Barack Obama

Angry Illinois veterans sneer at VA `snow job'

Monday, May 23, 2005

CHICAGO TRIBUNE
By David Mendell

A day after the release of a report showing Illinois has ranked lowest in the country in disability payments for two decades, angry veterans Friday confronted top-ranking government officials with a demand that the system be reformed.

Veterans left the public meeting far from satisfied with the response they received from Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson.

"This was the biggest snow job I've heard since they told me it was a police action in Vietnam," complained Larry Bychowski, a Vietnam veteran from Crystal Lake who has a pending disability claim for post-traumatic stress disorder.

U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama, both Illinois Democrats, organized the meeting at Wright College on the Northwest Side after the release Thursday of the long-anticipated report from the VA inspector general.

The 200-page report confirmed that Illinois veterans ranked last in disability payments, but blamed the problem on demographic factors, as well as inconsistencies in the VA's rating system.

The report said that, compared with national averages, fewer Illinois veterans seek outside representation to push their claims, a smaller percentage of veterans seek benefits and fewer enlisted veterans, who tend to receive higher payments than officers, apply for benefits in Illinois.

In 2004, the average national claim was $8,378. New Mexico received an average of $12,004 per claim while Illinois received $6,961.

Veterans Affairs officials Friday gave mixed signals about what could be done to alleviate the disparity.

Nicholson told veterans that he would launch a "special mobilization commitment" in Illinois to review pending claims, although he provided few specifics about what that would entail.

"We are going to take action," Nicholson said. "We are going to make a special effort for you. We want each of you to feel like you have been treated equitably and fairly by your VA."

But one of Nicholson's assistants, Daniel Cooper, the VA's undersecretary for benefits, was more defensive about what the VA could do for Illinois veterans. Before the meeting, he told reporters that the VA was hamstrung by federal regulations and the current payment system would remain in place.

"I don't think under the law, we can set up a different system" in Illinois, Cooper said. "We can only set up a law that is consistent across all the United States. ... We have to operate within the law and the regulations."

While Durbin and Obama thanked the VA hierarchy for traveling to Illinois for the public meeting, they also seemed less than pacified by the response from the VA. Both senators said they would continue pursuing the issue in Washington.

In particular, Obama said he would diligently monitor whether Nicholson follows through with what Obama interpreted as a promise to add staff to the Chicago regional office, as well as to attack the vast backlog of pending claims in Illinois.

"These are two specific promises that were made in front of me, in front of cameras and in front of Sen. Durbin--and we're going to hold him to it," Obama said. "All the promises made, we expect to be kept."

Richard Braley, assistant director of the VA's Chicago office, said he has been given special authority to hire five new claims specialists, but he noted that the number of claims being filed is consistently rising as soldiers return from Afghanistan and Iraq. He said he would like at least 10 additional specialists to help with this increase and go through a backlog of claims.

Bychowski, the Vietnam veteran, said he would believe that claim payments will be expedited when he witnesses it firsthand. Bychowski, who said he had to give up his construction job because of physical problems associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, said he has been waiting for five years for his claim to be addressed. He said he still struggles with mortgage and car payments.

He said VA officials were vague in their answers as to how to clear up the issues in Illinois.

"We wanted specifics and no one told us exactly what they were going to change," Bychowski said. "We have been fighting this VA forever."

Navy veteran Don Wagner, meanwhile, asked officials why the error rate for claim payments in Illinois was high. They are telling us that a severed leg is worth more in Montana than it is here in Illinois," Wagner said. "And it just doesn't make sense."

VA Inspector General Richard Griffin, however, disputed that assertion, saying that rates for amputee payments were highly consistent across the country. He conceded, however, that payments for disabilities that were not physically identifiable, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, were less consistent. Stress disorder claims are not processed uniformly nationwide, creating disparities among veterans receiving those benefits, according to Griffin's report.

Griffin blamed this problem on a ratings system governed by a dense document that is "as thick as a telephone book."

As for post-traumatic stress, he said: "It is a growing problem. It is a real condition."

Durbin noted that veterans have long felt betrayed by the VA--and they have heard promises of reform before. But he said that both senators would be aggressive in making sure the VA follows through. He noted that Obama holds a seat on the Senate's Veterans' Affairs Committee and Durbin on the powerful Appropriations Committee.

"I think we are in a position to make sure that their word is kept to the veterans this time around," Durbin said.