During a Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs hearing prior to the congressional recess, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) spoke about claim processing times at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Senator Blumenthal has another follow-up, or some of his requests,
00:04in which I will recognize him, and then I'm going to have my follow-up,
00:07and then we'll change panels, and we're going to recess at that point in time in which we change,
00:13so that both Senator Blumenthal and I can hear the witnesses in the second panel.
00:17But we have an 1145 vote, so we'll run over to vote, come back, and we'll restart.
00:23Senator Blumenthal.
00:24Thank you. For the record, Mr. Engelbaum, I just want to expand on the number that was given to
00:31you by Senator Sanders. As of the end of fiscal year 2024, there were 36,000 vacancies
00:40in veterans health care. There were 2,751 in the VBA. And by the way, those health care positions,
00:55they were 1,800 social workers, 693 psychologists, 2,042, 92 doctors, 6,300 registered nurses,
01:113,400 health care schedulers, and 1,200 custodians. Every single one of those positions
01:20vital to veterans health care. So I would suggest respectfully that rather than focusing on how to
01:28fire VA health care workers, which is what the Restore Act seems to do, and what Elon Musk and
01:38Donald Trump are doing through Secretary Collins, that you would be better off trying to figure out
01:45how to recruit to fill those positions. What you're doing right now is going to discourage and deter
01:54anybody who wants to be in the health care professional field from joining the VA. Why
02:00would they when your focus is on firing them? Let me also give you an opportunity to correct
02:09the record. I think you contended that VBA claims processing times have gone up since the PAC Act.
02:20That is untrue. The average number of days to complete a pre-PAC Act claim were 166. The average
02:32number of days to complete a claim in January 2025, after the passage of the PAC Act, is 148.
02:41So actually, when you say we can do better, we will do better, you were doing better.
02:50You were doing better. And now you're going to do worse. So again, to adopt the analogy that I had before,
03:03you're sinking the ship, basically. And we're talking here about rearranging chairs on the
03:09deck of that sinking ship, call it the Titanic or whatever you wish. But we do need bipartisan
03:15cooperation to stop the bleeding, as the VFW commander in chief told us. Finally, I just want
03:25to say I was remiss in not specifically mentioning before, but we've worked with the professionals
03:35who are before us here. I know that you intend to do good things with the VA. I've worked with
03:41Al Montoya, for example, in Connecticut. And we want to empower you. I know it's difficult within
03:50the VA, but there are thousands and thousands of dedicated VA workers right now. They deserve
03:57to be elevated, not trashed or denigrated as Elon Musk and Donald Trump are doing.
04:06Our veterans are not suckers. They are our heroes. I thank you, Mr. Chairman.