The Obama administration is calling once again on federal employees to submit ideas on improving government services. This time, it is targeting the amount of time and effort it takes to process veterans’ disability benefits.
The number of unresolved disability claims has soared this year, prompting protests from veterans groups and members of Congress. The American Legion suggested in late June that the number was approaching 1 million claims, but officials with the Department of Veterans Affairs dispute that figure.
Under the plans announced Monday by President Obama, rank-and-file employees with the VA’s Veterans Benefits Administration will be asked to suggest, through a Web-based computer program, how to reduce the department’s backlog. The VBA has about 18,400 employees, most of whom work at its 57 regional offices nationwide.
Top department officials will work with Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, Chief Performance Officer Jeffrey Zients and Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra to pick the best suggestions and implement them by year’s end.
The goal is “cut those backlogs, slash those wait times and deliver your benefits sooner,” Obama told the Veterans of Foreign Wars at their national convention in Phoenix.
This is the second time Obama has called on Kundra, Zients and Chopra to quickly tackle a challenge. In June he gave them just 90 days to work with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on launching a new Web site that would provide immigration applicants updates on their status via text messages or e-mail. The site will launch in the coming weeks.
Chopra suggested Monday in an interview that working on such issues as immigration and veterans’ services in a quick fashion helps the White House meet long-term policy goals.
“It makes coming to work very exciting when you can combine the broader policy debates around budgets and legislation and executive orders with tangible, operational, on-the-ground change,” he said.
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