and readiness is going so the mistake window is closed? Yes, I mean we've completely revamped our training. Um Mr.
▶ 0:21:32Smith and his team have been working diligently on that to build in more training about exams to make sure that we order the right exams the first time and not over develop. Uh it's been added into all of our existing training products as well as our most recent quality stand down where took our entire workforce offline for a day to focus on specific training needs. Mr.
▶ 0:21:58Schwartz mentioned that some of the VA employees are saying there's not enough work for them. I find that I've heard that myself from VA employees, but I I I'd like to hear your response. And I Okay, so I you're going to get into the National Work Queue thing. I got it. All right. Um however, if we do have certain employees at regional offices say there's nothing here for me, we have a miss somewhere. Yes, sir.
▶ 0:22:27I There there are 918,000 veterans waiting for decisions in the National Work Queue right now. Um Is that number That number's down? It is. Uh since over the last year we've dropped it almost 6%. 6%? Mhm. Okay. the very fact that we don't have any work um there are two potential reasons for that that I can understand.
▶ 0:22:50Um you know, one is it's um hasn't been assigned to the employee or they've depleted all the work in their queue. Um that's why we want to be able to uh allow them to pull claims in when they're ready. And then have us uh have the National Work Queue push claims to them that is matched to their uh experience and training.
▶ 0:23:13So, newer employees that are trained on a smaller subset of disabilities or types of claims get disability claims that they can work uh until they're fully trained and able to do all of them. Uh and more experienced staff can handle the more uh complex um claims. So, I understand this correctly.
▶ 0:23:31Now a a claim will move from the National Work Queue into a regional area, a a VA employee will be able to pull that claim without having a supervisor load up their desktop more or less.
▶ 0:23:46And the supervisor providing I guess oversight and training, but an an employee can can move as much as possible, but I'm sure there's a baseline somewhere like, "Hey, look, your your your minimum is this weekly, monthly." Our my expectation and this is still um we're still working on the exact uh development and solution with with Mr.
▶ 0:24:08Urfasi's staff, but um the concept that we're operating under is that we will be able to um distribute enough claims every day uh prospectively to keep people busy, but then if they actually run out because things are not ready for them, that they'll be able to request additional I know we don't have a stat yet on I'm going to walk that one back. I I'm going to think about that one for a second. Uh sir, uh Ranking Member, I'll yield to you for your for your questioning.
▶ 0:24:38Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you all for being here. Mr. Schwartz, I want to dig in a little bit about the recent executive order and the collective bargaining agreement that AFGE negotiated with V VA. Aside from uh just being a gross breach of good faith, it also has some very real practical and detrimental consequences on the day-to-day work of those who are involved in processing And again, that means our veterans because anything that harms our frontline employees' ability to do their job by definition harms their ability to serve the veterans who are at the heart of VA's mission, who are at the heart of the mission of this
▶ 0:25:09committee. So, Mr. Schwartz, I'll ask you some questions. Uh to your knowledge, has the Secretary submitted a request for an exemption to the collective bargaining uh EO for VBA Thank you. And Mr. Schwartz, can the union members at VA collectively bargain for wages or promotions? No, sir. That's banned by law, I believe. Can the union collectively bargain for appointments performance standards surrounding either quality or timeliness of claims processing? No, sir. When was the last time the union workers at VA went on strike?
▶ 0:25:39Never. It's against the law. Perfect. Can the union collectively bargain for more or better training? No, sir, but I do believe that's where the union would be very beneficial for both the employees, the VBA our VA, and also for the veterans. most of us are workers ourselves. We are aware of what's going on. We do the work. We talk to the first line employees. And often they will come to us and let us know what their training needs are.
▶ 0:26:08Many of them are afraid to actually go to managers or supervisors. And we've even worked with a lot of supervisors when employees are running into trouble so that we could work with the employees to get them where they need to be. So, what would you say is the biggest impediment to frontline employees operating more efficiently and with higher quality? And how do you think AFGE can help remedy that? The number one issue would have to be training.
