By Aaron Glantz
The Bay Citizen
April 19, 2012
Sixteen members of Congress sent a letter to Secretary of
Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki Thursday, urging him to "send immediate
help" to his agency's Oakland Regional Office, which handles all
disability claims filed by veterans from Bakersfield to the Oregon border.
The letter came less than a week after The Bay Citizen
revealed that the Department of Veterans Affairs' backlog of disability claims
had exploded to 870,000 under the Obama administration.
The problem is particularly acute in the Bay Area, where
veterans wait an average of 313 days for a decision on a disability claim.
Nearly 35,000 Northern California veterans are currently waiting for the VA to
issue a ruling on their disability claim. Eighty percent must wait at least 125
days.
"This is gross inefficiency and an unnecessary hardship
on veterans and their families, some of whom may even become homeless while
they wait for a claims decision from the Oakland office," the letter
reads. Read more here…
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