U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON : 

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office,

http://bookstore.gpo.gov. For more information, contact the GPO Customer Contact Center,

U.S. Government Printing Office. Phone 202–512–1800, or 866–512–1800 (toll-free). E-mail, gpo@custhelp.com.

61–710 PDF 2010

S. HRG. 111–658 

SERVICES FOR VETERANS IN ALASKA: FIELD 

HEARINGS IN ANCHORAGE AND FAIRBANKS 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

FEBRUARY 16 AND 17, 2010 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate 

(II) 

COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS 

DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii, Chairman 

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West Virginia 

PATTY MURRAY, Washington 

BERNARD SANDERS, (I) Vermont 

SHERROD BROWN, Ohio 

JIM WEBB, Virginia 

JON TESTER, Montana 

MARK BEGICH, Alaska 

ROLAND W. BURRIS, Illinois 

ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania 

RICHARD BURR, North Carolina, Ranking 

Member 

LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina 

JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia 

ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi 

MIKE JOHANNS, Nebraska 

SCOTT P. BROWN, Massachusetts1

WILLIAM E. BREW, Staff Director 

LUPE WISSEL, Republican Staff Director 

1 Hon. Scott P. Brown was recognized as a minority Member on March 24, 2010. 

(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

FEBRUARY 16, 2010—ANCHORAGE

SENATORS 

Page 

Begich, Hon. Mark, U.S. Senator from Alaska ..................................................... 1 

WITNESSES 

Carroll, Timothy Patrick, CMSgt, USAF (Ret) ..................................................... 3 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 4 

Davidge, Ric, MPA, Alaska State Council President, Vietnam Veterans of 

America; Board Member, Alaska Disabled Veterans Business Alliance ......... 7 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 8 

Fierros, Gabriel, OIF Veteran ................................................................................ 9 

Owens, Rich, Alaska State Chairman, National Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve ............................................................................ 10 

Jefferson, Hon. Raymond M., Assistant Secretary of Veterans’ Employment 

and Training Service, U.S. Department of Labor .............................................. 18 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 19 

Finn, Belinda J., Assistant Inspector General for Audits and Evaluations, 

Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; accompanied by Brent Arronte, Director, Benefits Inspections Division, Office 

of Audits and Evaluations, Office of Inspector General .................................... 23 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 24 

Bilosz, Mark M., Director, Anchorage Regional Office, Veterans Benefits Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; accompanied by Willie 

C. Clark. Sr., Western Area Director; and Patrick Kelley, Veterans Service 

Center Manager, Anchorage Regional Office ..................................................... 26 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 28 

Katkus, Brig. Gen. Tom, Adjutant General, Alaska National Guard ................. 30 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 32 

Myers, Jan, Director, Family Programs, Alaska Department of Military & 

Veterans Affairs ................................................................................................... 33 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 34 

Addendum ......................................................................................................... 36 

APPENDIX 

Clapp, Steven, AFGE National Representative; comments filed at hearing ...... 53 

Simmons, Zulene, Chugiak, Alaska; comments filed at hearing ......................... 54 

Kell, Russell N., Vietnam Veterans of America; letter ......................................... 58 

FEBRUARY 17, 2010—FAIRBANKS

SENATORS 

Page 

Begich, Hon. Mark, U.S. Senator from Alaska ..................................................... 61 

WITNESSES 

Boisseau, Linda, Department Service Officer, Disabled American Veterans ..... 63 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 65 

Attachment ................................................................................................ 68 

Page

IV 

Roof, SPC Robert L., USA (Ret.), OIF Veteran ..................................................... 69 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 71 

Sheehan, Joe, LTC, USA (Ret), Chairman, Northern Alaska Military Retiree 

Council .................................................................................................................. 76 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 78 

Woolf, Ron, Unit Representative, Employer Support, Guard and Reserve ......... 79 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 82 

Jefferson, Hon. Raymond M., Assistant Secretary of Labor for Veterans’ Employment and Training, U.S. Department of Labor .......................................... 91 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 93 

Finn, Belinda J., Assistant Inspector General for Audits and Evaluations, 

Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; accompanied by Brent Arronte, Director, Benefits Inspections Division, Office 

of Audits and Evaluations, Office of Inspector General .................................... 96 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 98 

Response to request arising during the hearing by Hon. Mark Begich ....... 120 

Bilosz, Mark M., Director, Anchorage Regional Office, Veterans Benefits Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; accompanied by Willie 

C. Clark. Sr., Western Area Director; and Patrick Kelley, Veterans Service 

Center Manager, Anchorage Regional Office ..................................................... 100 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 102 

Response to request arising during the hearing by Hon. Mark Begich ....... 122, 131 

Pendergrass, Susan, DrPH, Network Director, VISN 20, Veterans Health 

Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; accompanied by Alex 

Spector, Director, Alaska VA Health Care System ........................................... 104 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 106 

Addendum ......................................................................................................... 112 

Response to request arising during the hearing by Hon. Mark Begich ....... 125, 129 

Bowen, Verdie, Administrator, Office of Veterans Affairs, Department of Military and Veterans Affairs for the State of Alaska ............................................ 114 

APPENDIX 

McBride, Ladd, Veteran, USA (Ret.), and a geriatric nurse practitioner; comments filed at hearing .......................................................................................... 135 

Davis, Charlotte M., Vietnam Veteran; comments filed at hearing .................... 137 

McDonald, Col. William, USAF (Ret.); comments filed at hearing ..................... 139 

Tordoff, Hugh Twig; questions/comments filed at hearing .................................. 141 

(1) 

SERVICES FOR VETERANS IN ALASKA 

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2010 

U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS, Anchorage, AK. 

The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:30 a.m., Anchorage 

Assembly Chambers, Hon. Mark Begich, Member of the Committee, 

presiding. 

Present: Senator Mark Begich. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MARK BEGICH, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM ALASKA 

Senator BEGICH. This hearing, the Field Hearing on Services for 

Veterans’ Affairs in Alaska is called to order. I first want to thank 

all the people that are here. I appreciate the opportunity to have 

this field hearing. We are having multiple opportunities for veterans. One will be this field hearing which is a chance for us to 

talk with different presenters about some of their issues and concerns. We also have folks from the VA to address some of these 

concerns. Along with that, we will be in Wasilla this afternoon for 

a roundtable, which is more of a kind of free discussion with folks. 

Then we will be in Fairbanks, as well as in Kotzebue. 

So, those that are wondering how these work: field hearings designed like this are an opportunity for a Congressional record to be 

created based on information that will be presented by, for example, our first panel and our second panel. It is not a process that 

you’re normally used to. There is no testifying and so forth; there 

are panels in the field hearings. The roundtables that we have are 

more of an open discussion. Again, those are in Wasilla, Kotzebue, 

and Fairbanks. But, again, we appreciate all the folks that are 

here. This is an opportunity for us to hear and to ask some questions. 

Along with that, for folks that are in the audience, this is an opportunity, again, for questions and comments, during the meeting, 

after the meeting or even before. If you have some issues that you 

want to make sure are raised, please put those down on this form 

and staff will be in the back to collect them. 

I have a statement that I’ll read into the record here, and then 

we’ll open with our first panel of individuals. Again, thank you all 

for being here. For the folks from Washington, DC, I thank you for 

arriving to a warmer climate and less snow than you left. We can 

also show you how to move snow. It’s a skill here. 

This hearing will focus on the state of services for veterans in 

Alaska, support for returning veterans, job opportunities for vetVerDate Nov 24 2008 20:49 Dec 09, 2010 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 H:\ACTIVE\021610AK.TXT SVETS PsN: PAULIN
2 

erans, benefits for veterans, and a December audit by the VA office 

of the Inspector General on the VA Regional Office in Anchorage. 

The Committee has held multiple hearings on VA benefits, health 

care, and services. However, this is the first time we are specifically focusing on the unique challenges confronting returning Alaska veterans of Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom. 

I’m pleased that the Committee is joined today by Assistant Secretary of Labor, Ray Jefferson, who will speak to some of the services that the Department of Labor offers to veterans, in particular, 

those transitioning from military to civilian life. In addition, I hope 

to hear more about some of the Department of Labor’s core functions: conducting employment and training programs; enforcing relevant Federal laws and regulations; and providing transition services. 

Alaska is one of the few States with a growing veteran population—70,000 within our State. Alaska has the highest per capita 

veteran population in the Nation. The Anchorage RO has the highest proportion of compensation claims in the total workload of any 

regional office. Compensation workload grew by 82 percent in the 

last 5 years. According to a 2009 VA State Summary Report of 

Alaska, in 2008 nearly 1,500 veterans from the conflicts in Iraq 

and Afghanistan sought treatment in our VA facilities. 

I applaud the efforts of VA employees in Alaska. These men and 

women work hard to help veterans who seek their assistance. 

There are many things the VA does well in Alaska. However, there 

is always room for improvement, as evidenced by the recent VA IG 

report dated December 7, 2009, that showed that the Anchorage 

VA Regional Office failed to meet requirements in 13 of 14 areas 

covered during the inspection. This concerns me deeply because 

providing accurate, timely, and comprehensive services to our veterans is one of my top priorities in the U.S. Senate. 

More work needs to be done. I hope that both of our panels will 

shed some light on the issues such as: why we continue to hear veterans are not aware of their eligibility for VA benefits and services; 

why some veterans are not receiving appropriate VA services; and 

why veterans struggle finding employment. I hope to discuss these 

and other important issues with our panels today. 

Indeed, our unique geography, diversity, and way of life require 

that the VA develop a unique strategy to care for our veterans, especially those who reside in rural areas. Back in Washington, we 

have worked hard to ensure that VA has the resources to provide 

the best care possible. Congress has provided record-breaking funding increases for the VA. Last year I supported the Veteran Health 

Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act to secure funding for 

veterans’ health care 1 year in advance of the regular appropriations process. This bill was signed into law in October, 2009. We 

have followed up that success with passage in the Senate of a Caregivers’ Bill, which will help wounded warriors and the families who 

care for them. This bill also improves care for women veterans who 

reside in rural areas and those who are homeless. It has been sent 

to the House of Representatives. We expect to finalize this bill in 

the coming months. 

Finally, I note that there are many veterans here today who 

would like to testify. While we cannot accommodate everyone’s reVerDate Nov 24 2008 20:49 Dec 09, 2010 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 H:\ACTIVE\021610AK.TXT SVETS PsN: PAULIN
3 

quest to speak, we do want to hear your views. The Committee is 

accepting, as I said, written testimony or other documents you may 

want to present for the record. 

In addition, Committee staff is joined by VA staff who can respond to the questions, concerns and comments that you raise. 

Once again, thank you all for being here. What I would like to do 

is introduce the first panel of four individuals. First, I’ll just read 

their names in Alaskan. I’ll call on each one separately to give 

their testimony. We’d like to keep the testimony close to 5 minutes, 

though unlike the Assembly, we have no clock that ticks away. I 

will tell you when you’re close. Please bear with me. 

Tim Carroll, is a retired U.S. Air Force Commander Sergeant. 

Ric Davidge, MPA, is the Alaska State Council President, of the 

Vietnam Veterans of America, and Board member of the Alaska 

Disabled Veterans Business Alliance. Gabriel Fierros, is an OIF 

veteran. Rich Owens, is the Alaska State Chairman, and National 

Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve. 

Thank you all for being here. What I would like to do is have 

you testify in the order that I read your names. If I can have retired Commander Chief Tim Carroll first. Thank you very much for 

being here. There’s a button, just push it down, which should activate the mic. As long as you’ve got a green light, you’re good. 

STATEMENT OF CHIEF MASTER SERGEANT TIMOTHY PATRICK 

CARROLL, USAF (RETIRED) 

Chief CARROLL. First off, Senator Begich, thank you for taking 

the time to come out to—— 

Senator BEGICH. You have to move that mic a little closer. 

Chief CARROLL. Can you hear now? Better? 

Senator BEGICH. Move that mic a little, pretend you’re like Mick 

Jagger. 

Chief CARROLL. Put it all the way in my throat here. 

Senator BEGICH. We’ll ask the technician, Mike, to adjust the 

mic. 

Chief CARROLL. Senator Begich, I want to thank you for taking 

the time to listen to our veterans and for committing yourself to 

helping those who dedicated their service to this country. 

A SPEAKER. We still can’t hear you. 

Chief CARROLL. You, too, are servants of this great Nation and 

I for one—— 

Senator BEGICH. I apologize. I don’t know if we can adjust that 

volume a little bit more. I’m looking for the tech person. You have 

to hug it like this [indicating]. 

Chief CARROLL. How is that? 

A SPEAKER. Still can’t hear back here. 

Senator BEGICH. We have to go with what we have while the 

tech guy works on the volume. Go ahead. 

Chief CARROLL. I won’t do the can-you-hear-me-now thing. I’ll try 

to speak up a little bit. 

First off, Senator Begich and members of the traveling team with 

you, thank you for taking the time to listen to our veterans and for 

committing yourself to helping us who dedicated our lives to service 

to this country. You too are servants of this great Nation and I for 

one thank you for your tireless efforts on our behalf. I am retired 

4 

Chief Master Sergeant Tim Carroll, a 28-year veteran of the U.S. 

Air Force; the son of an Air Force veteran; and now the father of 

an active-duty Air Force airman. I am honored to be given this opportunity to provide testimony on my experiences with the transition from active duty to veterans status of the U.S. Air Force. I retired from active duty in October 2008. While on active duty, I was 

the command chief master sergeant for the third wing at Elmendorf Air Force Base. In this role I had lots of opportunity to hear 

and to experience those who were transitioning out of the Air 

Force, but had little opportunity to hear of their transition once 

they hit the VA system. 

