Congresswoman Dina Titus of Nevada’s First District announced that the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs voted to approve her bill, H.R. 1405, during a full committee markup today. H.R. 1405 seeks to reduce the processing time for veterans appealing their rating decision. Currently, when veterans receive a rating decision and they wish to appeal, they must request an appeals form from the VA and then wait for the VA to send them the form. This is an unnecessary and burdensome process that can take as much as 60 days to complete.

By passing this law, the VA will be directed to include a standardized form to begin the appeals process with every rating decision issued, so that veterans do not need to wait 60 days just to receive instructions on filing their appeal. This change is expected to reduce the need for the VA to mail more than 100,000 unnecessary letters annually to veterans appealing their decision. The VA is working to reduce the disability backlog, and this legislation provides an opportunity for Congress to assist.

“We must do everything we can to expedite the appeals process for our nation's heroes. While there is still a lot of work to be done to eliminate the backlog, this is a commonsense approach that will instantly reduce the appeals process for veterans by 60 days, as well as save the VA approximately 50,000 man hours,” Titus said. “As the Ranking Member of the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs, I am pleased to sponsor this bill and will continue to make improving the VA for Nevada’s veterans a top priority.”