Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies (113th Congress)

Mr. Chairman, we have done a lot to ease the burden of military service, for example, the Congress passed the 9/11 GI bill, the Hiring Heroes Act, and the Caregivers Act, all with strong bipartisan majorities.

However, we are still struggling in the claims process area but we are making progress. The last update I saw there were a total of 672,000 claims and of that 389,000 are considered backlogged. So Mr. Secretary we still have a ton of work to do on this.

I have heard from many on the reasons for the backlog, the inclusion of Agent Orange, the winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the complexity of new wounds both physical and mental of our veterans, and more which I completely understand.

Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY), Ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, today issued the following statement on President Obama's FY 2015 budget request:

"The FY2015 budget and appropriations process offers Congress its best opportunity in years to reject the politics of brinkmanship and crisis management, and instead fulfill our responsibility to invest in our future, create and protect jobs, and support services on which American families rely.

"I commend President Obama for a budget request that keeps faith with discretionary spending levels set in the Bipartisan Budget Act, yet recognizes that the federal government can and must do more to achieve significant economic goals in research, education, manufacturing, and skills training. We must reject a single-minded focus on austerity, which has unnecessarily slowed our economic recovery while starving our economic future.

I always look forward to this hearing. These individuals always give us the best picture for what those on the front lines are dealing with.

We talk a lot about facilities, equipment, force structure and strategy, but it is the men and women like the ones sitting before us that really make our military what it is today.

I truly believe that our servicemembers and the support of the family members make our military great and it is our responsibility to make sure they are taken care of. That is exactly why I started the Military Family Caucus so we can better address the issues these gentlemen will raise today.

I want to make sure we are doing enough to help our servicemembers and their families because the last thing they need to worry about while being deployed is what is going on back home.