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being perfectly satisfied, my personal transition would rate at a 9.0. This is due in large part to 

the professionals at the Elmendorf Air Force Base, third mission 

support squadron, the third medical group, and the staff of the Anchorage Veterans Administration, who were attentive to my needs 

and very much helped me and my family as we managed our expectations for retirement. 

I believe those who transitioned alongside me found the same experience. I do know that there are a large number of veterans that 

had different experiences, and I was able to help some of those people with what we could on the active-duty side. Again, I did not see 

them once folks went into the Veterans Administration; therefore, 

when I made the transition myself, it was a first-time experience 

that I relied on a lot of people to help with. The staff at the Anchorage Veterans Administration helped in every way that they 

could, but we did deal, of course, with the Salt Lake City Regional 

Office on issues that were related to the medical transition. My 

number 1 issue as I retired was finding adequate employment, and 

as you very well know, the timing when transitioning between careers whether military or otherwise, is very crucial to maintaining 

a quality-of-life and a standard of living for our families. With two 

teenage daughters under my roof, retirement is a relative term and 

it was absolutely essential that I secured employment. The timing 

that it took to get the DD–214 to marry up to the compensation 

disability rating did cause a gap in my ability to seek a government 

job. I find myself now in the private sector and it’s working very 

well. 

Again, I would rank my personal experience a 9 on a scale of 1 

to 10. 

I look for your questions, Senator Begich. And in closing, again, 

I want to thank you for the efforts you are putting forth to take 

care of our veterans. 

[The prepared statement of Chief Carroll follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF CMSGT TIMOTHY PATRICK CARROLL, USAF (RET.) 

Honorable Senators and Distinguished Members of the U.S. Senate Committee on 

Veterans’ Affairs, Thank you for taking the time to listen to our Veterans and for 

committing yourself to helping those who dedicated their service to this country. 

You too are servants of this great Nation; I for one thank you for your tireless efforts on our behalf. 

I am retired Chief Master Sergeant Timothy Patrick Carroll, a 28-year veteran 

of the United States Air Force, the son of an Air Force veteran, and now the father 

of an Air Force Airman. I am honored to be given this opportunity to provide testimony on my experience with the transition from active duty to veteran status of 

the United States Armed Forces. 

5 

I retired from active duty in October 2008. On a scale of 1–10 with 10 being perfectly satisfied, I would rate my transition experience at 9.0. The professionals of 

Elmendorf Air Force Base’s 3rd Mission Support Squadron, the 3rd Medical Group, 

and the staff of the Anchorage Veterans’ Administration were attentive to my needs 

and very much helped my family and me manage our expectations for retirement. 

I believe those who were transitioning at the same time as me found the same experiences. Of course, with two teenage daughters still under my roof, retirement is a 

relative term. 

Overall, I am pleased and satisfied with the outreach and support I have received 

from the Veterans Administration. I address specific programs and my experiences 

below. 

JOB SEARCH

One of the greatest challenges I believe military members have in entering the 

civilian workforce is effectively communicating their skills to prospective employers. 

The Transition Assistance Program was very helpful in opening my mind to the realities of retirement and did equip me with many tools necessary to prepare for the 

transition; but the reality of communicating my skills was a greater challenge than 

I ever anticipated. Fortunately for me, it worked out well, as I am now the CEO 

of a small business in Anchorage. 

EDUCATION

I was one of the fortunate young Airmen who had a supervisor that cared enough 

to threaten me with bodily harm if I failed to open a Veterans’ Education Assistance 

Program (VEAP) account before the program ended. I complied and deposited the 

minimum required twenty-five dollars to open the account. Many of my colleagues 

were not so fortunate and failed to open the account. We were repeatedly told what 

a bad deal the VEAP was, thus it is not surprising to me that so many did not buy 

into the program. Many years later, when Congress opened the window for those 

of us with a VEAP account to join the Montgomery GI Bill program, I made the 

required payments and converted. Over the course of my career, I took advantage 

of the USAF Tuition Assistance program and obtained my Bachelor’s Degree here 

at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Today, with the aid of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, 

I am pursuing my Masters Degree with Wayland University in Anchorage. I have 

heard many complaints about the backlog in processing Post-9/11 GI Bill claims and 

at this point am pleased with the response I have received from the Veteran’s Administration in producing my eligibility certificate. I begin classes this month and 

anticipate filing for benefits payment in the coming weeks. I did receive an unsolicited phone call from a Veterans Administration official inquiring if I knew of the 

education benefit, and how to proceed with the program. I found this call very informative and helpful, and again appreciate both the Congress and the Veteran’s 

Administration for enabling me to pursue higher education. 

MEDICAL CARE

I am currently enrolled in the TRICARE Prime program and receive care at the 

Elmendorf Air Force Base hospital. I found the transition from Active Duty to Retiree was seamless in the quality and accessibility of care for my family and me. 

I am also enrolled in the TRICARE Retiree Dental Program and am satisfied that 

the benefits we receive are sufficient to care for my needs. When I first joined the 

Air Force in 1980, my recruiter told me that my medical care would be free for life. 

This was not a major point in my decision to serve or continue serving, and the premiums I pay today are acceptable. After having three children in orthodontics 

braces, I do wish the coverage for orthodontics provided a higher expense coverage 

rate. 

I have not yet sought medical care from the Veteran’s Administration and can 

therefore not comment on that quality. I do know that the VA has again extended 

a helping hand to make sure I am aware of the process to access care in the VA 

facility. 

SERVICE CONNECTED DISABILITY COMPENSATION

When the time came to retire, I received assistance from the American Legion in 

submitting my claim for service-connected disability compensation. I submitted my 

claim under the Benefit Due at Discharge program (also known as Fast Track) on 

June 28, 2008, in advance of my October 1, 2008 retirement. The medical staff at 

the Anchorage VA medical Center evaluated my claim items in August 2008. I received my rating decision from the VA Regional Office in Salt Lake City on Jan 26, 

6 

2009. I am currently appealing the rating decision I received based on inconsistencies in the report I received along with the rating decision, and my experiences 

in the exam room in Anchorage. All in all, I am satisfied with the timing and attention I received from the VA throughout this claim process. 

HOUSING

During the course of my active duty career, I moved too frequently to enjoy the 

benefits of home ownership. During the last half of my career, I was in key and essential designated positions, which required me to live in government provided 

housing on-base. When I retired, I was faced with the task of finding a home that 

maintained my family’s standard of living without having any equity in a home to 

cash in for down payment. I used the VA Home Loan Guarantee program to purchase my home in Eagle River without a down payment. 

Throughout my transition period, no one told me that if I had been assigned a 

compensable disability rating, the VA funding fee would be waived on my mortgage 

application. Rather, I stumbled on this benefit while comparing on-line mortgage 

rates using a lender’s on-line calculating tool. When I inquired of other retiring 

members if they knew or had been told of this benefit, no one had. 

Timing was not in my favor in that upon my retirement, I had to vacate government housing, yet my disability rating had not been determined and thus the funding fee was in place. Thankfully, I encountered a seller and real estate agent who 

were very patient and we deferred closing the loan for as long as we could. Ultimately, we closed on the house and rolled the $12,000 funding fee into our mortgage. Upon receipt of my compensable disability rating, I applied to the VA for a 

refund of the funding fee, which was approved and applied to the principle of my 

loan in a timely manner. 

SURVIVOR BENEFIT PLAN

Being an enlisted member, I found myself living paycheck to paycheck for the 

bulk of my career. This made investment options very difficult. The Air Force Casualty Affairs representative at Elmendorf AFB was very helpful and informative in 

assisting my wife and I in the decision to enroll into the Survivor Benefit Plan. This 

decision had to be made at the most stressful and uncertain time we had ever encountered in our lives as we truly did not know where we would be living, what 

my employment would be or what our financial situation would look like. Having 

an open window at the two-year point to opt out of the plan made making this decision less risky. Ultimately, we decided to enroll and I am presently paying a monthly premium into the Survivor Benefit Plan. Knowing that my wife will receive some 

continuing benefit should I precede her in death brings great peace of mind to me. 

DEATH BENEFITS

The VA provided end of life care for my father through a terminal illness and into 

death. I saw first hand the care and comfort the VA provided to my mother during 

this difficult time and I rest well knowing that should my wife need the same help, 

the VA will be there. 

LIFE INSURANCE

I converted my Active Duty Serviceman’s Group Life Insurance to the Veterans 

Group Life Insurance program. I am not a fan of term life insurance, however, the 

premiums are affordable and the term will allow me to be sufficiently covered while 

my children are still under our care. I would have preferred to make a similar contribution to a whole life policy during the course of my career, which I did with a 

private carrier. 

JOINT FEDERAL TRAVEL REGULATION

In my situation, my family chose to remain in Alaska for a number of reasons, 

mostly to allow my high school daughters to complete their schooling in the same 

high school where they started. My children endured frequent moves throughout 

their school experience and we chose to offer them some measure of stability at the 

end. Unfortunately, children school is not a qualifying reason to extend household 

goods shipment authority beyond one year after effective retirement date. I would 

like to see this changed in the JFTR. 

In closing, I again thank you for your efforts to take care of our Veterans and 

their families. I urge you to continue to support these programs that bring comfort 

and peace of mind to the small segment of our population that donned a uniform 

in selfless and untiring service to our great Nation. 

7 

Thank You! 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you very much. Let me move down the 

panel. I’ll have questions for each one of you afterwards. 

STATEMENT OF RIC DAVIDGE, MPA, ALASKA STATE COUNCIL 

PRESIDENT, VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA; BOARD 

MEMBER, ALASKA DISABLED VETERANS BUSINESS ALLIANCE 

Mr. DAVIDGE. Senator, first thing I’d like to point out, the Alaskan Congressional Delegation, including former Senator Ted Stevens, is the only State congressional delegation that unanimously 

supported advanced funding. Thank you. Most Alaskans don’t know 

that. We are the only State delegation that unanimously supported 

advanced funding. The highest legislative priority funding for all 

nine national weapons service organizations over 5 years and we 

finally got it passed. 

One of the things that surprises me, and I shouldn’t be surprised 

at my age, but having worked for Senator Stevens, having worked 

for President Reagan, having worked in Washington, DC, off and 

on for many, many years and now as an advocate for veterans in 

the State of Alaska, I’m constantly amazed at how Federal agencies 

disregard acts of Congress. 

As you know from my written testimony, I gave you some evidence of that, particularly with respect to service-disabled veteranowned businesses and veteran-owned businesses. A law was passed 

in 1999, executive orders have been signed, directives have been 

issued, strategic plans are in place. It is not discretionary under existing strategic plans, executive orders, and hopefully the change in 

law that’s being put forward by the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee and we look forward to the Senate doing the same thing. It 

will no longer be discretionary to provide a 3 percent set-aside for 

service-disabled veterans all for business and all Federal services. 

As you know we have a resolution in the State Legislature of Alaska calling for congressional oversight hearings in Alaska dealing 

with the refusal or inability of Federal agencies to meet that 3 percent set-aside goal. It’s currently in House Rules. It should be on 

the House floor this week for passage, and we don’t expect any negative votes. The bottom line is, Senator, the law is the law is the 

law is the law. And why Federal agencies seem to feel, quote, ‘‘you 

know I just don’t have time for this; it’s just too much work; you 

know what I’d have to do to find service-disabled veterans who own 

businesses and qualify them to get them a procurement opportunity. I just don’t have the time.’’ Or ‘‘I’ve been directed not to 

comply.’’ 

The only Federal agency in Alaska in our opinion—which I’m 

speaking on behalf of the Veterans Business Alliance and I have 

testimony from the president that I’ve provided to you, Senator— 

is the Corps of Engineers. The Corps of Engineers does a lot of 

work in Alaska; thank God for their efforts. The Air Force, no. The 

Army, no. The VA is making an effort nationally. They’ve met their 

requirement, not in this State. The Forest Service, the National 

Parks Service, all other Federal agencies in Alaska that were involved actively in doing things and spending money up here and 

8 

issuing contracts, except for the Corps of Engineers, have effectively said that it’s just not something that’s important to them. 

Again, Congress passed a law; the President of the United States 

signed an executive order; there are strategic plans in place at 

every Federal agency. The only way, Senator, that you could ensure 

as a former Federal manager that these people will do what they’re 

supposed to do under law is to put it in their evaluation criteria. 

If you have a senior Federal official that has procurement under 

their responsibility, and they are specifically evaluated based on 

their compliance on the 3 percent set-aside, guess what, it will get 

done. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Davidge follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF RIC DAVIDGE, CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES, VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA; ALASKA STATE COUNCIL

PRESIDENT, VVA; AND MEMBER, BOARD OF DIRECTORS, ALASKA VETERANS BUSINESS ALLIANCE

Mr. Chairman: 

‘‘It’s just too much work.’’ 

‘‘First I have to find those guys, then I have to qualify them, and then I have 

to notify them of these opportunities.’’ ‘‘I just don’t have the time.’’ 

Or how about: ‘‘We’ve been directed not to follow Public Law 109–461.’’ 

That is the attitude in almost every Federal agency approached by the Alaska 

Veterans Business Alliance over the past two plus years, even with Congressional 

staff in attendance. There are exceptions, and let me make those clear to you: The 

Army Corps of Engineers has made the effort and has met with success. Hoorah! 