▶ 0:26:32And uh that's where the VA would be or I'm sorry, the union would be able to work with the VA in order to uh establish what training is needed and to help the employees get be able to get to their get these training needs met when it becomes an issue before it becomes a And and just looking at this, how does the lack of a union with collective bargaining rights impact the ability of frontline employees to do their job well and better serve veterans?
▶ 0:27:02I'd say one of the biggest things is probably have to do with moral. Uh the moral impact that it would have, the employees will no longer have a voice. They will no longer feel comfortable or confident to be able to go to the agency and discuss what their training needs are or discuss even what some of the roadblocks are in the way of them performing the mission. And and is VBA planning to consult frontline employees in development of new uh technology modules? Not that I'm aware of. Okay. And what about the training content?
▶ 0:27:33Again, not that I'm aware of. I've been fortunate enough at uh I hate to say it at my regional office, but I have been able to work with management to get employees some of the additional training necessary. And uh for Mr. Kenneth Smith, I'll just ask you those exact same questions. Is VBA planning to consult frontline employees in development of new technology or training modules?
▶ 0:28:00Usually uh management develops the solutions and then we brief the union uh when it's time to implement. Yeah, I I would just suggest from from being in the private sector and other things, getting the input from the people who are actually doing the work on the ground before you develop the training is a is a best practice. Um what about the training content? Is it the same Uh I believe that there I I'll ask Mr. Smith to weigh in on this, but I believe there are union members on the the training team. Uh that's correct.
▶ 0:28:30Not only are they on the training team, they develop the content and then also um SMEs from the field more often than not are labor uh BUEs. They're actually the ones providing the training. The uh again, we want the best training. We want the best employees. This is what helps our veterans. Thank you guys so much. Mr. Chairman, I'll yield back. Thank you, sir. Mr. Smith, did the over development reduction task task force was that disbanded last year? Uh I wouldn't say disbanded, sir. It completed work uh at the end of July.
▶ 0:29:00Um we're working right now on some additional initiatives um such as uh we are collaborating with the Board of Veterans Appeals and Office of General Counsel um you know, to take a look at end-to-end automation and process and procedural Did it perform its functionality as it should have? It seemed like that was a pretty short window. Uh yes, sir.
▶ 0:29:27Um they they made more than 50 manual updates uh to streamline and clarify guidance uh as well as um promoted and executed some uh enhancements to the exam scheduling assistant um to make it more uh a little better for That's That's on board and running?
▶ 0:29:44It's It is up and running, but it's a standalone tool, and what we're doing right now is building that into VBMS so that the claims processors don't have to leave the the VBMS environment to use Uh besides updating the VBA manual on March 10th, what else is the VA doing to ensure claims processors understand the long-standing rules for when the schedule when to when to schedule an that's core to our training.
▶ 0:30:14Um all of our training content reinforces um the requirements for training for uh ordering exams and medical opinions. and uh we we've done that through our um our over development reduction task force. Um those recommendations uh reinforce that, leading to a 7% decrease in over development errors.
▶ 0:30:41You mentioned 7% reduction off of the the the the gross number. What's projection for this year? And what was our Did we break a record last year in or last last year in February for disability claims? Uh Yes, we completed more than a million claims um earlier this year than ever Job well done. Thank you. I will share that with everybody I know. How are we looking for I don't even What month is it?
▶ 0:31:12May, June, how What's projection downstream? Um we're looking We're right now we're running 8 and 1/2% uh ahead of where we were this time last year. Uh so we're looking to to complete um more than 2.5 million claims this year. What's our total that are outstanding? I mean, eventually I would assume we're going to run out of veterans. If we're working at this rate, seems like. Uh I probably shouldn't say like I got 40,000 veterans who kick my butt for saying that. I didn't mean it in a bad way.
▶ 0:31:43What I meant was On full record, what I meant was eventually all our veterans will be Yep, we we continue to receive about 10,000 uh new claims a day. Um our inventory right now is 918,000. We've been fortunate with some high productivity. Um uh we've been completing um north You get to somewhere between right around 11,000 claims a day uh to help us decrease the inventory and get ahead of the backlog as well.
