President Barack Obama received a letter Wednesday from 26 lawmakers demanding he address the disability claims backlog at the Department of Veterans Affairs, reports the Hill:
"The VA is clearly on the wrong track," the lawmakers wrote in the letter, headed by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.).
"It is important for you — as Commander in Chief — to publicly acknowledge the problems within the VA and the necessity for reforms and leadership that are capable of alleviating the claims backlog and improving the benefit delivery system," they added. […]
There are currently about 890,000 outstanding claims and 69 percent of them have been waiting beyond the 125-day goal the VA has set. Veterans wait on average 273 days for a claim to be resolved.
According to the Hill, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said the department would eliminate the backlog by 2015. Additionally, the VA recently announced it would rush claims pending more than a year to grant veterans benefits sooner.