• The US Forest Service? NO 

• How about the National Park Service? NO 

• The Veterans Administration? NO 

• The US Air Force? NO 

• The US Army? NO 

• And so it goes. 

Representatives of the Alaska Veterans Business Alliance accompanied by a staff 

member of our Congressman, in a meeting with the Alaska Contracting office of 

Veterans Affairs, then located in Anchorage, were told that they were directed not 

to follow Public Law 109–461 which contracts out of the VA set-aside for SDVOB. 

Now the Veterans Affairs Contracting Office has moved out of Anchorage and all 

contracting is done in Seattle. Not easy for Alaskan SDVOB to meet with. 

We even have a state legislative joint resolution (HJR16) that passed the House 

without objection and is now under consideration in the Senate calling for Congress 

to hold joint committee oversight hearings in Alaska to ask the heads of each of 

these Federal agencies why? Why do Federal agencies in Alaska refuse to comply 

with the law, with the Executive Order, or even with their own regulations and 

agency specific strategic plans requiring conformance? 

The original law Public Law 106–50 passed in August 1999 allowed an easier opportunity for a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Company to go into business for 

themselves by bidding on Federal Contracts. Three percent (3%) of all federally 

Budgeted dollars are to be set-aside for SDVOB’s. In October 2004 President Bush 

signed an Executive Order (E.O.) 13360 mandating that Federal Contracting Officers achieve the 3% ‘‘goal.’’ To date this ‘‘goal’’ is no where near being met as the 

law intended for it to be—certainly not in Alaska. 

According to the Small Business Administration, of the 2008 goals and achievements out of a total of 24 Federal Agencies only 4 agencies were meeting or exceeding their ‘‘goals.’’ Meeting their goals were DOL at 4.34% for a SDVOB, VA had 

their goal up to 11.76% for a SDVOB, EPA had their goal up to 3.66% for a SDVOB, 

and GSA had their goal up to 3.93% for a SDVOB. 

The embarrassment and slap in the face to all Veterans comes from their own of 

DOD. DOD had their goal at 1.00% which as adjusted and was 1.04% for a SDVOB. 

These numbers reflect nation wide numbers—certainly not our Alaskan experience. 

Out of these 24 Federal Agencies there were a total of 92 Funding Departments 

that achieved a 1.4862% with a total of $6,450,206,999.20. These numbers are prime 

contracts, again according to the Small Business Administration’s 2008 goals and 

achievements report. 

9 

When it came to subcontracting opportunities for the SDVOBs, based on the SBA 

2008 report, forty-four (44) reporting agencies (or funding departments) achieved 

only 0.9% of the 3% goal with a total of $2,250,720,437.00. 

It is time for both the House and Senate Small Business Committees to introduce 

legislation that: 

(1) Changes the language from ‘‘may’’ to ‘‘shall’’ in Public Law 106–50 

(2) Provides enforcement to ensure that the 3% ‘‘goal’’ is being achieved by all 

Federal Agencies 

(3) And not just on a ‘‘nationwide’’ basis as the Contracting Officers are always 

saying, but specifically in Alaska. 

(4) If the agency can’t meet their 3% goal then they should lose something—can 

we suggest putting achieving these goals in the standards for performance for all 

contract officers and other decisionmakers? 

The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee also needs to introduce companion legislation that the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee introduced last December to fix 

the Veterans Affairs Acquisition process and changes the wording from ‘‘may’’ to 

‘‘shall.’’ H.R. 3719, H.R. 4220, and H.R. 4221. 

Veterans of Modern Warfare (VMWUSA) along with the Vietnam Veterans of 

America (VVA) are two Veteran Service Organizations Nationally standing together 

to make sure the laws for SDVOB work as they were intended by Congress back 

in 1999. 

If the Members of Congress want to get serious and get this done, they have to 

make compliance a part of the performance evaluation of every procurement officer 

and other key decisionmaker in the Federal Government. We also recommend it be 

part of the performance evaluation of every senior Federal administrator in every 

Federal agency responsible for procurement. 

It is an honor. 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you very much, Mr. Davidge. 

Gabriel Fierros, thank you for your service, too. I appreciate you 

being here today. 

STATEMENT OF GABRIEL FIERROS, OIF VETERAN 

Mr. FIERROS. Thank you very much for inviting me to speak 

today. I’m just going to get right down to it. I joined the Army right 

after high school. I served 10 years and 9 months. During that 

time, I had four deployments. My first deployment was 6 months 

to Kosovo in March 2001; my second deployment was in support of 

OIF for 12 months starting in February 2003. I was injured for approximately 6 weeks due to a grenade blast, but remained in-country. My third deployment was in support of OIF for 4 months starting December 2004. My last deployment was also in support of OIF 

and was planned for 12 months starting October 2006. 

I was injured in April 2007, in a helicopter crash outside of 

Baghdad. Eventually I was transferred to Walter Reed for approximately 6 months for injuries to my left eye and treatment for a 

TBI. Then I was transferred to the Warrior Transition Brigade 

until my temporary medical retirement in May 2009. Since the accident in April 2007, some of the continuous medical treatments I 

have received both at Walter Reed and Fort Richardson are speech 

therapy, occupational therapy, mental health, neurology, physical 

therapy, and ophthalmology. I started my medical proceedings in 

December 2008. If I had a choice, I probably would have stayed in 

for a full 20 years. But I was told by medical personnel that they 

would be initiating my med board because my medical condition 

was not improving. 

I received my disability rating from the Army of 70 percent, and 

was unsure whether or not I wanted to get out. So, I applied for 

continuation on active duty. The application was lengthy, and it 

10 

was taking way too long for the process, so in the long run I withdrew my application, decided to accept my medical board findings 

and retired temporarily. I filed for my VA compensation claim in 

May 2009 for 13 different service-connected health problems. As of 

today I’ve been notified twice that my claim has been delayed for 

vague reasons. I have been told because I am under the old system, 

my claim will take longer to process. There are way too many 

delays and just as I think I’ve fulfilled my obligation, I am told 

that I have one more appointment, one more appointment, and one 

more appointment. 

In fact, soldiers that have retired after me on the new pilot program have already received both their VA and their Army claims 

at the same time. It’s also very difficult to obtain accurate information about the VA claim process. When I started, I was not told of 

the long delays and tedious process. I feel that the best source of 

information regarding my claim process was older veterans. I found 

many veterans were very eager to give advice, recall their experiences, and recommend people that could help out. That’s the end 

of my testimony. 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you very much, Mr. Fierros. 

Mr. FIERROS. You’re welcome. 

Senator BEGICH. Rich Owens. 

STATEMENT OF RICH OWENS, ALASKA STATE CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR EMPLOYER SUPPORT OF THE 

GUARD AND RESERVE 

Mr. OWENS. Thank you, Senator Begich, for this opportunity to 

address the Field Committee Hearing. As a State chairman, I’m 

very proud to represent the 40-plus volunteers spread across Alaska which compose the Alaska State ESGR Committee. Since ESGR 

interfaces with and has responsibility for both military air members as well as employers, I’d like to address three points today. 

First, the length and frequency of deployments have caused more 

stress by employers especially the small business owners which are 

the bulk of the employers of our soldiers. Many of these business 

owners who hired our reserve members are few and far between. 

Times have changed and the frequency and length of deployments 

may start to have a negative effect on hirability of reserve component members. The unstable job market is in difficult economic 

times and does not really have an answer. If the business goes 

under or is forced to downsize in order to survive, they legitimately 

may not have the ability to put reserve members returning from 

deployments back to work. This is not a reflection on the quality 

of our soldiers, but rather the grim reality that no one can say 

when we’ll have enough growth in our economy to get all of our reserves back to work. The funding issues for our Alaska ESGR committee are not unique. I’m sure that other States are feeling the 

pinch as well. Where we are unique, however, is our geographic 

separation. Each of our four ESGR regional committees cover areas 

larger than most States. Only the Anchorage region can travel to 

most of its service area by road. The southwest region must travel 

by plane, boat, or snow machine; the southeast region by boat or 

plane; and the northern region by plane or car. It is difficult to 

train five major job positions within each committee when we only 

11 

have funding to bring one or occasionally two volunteers to our 

steering committee meetings or State meetings. 

Not only does this make it difficult for them to perform their duties, but it also creates additional turnover when they get frustrated. What we do as volunteers is not hard once you have the 

training. Volunteers need to be confident in their position whether 

they’re working with soldiers or employers. This confidence comes 

with training. The national ESGR office has been helpful in trying 

to accommodate our special needs. But with the tight budget we 

are now operating under, doing more with less will be the order of 

the day. Thank you. 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you very much, Mr. Owens. Thanks to 

all the panel for the diverse views on some of the work of the VA. 

I’m going to ask a few questions. First, Gabriel, if I can ask you 

a couple of questions. Your thoughts were very interesting to me 

regarding the time it took you to kind of go through the process 

and try to get back into the military, but that did not work out well 

because of the timeline. Can you describe that a little bit more to 

me? What happened at that—— 

Mr. FIERROS. At the initial time of my application for the coed, 

I had filled out the application, sent it in through my pueblo—it 

got down there pretty quick—but just seemed to stall once it got 

to the coed side of the Army. And it stalled and stalled while it was 

getting closer to my retirement date. So, I kind of panicked and 

withdrew my application. So, it was just a tedious process, so much 

waiting and waiting, and there wasn’t really any answers as to 

why it was taking so long either. So—— 

Senator BEGICH. Did you have communication with them—I 

mean, would you be calling them? Or how did you—— 

Mr. FIERROS. All my information came from the pueblo there on 

Fort Richardson; and he did a fine job of getting the information 

for me, though it seemed like he just wasn’t getting the information 

either. 

Senator BEGICH. He wasn’t going to? 

Mr. FIERROS. Yeah. Something was going on there, but I’m not 

sure what. 

Senator BEGICH. In that process, is there a time table of response 

that they have to have it by, or do they have to respond to you by 

so many days? 

Mr. FIERROS. I’m not too sure about that. I couldn’t tell you. 

Senator BEGICH. Tell me, if you can, just on the claim process— 

I note that you had several related disabilities when you were 

going through the process. When they took action, were there some 

of those disabilities that they clearly had no question of and some 

they did or how did that work? 

Mr. FIERROS. All of them shouldn’t really be questioned. They’re 

all documented through the military. They’re in my medical records 

so I didn’t see the reason why—sleep studies that I had already 

done before, you know, or neurology appointments that I go to 

every 3 months anyway, so—and there’s a lot of repeats and a lot 

of stuff that—you know, I just recently got out, so I don’t understand why there was such a need to send me back through all that. 

I understand they need their own information, but there is just— 

it’s tedious on my part. I’m trying to—you know, support my family 

12 

and I have to take off work to go, you know, to appointments all 

day long. I spend pretty much the 3 days that I have off—because 

I work a four/ten shift—going to appointments for the VA, for the 

Army. It’s hard on family life. 

Senator BEGICH. When you said there are repetitives, some of the 

work that was already done already was happening or you already 

had certain tests, you already had certain medical documentation 

within your file; but you were applying for disability. There were 

requirements of additional visits, which were basically duplicates? 

Mr. FIERROS. Yes. 

Senator BEGICH. Is that what you tought—they were duplicates? 

Mr. FIERROS. Yeah, they were duplicating. Actually, more recently they signed me up for another sleep study and I told them, 

no, because I just actually had a checkup at the sleep study clinic— 

same thing they wanted but for some reason they were saying that 

it wouldn’t work in the VA system. 

Senator BEGICH. Same study you already did? 

Mr. FIERROS. Yeah, which it was done, you know, for the Army, 

not for the VA. I thought they were about sharing information, but 

I guess not. 

Senator BEGICH. I have a feeling the next panel will hopefully 

have a question or two from what you’ve just laid out to see how 

that works. Thank you, Gabriel, that was very good. 

Mr. FIERROS. OK. 

Senator BEGICH. Ric, your testimony has all around good detail 

in some of the issues around the 3 percent set-aside. I mean, you’re 

right about the Corps. I’ve seen some of their documentation. They 

do a pretty good job. We’ve talked multiple times on it. But what 

I’m reading in your testimony and hearing in your verbal testimony 

is that many of the departments are not fulfilling the 3 percent setaside for disabled veterans in any form. They’re just kind of putting the paper out there. So, how do you—I guess I’m asking you: 

How do you see it from your perspective? Are they trying to process—nothing really comes back, because of the way the process is 

set up, or they’re not even trying that? 

Mr. DAVIDGE. Let’s take for example, the statement: How do I 

find these guys? Well, there’s a list that’s available on the Internet 

of over 300 service-disabled veteran-owned businesses in Alaska. 

But the procurement officer was unaware of that. We have legislation in Juneau now that deals with veterans preferences for veteran-owned businesses in Alaska—a 7 percent preference on State 

procurements. Our effort there is also to get a State registry, so 

that any State veteran-owned business that would want to apply 

for State procurement, which would include other additional points 

for Purple Heart disability, et cetera, et cetera, would be available 

on the Internet. The day-to-day life of a procurement officer is an 

interesting experience. The bottom line is, in my opinion, and I 

think this is a shared opinion of the board of directors of the Veterans Business Alliance in Alaska, is that they have a relationship 

with certain contractors. They like that relationship. It’s an easy 

relationship, and for them to find new contractors or subcontractors 

or partners, et cetera, is just a lot of work. The bottom line is 

they’re not held to any accountability for not just effort, but for success. Now, we have a number of service-disabled veteran-owned 

13 

businesses who have begun to have success, but it’s in response to 

being rather nasty and getting in the face of certain managers to 

say, ‘‘You just let out this contract; you let it out for the same guy. 