▶ 0:32:14Great. I outstanding. Before I move on, Mr. Smith, do you have anything you would like to add? So, I hate for you to come all the way uh we are having markup in multiple committees currently today. Obviously, that's why it's mis- the ranking member I don't know who's here. But Mr. Smith, I'm not going to let you come all the way to DC and not saying No, I I appreciate the opportunity. I'd I'd like to circle back to the over development task force. In addition to what Mr.
▶ 0:32:39Smith shared, uh some of the feedback, not only from um you know, our our partners across uh the different business lines, but our SMEs from the field to include bargaining unit employees, was that the class size was too large. So, we shrunk the class size. Uh we focused on four uh phases of a training process, planning, design, development, implementation, evaluation or the Kirkpatrick model.
▶ 0:33:02Um we are focused on making data-driven decisions and updates to the training um based on feedback, uh the assessments that the uh employees complete themselves as well as uh data that is gleaned from quality reviews. So, we're we're committed to continuous process improvement uh with the goal of putting veterans first in every decision made. Mr. Rifkin. Uh thank you for the opportunity.
▶ 0:33:30Uh we are extremely excited about the work that we're doing in support of VBA and claims process. We're utilizing a lot of the current technolo- technologies, including AI, to help us get ahead of uh the claims process. Are you Are you where you need to be or is the VA where they need to be in the AI space since it's forever changing? I would recommend you keep us very well read on if we're slowing so we can get ahead of it. No, we're definitely leaning into it. Uh we're utilizing it to its most.
▶ 0:34:00We're very excited about the interactive uh assist that we have for claims with helping them to avoid deferrals and helping make the right decisions. This will also tie back into ordering the right exams when they're needed and not ordering exams when they're not. So, we have a lot of very interesting pilots coming up that we're working with VBA on that should yield a lot of benefits when it comes to making the right decision the first time versus having to defer back to correct later on. Okay. Thank you.
▶ 0:34:36There will always be something that There will always be a problem set that exists. The VA is such a a wonderful working machine, right? I mean, I I say that wholeheartedly, it has its problems. It does. And um we we we should forever be in order to keep up with the wants and needs of our veteran space because as we move into as as our older generations you know, we're moving into the younger generations.
▶ 0:35:05Our generation of war fighters are coming into the VA. And there's a lot of us. And then, you know, I I I you know, it's I pains me to say this, but we are always on the threshold of activation again. And if we do have to go to another theater of war, we'll populate more and more and more of us. And the VA as hard as we work, will always have to work harder every single day.
▶ 0:35:35Cuz every day, I'm sure you do the same thing I Every day I work I wake up and I walk into the I look in the mirror, I was like, "It's not about me, it's about everybody I represent." And guess what, gentlemen? You represent the most cherished asset we have, and that's our veterans that that allowed us to do the things that we do today, okay? Um Ranking member, are you going to close with remarks? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I I I echo those remarks.
▶ 0:35:58I thank you for your service uh and thank you all for the service you perform uh particularly on behalf of our veterans, the men and women who are putting on a uniform, willing to sacrifice everything to keep us safe and keep us free. And what I'm going to ask you all to do is on this committee, we actually do our best to work together because we understand the mission of this committee is to serve our veterans. You know, make sure you got the best management. Make sure you got the best labor.
▶ 0:36:26And that everybody's getting the training they need and that everybody has access to the tools they need and the morale they need, the retention that we need to keep people there to keep these claims going forward because that's what's going to help our veterans out. And so, hope you all can continue to do that good work because it's going to take care of the men and women who took care of us. Uh Mr. Chairman, I please ask unanimous consent to enter into the record the following letter Secretary Collins from Rep.
▶ 0:36:49Takano, yourself, Senator Blumenthal, and 126 other members of the House and Senate condemning the Trump administration's decision to obviate the collective bargaining agreements, bargaining rights of federal employees, and urging Secretary to request a waiver from those requirements. Thank you. Without Thank you again, gentlemen, for coming today. I ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material. Without objections, so ordered. This hearing is adjourned. Thank you, sir. Yep.