“The Department of Veterans Affairs will no longer meet its initial goal of resolving all legacy appeals by 2022 after the pandemic slowed its progress, officials told Congress Tuesday…”
“VA hopes it can resolve the legacy backlog sometime in 2023.
‘We don’t have the timeline yet. We’re working to set that,’ Cheryl Mason, chairman of the Board of Veterans Appeals, told the House VA Committee Tuesday. ‘The delay in exams and records is impacting the VA’s ability to complete legacy remands and return those to the board. Currently, the board has approximately 102,000 legacy appeals that we are working through.’…”
“The board schedules about 1,000 hearings each week, the majority of which are virtual, Mason said. But just 60% of veterans actually show up for those hearings, and that presents another challenge for the board.
Mason said she wants to gather VA officials, veterans service organizations and members of Congress for another summit to discuss those challenges, similar to the conversations the group initially held back in 2016…”
“’If the board and VBA doesn’t have a plan put in place to address the issue now, we’re going to see a backlog that will continue to grow over time,’ Shane Liermann, deputy national legislative director for Disabled American Veterans, told the subcommittee. ‘Three years from now we be may looking at a 150,000 hearings backlog.’…” Read the full article here.
Source: VA will miss its original 2022 deadline for resolving legacy appeals – By Nicole Ogrysko, July 13, 2021. Federal News Network.