This is not a service-disabled veteran. They won’t even sub with 

me. This is exactly what I do. I’ve been doing it for 5 years successfully up here. Why can’t I get consideration?’’ 

My point is: If you don’t put it in the performance evaluation, 

you have no hammer. Again, the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee has two bills that will now, in the VA—hopefully, another 

bill is being put together—do it nationally. The set-aside is not discretionary, it is mandatory. And even in those bills at your meetings with the Committee staff, they’re looking at specific language 

requiring performance requirements for supervisors and procurement officers. 

Senator BEGICH. Should it—if I can add a comment—should it be 

not only the supervisor, but the division or the department as a 

unit? 

Mr. DAVIDGE. Yes, any supervisor, any individual all the way up 

to a director of an agency that has procurement requirements 

under them should have this evaluation in their performance evaluation criteria. It should be written into their personnel contract. 

Senator BEGICH. Does the Association feel that it’s readily available for you—I know the Corps did a pretty good job with the presentation to me on what they’ve done. I’ve not necessarily seen that 

from our agencies. This may be a pretty leading question: Is there 

a need for uniformity in how they report this? Doesn’t seem like 

I see it, maybe you see it. Maybe I’m missing that. 

Mr. DAVIDGE. Well, yes and no. When you look at procurements 

they’re all different—— 

Senator BEGICH. Sure. 

Mr. DAVIDGE [continuing]. In many ways, particularly in Alaska. 

Senator BEGICH. I guess their percentage— in other words, if 

they’re actually reaching their target. 

Mr. DAVIDGE. Some of them are exceeding their targets; the 

Corps of Engineers is a great example. 

Senator BEGICH. Yes, a great example. 

Mr. DAVIDGE. As we like to say in management, certain organizations take on the corporate culture, unless that culture is shifted. 

People are beginning to see how difficult that is. One of the problems we faced when I worked for the Reagan Administration is taking management directives from members of the Cabinet down to 

the ground and actually getting those guys on the ground to actually do something. The only way to do that is to put it in their performance evaluation. 

Let me offer a comment with respect to our new veteran here. 

Let me say the VA clinic here is one of the best in the country. One 

of the problems we’ve seen is—which you have testimony from our 

nationally-accredited VSO—the VA, both in benefits and services is 

not in the habit of notifying the veteran’s service officer who has 

filed a claim for that veteran. I have a son who is here in the audience today, 4 years in Iraq, IEDs, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, has 

brain problems. Getting him to make an appointment is a difficult 

problem. Not notifying the VSO when the VSO specifically requested to be notified so they can ensure that this veteran comes 

14 

and attends those meetings would be a very good thing to do. There 

is no reason, given the agreement between the veteran and VSO 

with the power of attorney, that the VA cannot notify that VSO to 

help this veteran get to a meeting. It is not just veterans with mental problems or brain damage problems, it’s veterans that are going 

through the transition of being a warrior to being a civilian. 

Senator BEGICH. Is there—if I can just stay on this with you, Ric. 

Is there one single thing to help fix this, that you believe could fix 

that problem, make that connection? 

Mr. DAVIDGE. I think there is a very solid, easy way to get the 

VSO to help the new veteran get to their appointments, get their 

claims processed, et cetera. If you’ve got a veteran who has Traumatic Brain Injury who is not making a mental health appointment, there may be a reason other than the simple fact that they’re 

not remembering it, but that should go for all veterans. When the 

veteran is notified of the appointment, the VSO should be notified 

of it. And if my VSO doesn’t take care of that veteran, he’s not 

going to be my VSO very long. 

Senator BEGICH. OK. Very good. Tim, I want to ask you, because 

you rated your experience pretty high in your relationship with at 

least transitioning. That’s why we wanted this panel, so we could 

get a sense, a diverse viewpoint. Tell me now that you’ve gone 

through it, what made it easier for you? You rated it pretty high. 

You almost had a 10. It’s pretty good. So, I’m trying to take from 

your perspective and Gabriel’s over here, what did it, do for you to 

move through that system in an easier or faster fashion? 

Chief CARROLL. It’s hard to put a finger on exactly what would 

have made a difference. I was pretty aggressive in trying to understand the system myself. 

Senator BEGICH. Can I interrupt? When you say ‘‘aggressive,’’ tell 

me what you mean by that. I know when I’m aggressive what it 

means, but everyone has a different perspective, please. 

Chief CARROLL. I stayed on the phone; I stayed on the Internet; 

I was asking the questions of: What do I need to do to meet the 

timing? What are the things that I need to provide? What can I do? 

Be it printed, be it online, be it via the phone, I was a squeaky 

wheel trying to make sure that I was armed with the right information for what my responsibilities were. Even still, the reason it’s 

not a 10 is that there are a couple of things that I didn’t know. I’ll 

tell you, the VA, the Transitional Assistance Program, the TAP, 

that’s run through the military family readiness centers, is absolutely essential, I believe, to transiting or transitioning veterans. 

The VA representative who presented that briefing did a fantastic 

job of running down the litany of benefits of making sure that we 

were armed with what it was that we had available. Even still, 

there were things that I didn’t get from there, and things that— 

I’ll point to one specifically. The VA funding fee on home loans—— 

Senator BEGICH. VA funding fees on home loans? 

Chief CARROLL. On a home loan, correct, using the VA mortgage 

guaranty program. With a compensable disability, the VA funding 

fee, the upfront cash fee is waived. I think you know each time you 

use a VA loan the percentage goes up, up, up. With a compensable 

disability, that fee is waived. Nobody told me that. The only way 

I found it was I was doing some on-line search for home loans and 

15 

USAA, a great organization out there, takes good care of us, they 

have an on-line calculator. And one of the questions on their online calculator was compensable disability and I clicked ‘‘no’’ because I didn’t know yet, and it showed the bottom line of what the 

mortgage was going to be. Just for the grins of it, I went back up 

and clicked ‘‘yes’’ to see what that would do, and it made a $12,000 

difference in my mortgage. What is that all about? Then I went 

asking questions. No one told me that. I couldn’t find that information anywhere, and I was looking pretty hard for things. I know 

someone will tell me, Tim, it was printed right there on the top line 

and you missed it. But, I’m telling you, I didn’t know. I circled back 

to a lot of folks that were retiring at the same time and nobody 

knew that. I couldn’t find anyone who knew that. Now, OK. That’s 

one little thing, but that’s an instant cash, instant effect. My mortgage, because we closed it, was $12,000 higher than it needed to 

be. 

Now to the VA’s defense, once the disability rating was determined, I made application to the VA, and very timely, it was not 

slow-rolled by any stretch of any imagination, they refunded the 

funding fee and it went against my mortgage. So, instantly, we got 

some equity on our loan. So, the VA responded well to that piece 

once I made that application. However, I would not have even 

known it on the front end if not by accident. 

Senator BEGICH. Very good. 

Chief CARROLL. I asked the questions of veteran services organizations who were very helpful. I used the American Legion, all of 

the service organizations were more than accommodating for outreach to try to help us. The VA was very good about making sure 

we knew what resources were available to us to help do it. I guess 

I’ll throw it in here now. The downside, the unintended consequence, is when the VA is telling us to go to the service organizations to file our claim, when the VA tells us in virtually every written document that I’ve gotten that you can get a legal representative to represent you, it automatically creates an air of adversarial 

relationship. And, you know, hearing ‘‘you can bring a gun to the 

fight if you want,’’ tells me, well, what kind of fight is it that I need 

to bring a gun? What kind of fight is it that I need to have the 

service organization representing me? What kind of fight is it that 

I need to have a lawyer represent me? If the system is so cumbersome—which it is—that I need to have that kind of help, then 

there’s something wrong with the system. 

Gabriel is a perfect example: the repeated proof and the repeated 

evidence that he has to provide over and over and over again for 

something that’s painfully obvious, come on. Can’t we skinny that 

down just a bit and make it not so burdensome that we have to 

have legal representation to get the rights and the benefits that we 

deserve? 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you very much. Before we bring on the 

next panel, I want to ask Ric: Is there something that we can do 

through our jobs efforts to make a difference in regards to making 

sure that those employers who are really pulling the weight here, 

making sure they rehire when soldiers come back? Is there something we can do within our jobs agenda that can help? It’s a pretty 

16 

broad question, but is there something that you sense would make 

a difference? One target? 

Mr. OWENS. I think that, you know, the way they started to 

schedule the deployments, so you know further out, that definitely 

helps the employers to plan or to know in advance when their employees will be gone. But I think that for the small employer, by 

the time someone goes out for their second or third deployment, if 

you’ve only got three plumbers in your company and you pull one 

of them out, then by the third time you pull that one person out, 

it became, you know—they do it. I think the fact that within Alaska, if you look at the cases that we have and the situations that 

come up, 95 percent of the questions that we get are resolved with 

phone calls. They very seldom actually have to go to the Department of Labor or beyond. So the level of support is still there, but 

what I fear is that as business stretches out longer and longer— 

subconsciously some of these employers, all things being equal— 

when someone comes in looking for work, they don’t have to tell 

the business that they’re in the Guard or Reserve in advance. But 

I think it’s a small town and you know when someone is in the 

Guard or Reserve. Subconsciously they may have a bias against the 

soldiers, and it’s not very apparent right now, but, I mean every 

now and then—more often now than when I started with ESGR, 

I hear a comment out there that’s—the predictability of deployments, you know, when it’s going to happen, how long it’s going to 

be. I don’t want that to enter into, you know, the employability of 

the soldiers. 

Senator BEGICH. Right. 

Mr. OWENS. And I think that, we realize that our budget for 

ESGR has been has been trimmed down considerably from when 

I started as well. So on one hand we’ve got a smaller budget, on 

the other hand the demand for ESGR services is tenfold. 

Senator BEGICH. Probably one of the peak times now? 

Mr. OWENS. That’s one of the things we’re struggling with. When 

we pulled all of the soldiers out of western Alaska, we deployed a 

crew out there. He’s got an Army out in western Alaska that he 

couldn’t fly to, or float to, or snow machine to, but we can only 

bring one person in to train them for either ombudsman services 

or employer outreach, military outreach. 

Senator BEGICH. Very good. Thank you, Rich. 

Mr. DAVIDGE. Senator, I have one quick thing I’d like to add. 

Senator BEGICH. Very quick. 

Mr. DAVIDGE. I think it’s time to look at how we use our National 

Guard and Reserves. We work with Guard and Reserve people that 

are coming back. This is not what they signed up for. That does 

not mean they shouldn’t serve. I’m simply saying, when you sign 

up to be in the National Guard, you want to serve in your State 

or at least in your region, and the whole motivation of joining the 

Guard and being involved in that kind of thing is different than 

joining the active service. Our reliance on the Guard and Service 

Reserve, in my personal opinion and as a contact medic in Vietnam, is beyond the concept of how it was originally set up. Nationally we need to look at expanding active duty as opposed to relying 

on Guard and Reserve because we’re destroying families; we’re destroying economies, we’re destroying businesses as an unintenVerDate Nov 24 2008 20:49 Dec 09, 2010 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00020 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 H:\ACTIVE\021610AK.TXT SVETS PsN: PAULIN
17 

tional consequence to the way in which we’re deploying those men 

and women. 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you very much, Ric. Thank you all very 

much for your testimony. Again, for the audience, if you’re not familiar with field hearings, all of this enters into the Congressional 

Record. It helps us determine what efforts we should make for the 

veterans when we go back to Washington. So, again, to all four of 

you, thank you very much for your testimony and your participation today. 

Let’s bring the next panel up. The next panel as they get up 

here, we’re reminding folks that if you have additional questions or 

comments please utilize the document that we have available in 

the back at the table. Please feel free to fill out the comments. 

Again, we will have a roundtable in Wasilla. We will have a roundtable meeting in Fairbanks, and then we’re going out to Kotzebue 

to hear from rural Alaskans about the delivery of jobs and health 

care. Please have a seat. I’m just biding time, that’s what I’m doing 

as you get situated. 

Thank you very much. We’re going to do a quick test on the mics. 

Let’s try your table over here. Just talk into the mic to see how 

we’re doing. 

[Pausing.] 

We have five panelists in this next panel. What we’ll try to do— 

to the people in the audience, as you hear the testimony from this 

next panel you may have questions, individual comments, or information that you want to offer them. What we’ll try to do is allow 

a little flexibility as we finish this hearing. There will be a couple 

of us that have to attend to other issues, but we ask that if you 

have questions on the way out of here these people can have conversations, but very limited because today is a field hearing. But, 

again, there is opportunity. 

Let me introduce the five panelists then we’ll go right through 

the list. As I read these, it’s not necessarily the order you’ll be 

called. I just want to forewarn you. 

The Honorable Ray Jefferson, Assistant Secretary of Labor for 

Veterans’ Employment and Training. Brigadier General Tom 

Katkus, Adjutant General, Alaska National Guard. Mark Bilosz, director, Anchorage Regional Office, Veterans Benefits Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs. You have a couple of folks accompanying you. Belinda Finn, Assistant Inspector General for Audits and Evaluations, Office of Inspector General, Department of 

Veterans Affairs. Jan Myers, Director, Family Programs, Alaska 

Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. 

