Military Construction, Veterans Affairs FY 2022

House Appropriations, Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, FY 2022, June 4, 2021

In recent decades, the problem of veteran disability determinations has remained troubling, with the Pandemic complicating processing. This problem is endemic, pandemic or no, because the DVA has no incentive to change its system. It certainly does not want to share this work, but this is precisely what should happen. When a job gets too big to manage with staff, two options remain - contract out as much work as possible, including consolidating case files and making easy determinations - and sharing responsibility for processing with the Department of Defense. 

The handoff from DoD to DVA should be seamless. To facilitate this, members who are separating should get a case review by a DVA staff member or contractor, with the DoD providing all information required at this point for DVA files. This should be electronic at this stage. The military personnel, medical and veteran’s systems should be both seamless and separate from the Internet, making them unhackable. This is a perfect use for a third party contractor, which should be selected by the General Services Administration or the Office of Personnel Management rather than either department.

The first step in this process is a requirements design, which can be accomplished by elements of both departments and the contracting agency (GSA or OPM), who after the study is completed solicit a contract or contract team to design and implement the new system. Even before such a system is created, an interagency agreement should be negotiated for the DoD to provide DVA with any services that can help overcome the backlog. Seeking the perfect must not be the enemy of the adequate. Some small amount of funding for each agency should be allocated to start things off, with further budgetary estimates forthcoming based on the initial analyses.

The mental health and housing needs of veterans, both recent and lingering, is endemic. My great-grandmother’s second husband, Frank Squibb, was a World War One veteran who suffered from PTSD (as we now know it) and died young. I do not have all the details, but I assume alcohol was also involved. For whatever reason, he was disowned by the family and I write this testimony in subsidized housing rather than a family estate. I know many recent veterans and I assure you that we have learned little in the century since then.

This is another area where coordination with DoD would prove helpful. This help must go beyond management and computer systems and include the human element of soldiers, veterans using services and those who need services can interact on a less formal, but not unprogrammed basis. The DVA and DoD must both actively facilitate this and join state and local governments in reaching out to those who suffer, from active duty soldiers to veterans both receiving and in need of services. For those mentally ill or addicted veterans who do not trust the system, less restrictive systems should be developed - including providing camping supplies and a place to camp and a more permissive attitude to active drinking and drug use until help is sought. Such systems do not encourage use. No addict needs encouragement. They build the trust that makes recovery possible.

This is a project that can start small and, if successful, scale up quickly. At present, it takes courage more than money, especially the courage for bureaucracy to try solutions that are outside of the box. Some amount of money would be useful to start the ball rolling, although there are likely excess supplies in Materiel Command inventories to provide necessary equipment, including clean needles. An amount in the tens of millions, which is pocket change, is all that is needed.

Committee Reports and the Budget Process

Military facilities in CONUS, veterans hospitals, indeed most of both agencies can easily be assigned to regions, with the exception of headquarters and OCONUS operations. Unlike weapons system procurement, which can benefit operations in both domestic and overseas units, and thus require allocation, the activities in this appropriation can be easily located.

Explanatory material would address any imbalances in spending (for example, the fact that  the Navy has most CONUS facilities in Virginia, California and Texas.