WASHINGTON — Lawmakers want the Department of Veterans Affairs to improve how it manages its survivors' benefits programs.
The VA estimates that the number of living vets will drop from today's 18.3 million to 12.1 million by 2048. It's a decrease of about 34%.
It will fall to the VA to ensure that each of those veteran's survivors get all the benefits to which they're entitled.
At a House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on Tuesday, lawmakers and Veterans Service Organizations questioned if the VA is up to the task.
Specifically, lawmakers are concerned about the fact that the VA does not do adequate data collection on the survivor population, there is a knowledge gap among survivors about what benefits they might be entitled to, and, the Office of Survivors Assistance has too few employees.
"Historically, there has been a lack of resources dedicated to the mission of serving survivors. As an example, only two employees in the Office of Survivor Assistance to serve over 400,000 survivors," said Rep. Mark Takano (D-California).
The VA's Undersecretary for Benefits testified that the department actually recorded an 18% increase in survivor benefits delivered last year.
"VA remains committed to the President's and Congress' goal of supporting survivors of the service members and veterans in a caring and compassionate manner that honors their sacrifice and service. And while we've made progress, there is plenty more to do," said Joshua Jacobs.
But Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wisconsin) wasn't impressed.
"This is a failure of the grandest proportion and for you to come in and blow off my colleagues, Democrat and Republican, by the gobbledygook answers that mean absolutely nothing is silly," he said.
A new bill called the "Survivor Benefits Delivery Improvement Act" could help. The measure would require the VA to do a better job of data collection on the survivor population, and it would close the knowledge gap among survivors about what benefits they might be entitled to.