The order will be, just so people will know and prepare mentally, 

the Honorable Ray Jefferson, then it will be Belinda Finn, Mark 

Bilosz, Brigadier General Katkus, and then Jan Myers. 

Let’s start with Ray Jefferson. Again, thank you very much for 

attending and taking up my offer so fast. It was only a month and 

one-half ago when I ended by asking you to come to Alaska. I’m 

not sure what you expected. I think you picked the right week to 

be here. 

18 

STATEMENT OF HON. RAYMOND M. JEFFERSON, ASSISTANT 

SECRETARY OF VETERANS’ EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING 

SERVICE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 

Secretary JEFFERSON. Aloha, Senator. Senator Begich, veterans, 

citizens of Alaska, members of the Anchorage community, I’m 

thrilled and honored to be here today. I call Hawaii home. This is 

my first time in Alaska. I’m really excited for being here this week 

and learning as much as I can. Let me talk about three things: 

Who we are, what we do, and how we’re serving the veteran community in Alaska. Who we are? Myself a veteran served with the 

rangers and special forces, lost my hand to a grenade in the line 

of duty, went through the VA program and now I have the privilege of serving as your Assistant Secretary for Veterans and 

Employment. 

As an agency we have 240 people around America. Our mission 

essentially is that we proudly serve these men and women behind 

me today, these veterans and transitioning services members in 

America. We prepare them in their quest for meaningful careers, 

maximize their employment opportunities, and we protect their employment rights. We have five primary aspirations. 

The first is serving as a national focal point for veterans’ employment. That involves ensuring we serve all communities with 

unique needs. Homeless veterans, women veterans, veterans in 

rural areas, veterans who have been wounded, ill, or injured, and 

veterans who are members of the National Guard and Reserve. We 

also want to increase awareness of access to and participation in 

our programs and to do what we’re doing today, which is convening, collaborating, and communicating with all of our stakeholders. We work in partnership with Congress, sir, as you know, 

and also the Department of Defense, Veterans Affairs, private sector, nonprofits, the VSOs, ESGR, who is here today, as well, and 

other government agencies. So, what are some of the things that 

we’re doing? 

In addition to serving as a national focal point, we also want to 

increase our second aspiration: Engagement with employers, particularly the private sector. We want to provide meaningful employment with particular emphasis on green jobs and find seamless 

transition for our transition services members. 

A fourth major aspiration is boosting the impact of USERRA, by 

increasing awareness of it and commitment to it. 

And the fifth is providing excellent service to our veterans and 

transitioning servicemembers. So, how will these five aspirations 

translate to what’s happening on the ground here in Alaska? Let 

me start with one of our programs—jobs for veterans State grants. 

We have 2000 employment representatives around America; 13 of 

those are here in Alaska. Eight are accessible through the Anchorage and Fairbanks communities. Some of these employment representatives we call local veteran employment representatives and 

they connect veterans with employment opportunities. We also 

have disabled veteran outreach program specialists who provide intensive services to disabled veterans. With our homeless veteran 

integration program we have one standdown that we handle every 

year in Anchorage. We also want to do a much better job of serving 

our Native American veterans. Thus far we’ve met and convened 

19 

a gathering of tribal leaders. We’re launching and completing a 

study to identify best practices to serve Native American veterans 

and we’re also going to major convening events of Native American 

tribal leaders and tribal veterans this year. What we want to learn 

from the Native American veterans is what they need and how we 

can do a better job serving them. 

USERRA, employment rights. Alaska has five to six complaints 

a year. There’s tremendous support for the veteran community 

here. We want to make sure the process of submitting these complaints is more efficient and more effective; we’re moving to an 

electronic case management system and we’re implementing quality and process control measures there. 

Finally, the Transitional Assistance Program. In Alaska, we have 

about 60 employment workshops a year, and we have roughly 1500 

servicemembers who transition out of the military in Alaska each 

year as well. We have a two-and-a-half-day employment workshop 

and for the first time in 17 years we’re going through a complete 

transformation. We want to make it more economically relevant, 

immediately useful, and engaging for participants. We’re going to 

shift it from the current 268 slide show PowerPoint presentation to 

something which is much more dynamic and high energy with 

higher quality facilitation; prepared templates so veterans don’t 

need to restart their cover letter and resume every time they prepare one; life and career planning; resiliency training; stress reduction techniques; and also new best practice assessments. So let me 

conclude, sir—— 

Senator BEGICH. You’re sending that to Congress? 

Secretary JEFFERSON. Maybe we can do a demonstration project. 

[Laughter.] 

In conclusion, sir, I’d like to say this: We met last time on November 18. You invited me out to Alaska and I called your office 

the very next day. I don’t want to assume that we’re doing the 

right things in Washington. We’re grateful and honored to be here 

with you this week to learn from you, to learn from the men and 

women seated behind me and also on this panel to make sure that 

we’re asking the right questions, we’re developing the best programs, and what we’re doing is valuable and will provide veterans 

and transitioning servicemembers with the excellent service that 

they’ve earned and deserve. Thank you, sir. 

[The prepared statement of Secretary Jefferson follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF RAYMOND M. JEFFERSON, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR

VETERANS’ EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Senator Begich and Distinguished Members, thank you for inviting me to appear 

before you today to discuss the employment assistance and outreach services provided to the Veterans in Alaska. 

The mission of the Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) is to provide Veterans and transitioning Servicemembers with the resources and services to 

succeed in the workforce by maximizing their employment opportunities, protecting 

their employment rights, and meeting labor market demands with qualified 

Veterans. 

We accomplish our mission through three distinct functions: 1) conducting employment and training programs; 2) enforcing relevant Federal laws and regulations; and 3) providing transition assistance services. 

20 

VETS’ PROGRAMS

VETS administers a formula grant program to States that directly meets the 

goals of its mission. The Jobs for Veterans State Grants (JVSG) program funds two 

occupations, the Disabled Veterans Outreach Program specialist (DVOP) and the 

Local Veterans Employment Representatives (LVER). DVOP specialists provide outreach services, and intensive employment assistance to meet the employment needs 

of eligible Veterans. LVER staff conducts outreach to employers and engages in advocacy efforts with hiring executives to increase employment opportunities for Veterans, encourages the hiring of disabled Veterans, and generally assists Veterans 

to gain and retain employment. In Alaska, VETS funds six LVERs and seven 

DVOPs. Of these 13 individuals, eight are accessible in Anchorage and Fairbanks. 

To meet the needs of homeless Veterans and help reintegrate them into the workforce, VETS administers the Homeless Veterans’ Reintegration Program (HVRP). In 

Alaska, VETS sponsors one stand-down each year in Anchorage for homeless Veterans. The stand-down provides basic services, medical care, food and clothing for 

Alaska’s homeless population. Veterans with significant barriers to employment or 

service-connected disabilities are also served through the Veterans’ Workforce Investment Program (VWIP)—a focused and innovative training program that coordinates services available through other VETS administered programs. 

Both the homeless and workforce investment Veterans programs are funded 

through a competitive grant process. This year, for the first time ever, VETS will 

issue a Solicitation for Grant Applications (SGA) for homeless women Veterans. We 

also will soon issue an SGA to reinstitute the Incarcerated Veterans Transition Program (IVTP) to assist Veterans who will be transitioning back to society from incarceration. Additionally, we are in the process of developing an SGA for both HVRP 

and VWIP. Service providers for these deserving populations in Alaska are encouraged to apply for these competitive grants. 

NATIVE AMERICAN VETERANS

To meet the needs of Native American Veterans, especially those on tribal lands, 

Secretary Solis hosted—and VETS participated in—a Summit of Tribal Leaders at 

the Department of Labor late last year. We discussed the challenges facing Native 

American Veterans and potential solutions. This event began the process of better 

serving this community. VETS will also participate in a number of major Native 

American outreach events in 2010. Furthermore, we are conducting a study on the 

employment needs of Native American Veterans living on tribal lands to identify 

best practices for serving this population. 

USERRA

Our compliance programs investigate an average of five or six complaints per year 

filed by Veterans and other protected individuals in Alaska under the Uniformed 

Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). We also assess 

complaints alleging violations of statutes requiring Veterans’ Preference in Federal 

hiring, and implement and collect information regarding Veteran employment by 

Federal contractors. 

One of our commitments to Veterans is to increase awareness of USERRA, thereby increasing our ability to protect vulnerable populations. To improve USERRA’s 

impact, VETS recently completed a Lean-Six-Sigma quality enhancement and process efficiency assessment of USERRA, with a view toward streamlining, improving 

quality, and increasing responsiveness to our Veteran clients. The goals of the assessment were to: 1) identify ways of ensuring a consistent, high standard of investigations; and 2) determine other steps to improve the program and its outcomes. 

We have begun work on identifying an electronic case management system to eliminate the paper-centric aspect of investigations and improve efficiency. Access to this 

system will be shared with our Federal enforcement partners. We are also working 

closely with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to ensure that the Federal 

Government serves as a role model for honoring USERRA. 

TRANSITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

VETS’ transition assistance services are offered through the Transition Assistance 

Program (TAP), which provides employment workshops and direct services for separating military members, including those who are seriously wounded and injured. 

TAP is a Department of Defense (DOD) program that partners with the Department of Labor (DOL), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the Department 

of Homeland Security (DHS). TAP has four components: 

21 

1. Pre-separation counseling—this is mandatory for all transitioning Servicemembers and is provided by the military services; 

2. TAP employment workshops—these are voluntary on the part of the transitioning Servicemember and are administered through DOL and its state partners; 

3. VA benefits briefing—these briefings are also voluntary and administered by 

the VA; and 

4. Disabled Transition Assistance Program—also voluntary and administered by 

the VA. 

TAP EMPLOYMENT WORKSHOPS

Since 1991, when DOL began providing employment workshops pursuant to section 502 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1991 (P.L. 101– 

510), we have provided employment and job training assistance and other transitional services to more than one million separating and retiring military members 

and their spouses. DOL was further directed to provide these services at overseas 

locations by section 309 of the Veterans Benefits Act of 2003 (P.L. 108–183). 

VETS began facilitating TAP workshops at overseas military installations where, 

by previous interagency agreement, the DOD had provided TAP workshops since the 

program’s inception. We are currently conducting TAP employment workshops at 55 

sites overseas, including Germany, Japan, Italy, Korea, Guam and the United Kingdom. Our mission is to provide TAP at every location requested by the Armed Services or National Guard and Reserve Components. 

VETS provides employment search workshops based on projections made by each 

of the Armed Services and DHS, for the U.S. Coast Guard. DVOPs and LVERs are 

the primary source for TAP Employment Workshop facilitation stateside. However, 

because of the distance between many state employment offices and the military installations, as well as the rapid increase in Workshop participants, contract 

facilitators were added in early FY 1992 and supplemented by Federal staff in FY 

1996. Alaska currently does not use contract facilitators. 

DOD recently set a goal for TAP Employment Workshop participation of 85 percent of separating servicemembers. Eighty-one percent of active-duty transitioning 

Servicemembers currently attend the DOL TAP employment workshops, a 30 percent increase in participation since 2001. TAP employment workshop participation 

is expected to increase over the next year, and we plan to target workshop delivery 

to spouses and family members of separating Servicemembers, including those with 

limited English proficiency. 

VETS is committed to ensuring a consistently high level of instruction, service 

and quality for all Servicemembers and spouses attending TAP Employment Workshops. Therefore, VETS requires that all TAP facilitators receive training conducted 

by the National Veterans Training Institute (NVTI) at the University of Colorado 

in Denver. NVTI provides competency-based training to further develop and enhance the professional skills of Veterans’ employment and training service providers 

throughout the United States. 

An Alaska DVOP or LVER representative attends each TAP workshop session 

here to discuss their respective roles and responsibilities in providing job search assistance. Since most transitioning Servicemembers return to some other state, this 

information is provided to help the Servicemember contact the DVOP and LVER 

representative in their respective states to assist them directly with their re-integration into the local job market in their areas. 

Alaska averages more than 60 TAP employment workshops annually with approximately 1,500 transitioning Servicemembers in attendance. This includes about 

one work shop per quarter with the Coast Guard. There are four major TAP sites, 

encompassing all military service branches plus the U.S. Coast Guard with an additional four sites that vary in size and frequency according to need. 

National Guard and Reserve personnel in Alaska are informed that they can attend TAP for up to 180 days after they complete their active duty commitment. An 

individual DVOP or LVER can facilitate a TAP employment workshop, or they may 

do so as a unit. 

The Alaska DVET (Director of Veterans’ Employment and Training) meets annually with the DVOPs and LVERs who facilitate the TAP employment workshops to 

discuss transitioning Servicemember’s feedback and curriculum updates based on 

the input provided by these TAP recipients. 

In addition to presently reviewing TAP’s performance and impact, we are also 

working to modernize the workshop, increase its effectiveness and improve participants’ employment outcomes. Specifically, we want the content to be more economically relevant, immediately applicable, and engaging for participants. Thus far, 

we’ve solicited input from external content experts and service providers to help us 

22 

determine what should be included in a best-practice employment transition program. We are working in close cooperation with our partners at DOD, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 

this endeavor. 

Late last year, our three agencies engaged in a weeklong working group to develop a joint, multi-year, strategic plan for TAP. We’re all committed to ensuring 

the plan is action-oriented and will have a direct, positive impact on our transitioning Servicemembers. The plan will involve an increased emphasis on the employment needs of the Reserve components and Servicemembers who have been wounded or injured, or who are ill. 

RESERVE COMPONENT AND NATIONAL GUARD EMPLOYMENT WORKSHOP

Global military commitments have necessitated a mobilization of Guard and Reserve members that is unprecedented in modern times. The longer mobilization periods result in these Servicemembers now being eligible for Veterans’ benefits, including TAP. The employment workshop is available for Guard or Reserve Members, 

along with all other Servicemembers, at one of the 215 transition offices located on 

military installations in the United States as well as overseas locations. 

However, Reserve and National Guard members usually transition at fewer locations, referred to as demobilization sites. Typically the demobilization process is 

rapid, taking a matter of days once the Servicemembers arrive back in the United 

States from overseas. During demobilization, Servicemembers may be expected to 

participate in many separate briefings and activities. This leaves little or no time 

for a full two and one-half day employment workshop. Nevertheless, we have found 

that many National Guard and Reserve Servicemembers would benefit from such 

transition assistance. Our State Directors have coordinated with each State Adjutant General, and they work directly with the individual Reserve and National 

Guard commanders to make special arrangements following demobilization in order 

to present a modified TAP employment workshop to Guard and Reserve Servicemembers. Based on requests from Reserve Component Commanders or Adjutant 

Generals and through coordination with our VETS’ state directors and local VA 

staff, VETS has offered to tailor the workshops to the identified needs of the transitioning Reserve and National Guard members. 

In fact, since 2001 VETS has provided transition services to over 146,000 National 

Guard and Reservists. These transition services range in size and content from mobilization and demobilization briefings to the full-scale TAP employment workshops. 

They are provided in 43 states and the District of Columbia. In some states, National Guard and Reserve members have been allowed to attend the regular TAP 

for Active Component Servicemembers. The services provided to the National Guard 

and Reserve are tailored to the needs and requests made by DOD. 

To meet the transition needs of the National Guard and Reserves, in FY 2007, 

DOL directed the NVTI to develop a modular version of the TAP employment workshop. The traditional TAP employment workshop was turned into a 15-module menu 

from which Reserve and National Guard commanders may select relevant services 

for their unit members. This modular TAP menu includes a mandatory module that 

covers local labor market information, USERRA, the One-Stop Career Center system, small business opportunities, and the risks of homelessness. The other 14 modules consist of the current TAP employment workshop curriculum broken down into 

logical and connected blocks of instruction. This is not a new or separate curriculum 

for the Reserves and National Guard; rather it has been packaged to better serve 

this community. 

USERRA briefings are conducted upon request and through outreach by VETS’ 

staff. This year, VETS already has provided TAP briefings and USERRA outreach 

to the State of Alaska Army and Air National Guard units, as well as Marine Corps 

Reserve. 

In closing, I again thank you for allowing me to address you today on this very 

important issue. I would be pleased to respond to any questions you may have. 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you very much. Again, we’ll do the same 

routine. I’ll ask each person who testified and then I’ll come back 

with a list of questions. The next person on the panel is Belinda 

Finn. Let’s move that mic. Thank you very much. 

Ms. FINN. Thank you. Can you hear me? 

Senator BEGICH. Yes. 

23 

STATEMENT OF BELINDA J. FINN, ASSISTANT INSPECTOR 

GENERAL FOR AUDITS AND EVALUATIONS, OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS; ACCOMPANIED BY BRENT ARRONTE, DIRECTOR, 

BENEFITS INSPECTIONS DIVISION, OFFICE OF AUDITS AND 

EVALUATIONS 

Ms. FINN. OK. Senator Begich, thank you for the opportunity to 

be here today to testify about our inspection of the VA Regional Office in Anchorage, AK. With me today is Mr. Brent Arronte, who 

is the Director of our Benefits Inspection Division. The Benefits Inspection Program is an initiative to ensure our Nation’s veterans 

receive timely and accurate benefits and services. The OIG was 

scheduled to review all 57 Regional Offices on a 5-year cycle. But 

we’ve recently began a hiring initiative that will allow us to review 

all of the offices in 3 years. During our inspections, we’ve reviewed 

functional areas and operational activities using five protocols that 

cover: claims processing; data integrity; management control; information security; and public contact. We report on our results as a 

snapshot in time for each era. 

In the summer of 2009 we conducted an inspection of the Anchorage office focusing on 14 operational activities and found that 

the office had issues in meeting standards for 13 of those areas. We 

concluded that the management team has challenges in the oversight of operational activities, improving insufficient network capacity to support business processes, providing training to staff, 

and managing an internal claims brokering process. We believe 

that two issues contributed to the challenges in management oversight at the office. First, the VARO did not have a veterans service 

center manager for approximately 8 months during fiscal year 

2009, that position had been filled shortly before our visit. Additionally, the director of the office is actually located in Salt Lake 

City and manages from afar. Both of these positions are key in 

managing effective operations in the office. 

Also, as you report, as a result of the capacity issues, the employees had difficulty consistently accessing the computer applications 

they needed to perform their jobs. The employees told us this problem had been occurring for over a year. We also noted that the director was moving claims from Anchorage to offices in Fort Harrison, MT, and Salt Lake City, UT. This movement of claims made 

it difficult for the staff to manage the workload and associate mail 

with the corresponding claim folder. Because of this movement of 

work, we compared the staffing levels in Anchorage to the Boise 

VARO, and we found that the Boise office had 22 additional fulltime employees for a comparable inventory of rating and nonrating 

claims. We recommended that the director improve oversight of the 

quality assurance process, develop a mail routing guide to ensure 

proper mail processing, research the causes and solutions to improve network capacity issues, and provide additional training to 

staff. The director concurred with all of our recommendations, and 

provided responsive comments and action plans. 

Thank you, again, Senator, for the opportunity to be here today. 

Mr. Arronte and I would be pleased to answer any questions. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Finn follows:] 

24 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF BELINDA J. FINN, ASSISTANT INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR AUDITS AND EVALUATIONS, OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF

VETERANS AFFAIRS

Senator Begich, thank you for the opportunity to testify today on the Office of Inspector General (OIG) report, Inspection of the VA Regional Office, Anchorage, Alaska. I am accompanied by Mr. Brent Arronte, Director, Benefits Inspection Division, 

Office of Inspector General, Department of Veterans Affairs. 

BACKGROUND

The Benefits Inspection Program is a new OIG initiative to ensure our Nation’s 

veterans receive timely and accurate benefits and services. The Benefits Inspection 

Division contributes to the improvement and management of benefits processing activities and veteran services by conducting onsite inspections at VA Regional Offices 

(VAROs). 

Under the current organizational structure, the Benefits Inspection Division, consisting of two teams, will complete a review of all 57 VAROs during a 5-year cycle, 

performing 12 inspections annually. The OIG recently implemented a new hiring 

initiative to create a second Benefits Inspection Division. Tentatively, this new division will be operational by the end FY 2010. This initiative would allow the OIG 

to complete a review of all VAROs within a 3-year period. 

For each inspection, we issue a report describing VARO performance as measured 

against current VBA and VA policy. The scope of our inspections allows for a narrow 

review of work performed at each office and our reports represent a ‘‘snapshot’’ in 

time. Currently, we perform our reviews using five protocols focused on distinct 

functional areas and specific operational activities within the VARO. The protocols 

are claims processing, data integrity, management controls, information security, 

and public contact. We designed these protocols based on a risk analysis of previous 

OIG national audits and Combined Assessment Reviews, VBA’s Compensation and 

Pension Site Visit reports, Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports, and information provided by the Senate and House Veterans’ Affairs Committees. Our 

plan is to review the protocol areas annually to identify new high-risk areas and 

adjust as necessary. 

ANCHORAGE VARO RESULTS

In late July and early August 2009, we conducted onsite work at the Anchorage 

VARO. Our inspection focused on the following 14 operational activities within the 

5 protocol areas: 

• Processing of disability claims for specific service-related conditions—Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury, diabetes and disabilities related to 

herbicide exposure, and Haas claims. A Haas claim is a claim affected by a U.S. 

Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims decision that involves veterans who served in 

waters off Vietnam but did not set foot in Vietnam and whether those veterans are 

entitled to the presumption of service connection to herbicide agents. 

• Integrity of VBA’s Claims Management Data—Establishing correct dates of 

claim and properly tracking veteran’s claims folder using VBA’s Control of Veterans 

Records (COVERS) database. 

• Management Controls over Claims Processing—Systematic analysis of operations (SAO), a management driven analysis of key business activities designed to 

identify existing or potential problems; systematic technical accuracy review (STAR), 

an integral part of VBA’s quality assurance program designed to measure VARO 

performance in processing claims; and accountability for VARO date stamps and 

usage of the claims process improvement business model. This business model requires employees to rotate between the different teams within the VARO to maintain skills required to process claims. 

• Security of Veterans’ Information—Mail handling procedures and controls for 

the safeguarding of veterans documents to prevent unauthorized destruction 

• VARO Public Contact Functions—Inquiry Routing and Information System 

(IRIS), VA’s internet based public message system that allows beneficiaries a means 

to communicate with VA electronically. 

During our visit, we interviewed the VARO Director, Veterans Service Center 

Manager (VSCM), supervisors, and employees responsible for processing claims and 

providing benefit services to veterans and their dependents. We reported the Anchorage VARO management team faces challenges in providing benefits and services 

to veterans. These challenges include addressing oversight of operational activities, 

improving insufficient network capacity to support business processes, providing 

25 

training to staff, and managing an internal claims brokering process. The VARO did 

not meet VBA’s standards for 13 of the 14 operational areas inspected. 

Our analysis of disability claims processing revealed a 29 percent error rate at 

the Anchorage VARO. The error rate represents our analysis of 78 disability claims 

and not the entire caseload of the VARO. Of the 78 claims reviewed, processing errors occurred in 23 claims, of which only three errors directly affected veterans’ benefits. The VARO underpaid two veterans, one for $288 and one for $4,758. The other 

error did not involve monetary benefits. The majority of processing errors involved 

claims for PTSD and Haas claims. These errors occurred because of a lack of training for Rating Veterans Service Representatives (RVSR) responsible for making disability determinations. 

Of those 13 operational areas that did not meet VBA standards, 9 occurred because of a lack of management oversight. These areas were: tracking veterans 

claims folders, establishing the correct dates of claim, correcting errors identified by 

VBA’s STAR quality assurance program, completing SAOs, safeguarding VARO date 

stamps, safeguarding veteran’s personally identifiable information (PII), properly 

handling claims related mail, responding to electronic inquiries submitted by veterans, and, responding to congressional inquiries. 

For approximately 8-months during FY 2009, the VARO had no manager for its 

Veterans’ Service Center, a key management position affecting many operational 

areas in the Anchorage VARO. Further, the VARO Director geographically residing 

in Salt Lake City may have also attributed to diminished oversight. For example, 

the Director could not observe the effectiveness of SAO recommendations designed 

to improve station performance and delays in implementing several SAOs occurred 

while waiting for the Director in Salt Lake City to approve the plan. 

In addition to the 14 operational areas inspected, we identified serious concerns 

regarding network capacity to support current business processes. Employees reported difficulty maintaining consistent access to certain VBA applications required 

to perform their jobs. These difficulties included applications being unresponsive 

and the need for employees to restart their computers several times a day. The employees informed us this problem had already existed for over one year. We estimated the Anchorage VARO might lose 7.5 productive hours per rating specialist 

a month due to network capacity problems. 

The VARO Director implemented an internal brokering plan that moves ratingrelated claims between Anchorage, AK, Ft. Harrison, MT, and Salt Lake City, UT. 

VBA normally brokers work between VAROs because of insufficient resources to 

process certain types of work. The Anchorage VSCM informed us it is difficult to 

create a workload management plan and to control the workload of pending claims 

brokered to other VAROs. A supervisor from the Anchorage VARO indicated 

brokering impacts mail handling procedures and it is difficult to associate claims related mail with claims folder located at other VAROs. Currently, the OIG is performing a national audit to determine the effectiveness of claims brokering across 

all VBA regional offices. 

Because the Anchorage VARO was moving so much work to other VARO’s, we 

compared staffing levels between the Anchorage VARO and the Boise VARO to determine if the staffing level was commensurate with similar VARO’s. Our analysis 

revealed the Boise VARO has 22 additional full-time employees while maintaining 

a comparable inventory of rating and non-rating claims. We based this comparison 

on the total number of actual claims pending in each office. We believe this provides 

the best comparison of actual workload, rather than the number of veterans who 

reside in each state or those veterans who might file claims. 

The Benefits Inspection Division completed 6 VARO inspections during FY 2009. 

A comparison of the percentage of claims processing errors revealed the highest 

error rate occurred at the San Juan, PR VARO, (41 percent), followed by Anchorage, 

AK (29 percent), Roanoke, VA (25 percent) Baltimore, MD (20 percent), Nashville, 

TN (19 percent) and Wilmington, DE (11 percent). These error rates represent our 

analysis of a sample of disability claims and not the entire caseload at each VARO. 

None of the VAROs inspected complied with 100 percent of the operational areas 

we reviewed. The Baltimore office had the highest rate of non-compliance with VBA 

standards followed by Anchorage, San Juan, Nashville, Wilmington, and Roanoke. 

We recommended the Director improve oversight of the quality assurance process 

for several of the operational areas that did not meet standards, develop a mail 

routing guide to ensure proper processing of mail, research the cause and solutions 

to improve network capacity issues, and train staff to maintain required skills. The 

VARO Director concurred with all of the OIG’s recommendations in the inspection 

report. 

26 

SUMMARY

Although our inspection found the Anchorage VARO management team faces 

many challenges in providing benefits and services to veterans, we believe the Director’s comments to our recommendations are responsive. The Benefits Inspection 

Division has not performed any follow-up regarding the implementation of these recommendations at this time. 

Senator Begich, thank you for the opportunity to testify here today. Mr. Arronte 

and I would be pleased to answer any questions that you may have. 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you very much. Let me ask Mark Bilosz, 

Anchorage Regional Office, VA Benefits Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs to testify next. 

STATEMENT OF MARK M. BILOSZ, DIRECTOR, ANCHORAGE REGIONAL OFFICE, VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION, 

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS; ACCOMPANIED 

BY WILLIE C. CLARK. SR., WESTERN AREA DIRECTOR; AND 

PATRICK KELLEY, VETERANS SERVICE CENTER MANAGER, 

ANCHORAGE REGIONAL OFFICE 

Mr. BILOSZ. Thank you, Senator. Senator Begich, it is my pleasure to be here today to discuss our efforts in meeting the needs of 

veterans residing in Alaska. I will discuss important benefits and 

services provided to veterans living in Alaska as well as discuss 

concerns about the Anchorage Regional Office, addressed in the recent VA Office of Inspector General report. The Anchorage Regional Office administers the following benefits and services: disability compensation; pension benefits; vocational rehabilitation 

and employment assistance; and outreach for all veterans and survivor benefits. Our goal is to deliver these benefits and services in 

a timely, accurate, and compassionate manner. This is accomplished through the administration of a comprehensive and diverse 

benefits program. 

Currently a total of 34 employees work in the Veterans Services 

Center and seven employees work in the vocational rehabilitation 

and employment division within the Regional Office. Employees at 

the Anchorage Regional Office are very motivated and provide excellent service to Alaska veterans. Performance indicators revealed 

that the Anchorage Regional Office is performing much better than 

it has in the past, completing a greater number of claims each 

month while improving its accuracy. As the out-based director of 

the Anchorage Regional Office, I visit the Anchorage office at least 

quarterly and often more than that. I have also daily discussions 

with division management to maintain an open line of communication and provide direction and oversight. A new VHA clinic is 

scheduled to open in May 2010 and VBA has secured space at the 

new site. Anchorage Regional Office is looking forward to moving 

into this new space as it will provide us with improved working 

space. In June 2009 a new Veterans Service Center Manager reported to duty at Anchorage. The Veterans Service Center Manager 

position was vacant for approximately 8 months. This position was 

vacant due to the difficult task of recruiting an experienced individual to the Anchorage area. 

Additionally, the Anchorage Regional Office has recruited and 

hired two new supervisors. The appointment of the new supervisors 

has had a positive impact on the overall management and performance of the office this fiscal year. 

27 

For example, rating inventory has trended in a positive direction 

every month this year. Compared to December of last year, the Anchorage RO completed 226 more claims this year, showing an increase of about 16 percent. In addition, rating and authorization 

quality have both shown improvement. 

In fact, due to the focus on internal training within our office, 

rating quality at the Anchorage RO exceeds the national average. 

The Anchorage vocational rehabilitation and employment division 

is one of the top performing divisions in the Nation. It was identified as a top performer in fiscal year 2009 with a VA Level II Performance Award. 

In addition to providing improvements in quality, the management team has successfully implemented several policies pertaining to the workload that I would like to highlight: a policy for 

the timely corrective action of errors identified by the VBA; and a 

national quality review program was implemented. A policy outlining control and tracking of claims folder was implemented. This 

policy provides for better control of the location of the claims folders. The management team implemented a consistent local quality 

review process to complete timely quality assurance reviews that 

ensure veterans’ service representatives are establishing direct 

data claims. A most recent review completed in January showed 

only a 1 percent error rate. As VBA has an ethical and legal responsibility to maintain adequate controls over all date stamps 

throughout our facilities, two new electronic date stamps with locking devices are now in place and both stamps remain in secure locations. The Veterans Service Center also has taken action to more 

efficiently safeguard veterans’ personal identifiable information. All 

employees will receive training on the proper safeguard and destruction of materials, desk inspections of work stations and common areas are performed regularly. 

In September 2009 a new work flow plan was implemented to ensure Veterans Service Center staff would properly control and process all mail. To ensure Congressional inquiries are processed in a 

timely and accurate manner, a new policy for handling Congressional correspondence was implemented in November 2009. Our 

goal is to complete Congressional inquiries within 5 days. So far 

this fiscal year we’re under that goal at 4.3 days. 

The VA Office of Inspector General conducted an inspection of 

the Anchorage Regional Office during the summer of 2009. The 

OIG report recommended 12 areas of improvement. Action has 

been taken to correct the deficiencies as identified by the OIG. 

Those items have been addressed in my oral and written testimony 

that you’ve received today. With the help of OIG report findings, 

specific shortfalls of the Anchorage Regional Office have been identified and action plans are in place. 

The VA senior leadership is committed to providing the necessary resources, funding and employees and facilities to the Anchorage Regional Office which were the best possible services provided to the Alaskan veterans and their families. I’m fully committed to continue to improve claims processing in Alaska, Mr. 

Chairman. 

This concludes my testimony. I greatly appreciate being here 

today and I look forward to answering any of your questions. 

28 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Bilosz follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF MARK M. BILOSZ, DIRECTOR, ANCHORAGE VA REGIONAL

OFFICE, VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS

AFFAIRS

Senator Begich and Members of the Committee, it is my pleasure to be here today 

to discuss our efforts in meeting the needs of Veterans residing in Alaska. 

The Anchorage Regional Office (RO) serves Veterans throughout the state. We 

also provide outreach services to Veterans in Fairbanks, Fort Wainwright, Fort 

Richardson, Elmendorf Air Force Base, and Eielson Air Force Base. 

The Anchorage RO administers the following benefits and services: 

• Disability compensation and pension for Veterans and dependents; 

• Vocational rehabilitation and employment (VR&E) assistance; and, 

• Outreach for all Veteran and survivor benefits. 

Our goal is to deliver these comprehensive and diverse benefits and services in 

a timely, accurate, and compassionate manner. 

The Anchorage RO is responsible for delivering non-medical VA benefits and services to over 76,400 Veterans and their families in Alaska. Approximately 14,000 of 

these Veterans receive disability compensation. In fiscal year 2009, the Anchorage 

RO completed more than 2,100 decisions on Veterans’ disability claims. 

The Denver Regional Loan Center (RLC) administers VA home loan services to 

Alaska Veterans. Alaska Veterans are served by a full time RLC employee who is 

stationed at the Anchorage RO. Most Native lands are leasehold estates, which 

qualify for VA’s guaranteed loan program. VA has guaranteed 65,575 home loans 

in Alaska with a cumulative loan amount of over $9 billion. 

STAFFING

The Anchorage RO hired five employees as a result of the American Recovery and 

Reinvestment Act. The employees are making direct contributions to improving 

claims processing by assisting with development of claims and mail processing. Currently, 34 employees work in the Veterans Service Center (VSC) and 7 employees 

work in VR&E. 

Employees at the Anchorage RO are very motivated and provide excellent service 

to Alaska Veterans. Performance measures indicate that the Anchorage RO is performing well, completing a greater number of claims each month while improving 

accuracy. 

MANAGEMENT TEAM

As the out-based Director of the Anchorage RO, I visit Anchorage at least quarterly and hold weekly videoconference calls with division management to maintain 

open lines of communication. In addition, I hold a weekly conference call with the 

Veterans Service Center Manager (VSCM) to provide direction and oversight. I also 

communicate regularly with the Anchorage VA Medical Center Director, as the Anchorage RO is currently co-located with the Medical Center. 

A new VA clinic is scheduled to open in May 2010, and the Veterans Benefits Administration has secured space at the new site. The Anchorage RO is looking forward to moving into this new space as it will allow VSOs and all claims files to 

be located in the RO. The new facility will also include a large training room. 

In June 2009, a new VSCM reported for duty in Anchorage. The VSCM position 

was vacant for approximately eight months due to the sometimes-difficult task of 

finding an individual with the right leadership and managerial skills to fit the position. Many times relocating an employee and his/her family to Alaska is difficult. 

Additionally, the Anchorage RO recruited and hired two new supervisors. The appointment of the new supervisors has had a positive impact on the overall management and performance of the office this fiscal year. 

For example, rating inventory has trended in a positive direction every month this 

year. Compared to December of last year, the Anchorage RO completed 226 more 

claims this year, an increase of 16 percent. In addition, rating and authorization 

quality have both improved. Rating quality at the Anchorage RO exceeds the national average. 

A new training plan was developed and implemented in September 2009. Rating 

Veteran Service Representatives (RVSRs) receive weekly training from the Decision 

Review Officer. Training topics are aimed at eliminating the errors found during 

various reviews. All RVSRs attend the monthly Systematic Technical Accuracy Review calls to discuss commonly found errors and to prevent future errors. 

29 

The Anchorage RO’s VR&E division is one of the top performing divisions in the 

Nation. Identified as a top performer in fiscal year 2009, the VR&E division was 

awarded Level II performance award. 

OUTREACH EFFORTS

Our employees conduct an average of 580 personal interviews per month, and last 

year conducted 47 Transitional Assistance Program (TAP) briefings for 1,078 servicemembers. VR&E personnel provide monthly DTAP briefings at Elmendorf Air 

Force Base and Fort Wainwright. 

The Anchorage RO conducted two significant rural outreach initiatives in 2009. 

In February and March, the RO participated jointly with the Alaska VA Health 

Care System to offer Alaska VA Education Forums. Teams traveled to Kotzebue, 

Fairbanks, Nome, Dillingham, Ketchikan, Juneau, and Sitka to provide benefits information and counseling to Veterans and medical providers. 

We also participated in two Homeless Standdowns at Fort Richardson and in 

Fairbanks in August 2009. An RO representative provided information and VA benefits counseling at these events. Earlier this month, a Standdown was held to introduce Veterans to the VA Domiciliary facility in Anchorage. 

In October 2009, the Anchorage RO teamed with the Medical Center to staff an 

information booth for 500 Veterans and family members via the Alaska Federation 

of Natives (AFN). AFN is the largest statewide Native organization in Alaska. Its 

membership includes 178 villages (both federally-recognized tribes and village corporations), 13 regional Native corporations and 12 regional nonprofit and tribal consortiums that contract and run Federal and state programs. 

As of December 31, 2009, 134 servicemembers were participating in the DOD/VA 

Disability Evaluation System Pilot at Ft. Wainwright, Ft. Richardson, and Elmendorf AFB. This pilot is instrumental in streamlining disability processing for separating servicemembers. 

IMPROVEMENTS IN SERVICE DELIVERY

The new management team successfully implemented several new workload management and quality assurance policies and procedures. 

A policy for the timely corrective action of errors identified by VBA’s Systematic 

Technical Accuracy Review Staff was implemented in November 2009. The VSCM 

tracks all errors and corrective actions. A review process was established to ensure 

Veterans Service Representatives (VSRs) correctly enter claims data into our processing systems. Refresher training was provided to all claims assistants and VSRs. 

Weekly training is held on scheduled topics and errors identified in quality reviews. 

A policy outlining the use of COVERS, VBA’s system to control and track claims 

folders, was also implemented in November. This policy requires claims folders to 

be ‘‘COVERed’’ every Monday and also requires supervisors to perform weekly spot 

checks. 

Systematic Analyses of Operations (SAOs) are now completed accurately and 

timely. A tracking mechanism is in place to monitor the status of required SAOs 

and training on SAO writing techniques was provided. 

The VSC has also taken action to more efficiently safeguard Veterans personally 

identifiable information. All employees received training from the Records Management Officer in August 2009 on the proper safeguard and destruction of materials. 

Inspections of workstations and common areas are performed regularly. Two new 

electronic date stamps, with locking devices, are now in secure locations. 

In September 2009, the Triage Workflow Plan was implemented to include a mail 

routing guide to ensure VSC staff properly control and process the mail. The Triage 

Coach provides the VSCM with a monthly summary of all mail actions as well as 

any required follow-up actions. Triage training is conducted every Thursday to ensure the workflow plan is being properly implemented. 

An Inquiry Routing and Information System (IRIS) Quality Review Policy was implemented in November 2009 to improve quality assurance reviews. The IRIS system is the electronic method Veterans use to communicate with VA. The Public Contact supervisor reviews a minimum of five IRIS responses per employee every 

month. The supervisor also discusses errors during weekly training sessions with 

individual employees to ensure the highest level of quality and accuracy is 

maintained. 

To ensure Congressional inquiries are processed in a timely and accurate manner, 

a new policy for handling Congressional correspondence was implemented in November 2009. The Public Contact Team maintains a log of all Congressional correspondence where inquiries are annotated within one day and assigned to an employee to review and complete. The individual receiving the assignment has two 

30 

working days to present a response for approval by the VSCM. Our goal is to complete Congressional inquiries within five days. 

The Anchorage RO reports the results of internal brokering to VBA leadership 

monthly. The Western Area Office is informed monthly of any transfers of work. 

Brokering claims, or sending claims to another RO, is done to provide better service 

to our Veterans. Brokering is a short-term strategy to assist ROs with workflow 

challenges. 

VA OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL REPORT

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted a review of the Anchorage 

RO from July 28, 2009 to August 6, 2009. The five areas examined were disability 

claims processing, data integrity, management controls, information security, and 

public contact. The OIG report recommended 12 areas of improvement. Action has 

been taken to correct the deficiencies identified by the OIG. 

The Western Area Director and staff conducted an on-site review of the Anchorage 

RO from January 6, 2010 to January 7, 2010. A major part of this visit was to 

evaluate compliance with the OIG’s recommendations. All action plans implemented 

in response to the OIG’s recommendations were reviewed for compliance and effectiveness. The Western Area Director found the Anchorage RO had implemented the 

required actions to be fully compliant with all 12 of the OIG recommendations. 

CONCLUSION

VA leadership and the employees of the Anchorage RO are committed to ensuring 

the best possible service is provided to Alaska Veterans and their families. Mr. 

Chairman, this concludes my testimony. I greatly appreciate being here today and 

look forward to answering your questions. 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you very much. I know you have two individuals with you also. We’d like to introduce them. Willie Clark, 

who is the Western Area Director, and Patrick Kelley, Veterans 

Service Manager for the Anchorage Regional Office. Thank you for 

being here. I will have some questions, though now I’d like to now 

introduce, Brigadier General Tom Katkus. 

General KATKUS. Good morning, Senator. 

Senator BEGICH. If I can make one comment to all Alaskans. You 

should be very proud of the Brigadier General. He was there in 

Washington, DC, last week with the snow as deep as can be, but 

he kept his appointments with his team. I thank you for that. 

STATEMENT OF BRIGADIER GENERAL TOM KATKUS, 

ADJUTANT GENERAL, ALASKA NATIONAL GUARD 

General KATKUS. Senator, I have more snow in my front yard at 

home. 

Senator, I’m a member of an organization, a very proud privileged position that takes a holistic view of its membership. We 

have programs in place to mentor and develop young children and 

young adults into the military. We take care of our military members through paid compensation training, and then we take care of 

those veterans who leave the organization through retirements, national cemeteries, et cetera. What I’d like to report on is one particular portion that was very small but has been a very intricate 

part of Alaska, and that’s the Alaska Territorial Guard. They didn’t 

fit too many molds out there and through a great deal of effort I’d 

like to report a very positive development. As of February 1 the 

Federal Government reinstated all of the ATG members’ retirement benefits. There was a lot of bureaucratic process to get this 

accomplished. There’s been a great deal of confusion about how the 

ATG veterans were credited with this act of service that they performed between 1942 and 1947. Each member that received his disVerDate Nov 24 2008 20:49 Dec 09, 2010 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00034 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 H:\ACTIVE\021610AK.TXT SVETS PsN: PAULIN
31 

charge was credited with 5 years again of active Federal service. 

And these 5 years have a monetary impact on veterans only if they 

served in the National Guard or active duty for 15 or more years 

and this 5 years of Alaska Territorial Guard time made them eligible for a Federal retirement. 

The State of Alaska does not consider the 5 years of active Federal service toward the Alaska National Guard State Annuity unless this provides the veteran enough credit for the National Guard 

retirement. Of roughly 6,500 members of Alaska Territorial Guard 

between 1942 and 1947, we have received 1,592 discharge applications from veterans or family members. Of that number, 1,057 ATG 

discharges have been received from the U.S. Army. We have over 

72 charges that are pending certification by the Army Personnel 

Center. We had 149 discharges of the 163 living Alaska Territorial 

members that we’ve identified. Of those, six applications are pending certification in St. Louis and eight have not applied as of this 

time. Our plan is to continue presenting these discharges at ceremonies in each member’s community. In 2009, we had posted over 

20 such ceremonies in villages throughout Alaska. There are currently 22 ATG members eligible for military retirement. They each 

spent 20-plus years of active military service with additional ATG 

time that we’ve managed to credit. That now is calculated into 

their retirement check and adjusted accordingly by the defense accounting system. We’re continuing our research to find other members who now qualify for retirement as a result of this act of Federal service. We have found four new ATG members eligible. Three 

will be receiving or have received their check on 1 February and 

the fourth will be receiving his check March 1. Another benefit of 

this investigation into the ATG: along with retirements from service, survivors’ benefits are awarded to widows of those members. 

We’ve worked hard to dig through the military personnel records 

and found that there were ATG members that had 15 years of National Guard service. As a result of this search, we’ve identified 32 

spouses that might receive survivor benefit payments now. As of 27 

January, all 32 packages have been sent to the auditors at St. 

Louis. They’ll go through to make sure that all time is calculated 

properly, and those spouses who are eligible will start receiving the 

monthly survivor benefits. That’s approximately 55 percent of the 

base pay of their spouse. This also includes health care. With those 

numbers from the ATG service, the list goes on. We found that six 

members of the ATG who were eligible for the National Guard are 

now eligible for State retirement with the National Guard. So these 

retirement documents were sent to the Division of Retirement for 

the State, they’ll review them and now that they are officially retired from the National Guard, they are eligible for the State annuity. So it’s not 5 years of active Federal service, but rather 15 years 

of State annuity as they were members and in employment of the 

State after 1969. 

The VA offers a grave marker free of charge for each veteran. We 

initially had problems last summer when the VA would not send 

markers to the Post Office boxes. After discussing this issue with 

the director of mortuary services, this was corrected and our ATG 

veterans now receive this honorable benefit. 

32 

I would be remiss if I did not mention the Alaska National 

Guard military funeral honorary team, which is supported by National Guard Bureau. The team has a motto of honoring those who 

serve, which is reflected by their willingness to serve any place any 

time. Last year the funeral honors team provided 158 services to 

servicemembers throughout Alaska. 

Additionally, as it applies to ATG veterans, if they did not receive an honor ceremony in the past, the team will go out and have 

the service and present the flag to the family. Senator, thank you 

for your time today, and thank you, personally for the efforts that 

have been made by the Congressional delegation over the past 

years to make sure that this very small, but very important piece 

of Alaska’s history and our veterans was reflected positively and 

service to them could be completed. 

[The prepared statement of General Katkus follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF BRIG. GEN. THOMAS KATKUS, ADJUTANT GENERAL, ALASKA

NATIONAL GUARD; AND COMMISSIONER, ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF MILITARY AND

VETERAN AFFAIRS

Good Morning, I’m Brigadier General Thomas Katkus, the Adjutant General for 

the Alaska National Guard and Commissioner for the Alaska Department of Military and Veteran Affairs. 

This morning I would like to provide a status update on the Alaska Territorial 

Guard. Effective February 1, the Federal Government reinstated ATG member’s retirement benefits. 

There has been a great deal of confusion among the ATG veterans due to a poor 

understanding on how time is credited for their active Federal service between 1942 

and 1947. Each member upon receipt of their discharge is credited five years of active Federal service. These five years have a monetary impact on the veteran only 

if they served in the National Guard or active duty military, for 15+ years and the 

five years of ATG time made them eligible for Federal retirement. The state of Alaska does not consider the five years of active Federal service toward the Alaskan National Guard state annuity unless this provides the veteran enough credit for a National Guard retirement. 

Of the roughly 6,500 original ATG members, 1,592 ATG discharge applications 

have been received by DMVA from veterans and family members. 

1,057 ATG discharges have been received from the U. S. Army. Over 72 discharges are pending certification by the Army Personnel Center. 

149 discharges have been issued to the 163 living ATG members that we have 

identified. Six applications are pending certification in Saint Louis and eight have 

not applied. 

We plan is to continue presenting these discharges at ceremonies in each member’s community. In 2009, we hosted 20 of these ceremonies in villages throughout 

Alaska. 

There are 22 ATG members eligible for Federal military retirement. They each 

spent 20+ years in active military service and with the addition of the ATG time 

now receive a combined retirement check from the Defense Accounting System. 

We are continuing the research to find other members who now qualify for retirement. To date we have found four new ATG retirement eligible veterans. The first 

three started receiving their new check on the first of February. The last member 

will be receiving his check by the first of March. 

Along with retirements come survivor’s benefits for widows. We have worked hard 

to dig through our military personnel records to find all the ATG members who 

served 15+ years in the National Guard. As a result of this search, we’ve identified 

32 spouses that might receive survivor’s benefits payments. As of 27 January have 

all 32 packages are on the desks of the auditors in St. Louis. Once they go through 

the verification process, those spouses who are eligible will start receiving the 

monthly survivor’s benefits. This includes pay and healthcare. 

We also found six members of the ATG who were eligible for National Guard state 

retirements. These retirement documents were sent to the Division of Retirements. 

There are no surviving members or spouses found and the benefit will be paid to 

the next of kin. 

33 

The VA offers a grave maker free of charge for each veteran. We had a problem 

last summer when the VA would not send the markers to Post Office boxes. After 

discussing this issue with the Director of Mortuary Services this was corrected and 

our ATG veterans now receive this honorable benefit. 

I would be remiss in not mentioning our Alaska National Guard Military Funeral 

Honors Team along with the VA grave markers. This team has a motto of ‘‘Honoring 

Those Who Serve’’ and this is reflected by their willingness to serve any place any 

time. They performed over 158 services in 2009 alone and are projecting even more 

services this year. Additionally, if an ATG veteran did not receive an Honor Ceremony in the past, the team will go out now and do the service and present the flag 

to the family. 

Thank you for your time today to bring you up to date on this very important 

Alaskan issue. 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you very much, General. Let me ask the 

last presenter, Jan Myers, Director of Family Programs, Alaska Department of Military Veterans Affairs. We want to see how that 

mic works. We may do a little swap. We’ll see how that works. 

STATEMENT OF JAN MYERS, DIRECTOR, FAMILY PROGRAMS, 

ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF MILITARY VETERANS AFFAIRS 

Ms. MYERS. Good morning, sir. My name is Jan Myers, and I 

would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. 

I serve as the Alaska National Guard State family program director and as such have oversight of programs designed to assist and 

care for our military veterans and their families. We are available 

24 hours, 7 days a week and 365 days a year with high quality 

troop and family support to meet the needs of our servicemembers, 

veterans, and their families. I will briefly describe some of those 

programs pertinent to today’s discussion. 

The Alaska National Guard family assistance centers offer information and referral services to troops and families from all military 

branches, whether active, guard, reserve, retired, or not. Professional consideration and confidentiality are fundamental elements 

found at each family assistance center. With topics running the 

gamut from personnel issues requiring advice to difficult challenges 

resulting in referrals to outside researches. We have nine family 

assistance centers throughout Alaska that are ready to serve military members, veterans, and their families in building strong resilient communities. Our sexual assault prevention and response program’s mission is to end sexual violence and ensure high-quality 

comprehensive and preventative measures, encouraging competent 

servicemembers and families. We also promote change that fosters 

a military environment that is responsive to victims and survivors 

of sexual assault. The suicide prevention program recognizes the 

seriousness of suicidal behaviors and potential within the military. 

The mission is to implement appropriate control measures that address and minimize the risk factors of suicide while strengthening 

the factors that mitigate those risks. 

We aid and equip commanders and leaders with skills and resources necessary to combat suicide by providing quality interactive training on prevention, intervention, and postvention. We 

work to ensure early identification and treatment of emerging deployment-related health concerns for our troops and veterans. 

Through our military life consultants, we provide short-term nonmedical solution-focused counseling services to individuals, couples, 

and families. We advocate psychological fitness for our members 

34 

and their families through the office of our psychological health director. We also provide training on topics related to military life 

and everyday issues. The child and youth program helps our youth 

understand why family members serve in the military and introduce coping skills to deal with the stresses of deployment. 

Employer support of Guard and Reserve seeks to promote a culture by which all American employers support and value the military service of their employees. The Alaska committee conducts employer and military outreach and an ombudsman program to recognize outstanding support, increase awareness of the law, and resolve conflicts through mediation. We are evolving now to assist 

troops with finding jobs. The transition assistant adviser is the 

Statewide point of contact to assist members in assessing veterans’ 

affairs, benefits, and health care services. They provide assistance 

in obtaining entitlements through the TRICARE military health 

system and access to community resources whether our troops are 

going from civilian life to active duty or retiring. We are there to 

help them through the process. 

We also provide assistance with education benefits to ensure all 

members have an opportunity to attain their educational goals. 

Our Honor Guard, as the General mentioned, performs funeral 

honors in accordance with service tradition to all eligible veterans 

when requested by an authorized family member. Our Yellow Ribbon Program provides information and referral for servicemembers, 

families and employers throughout the deployment cycle. The Yellow Ribbon Reconnecting Veterans Outreach Program is a partnership constituted between Alaska National Guard, Alaska Veterans 

Affairs, and Veterans Service Officers from the State and was funded through a Federal appropriation. This program has been operating since January 2009 and the goal is to visit every village in 

our great State while assessing our veterans’ needs. To date nearly 

125 villages have been connected and 1,021 veterans or family 

members have been personally briefed, questions answered, and a 

survey filled out. We also provide VA applications for our veterans. 

The outreach team has found older veterans, including the Alaska 

Territorial Guard or their family members to be our biggest audience. They appreciate our effort and applaud the follow-up. 

All 42 of our folks are available to travel where the need is and 

we service all branches no matter what status. I appreciate, again, 

your time for me to be here. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Myers follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF JAN MYERS, DIRECTOR, FAMILY PROGRAMS, ALASKA

DEPARTMENT OF MILITARY VETERANS AFFAIRS

Good Morning. I am Jan Myers and I would like to thank you for the opportunity 

to speak to you today. 

I serve as the AKNG State Family Program Director and as such have oversight 

of programs designed to assist and care for our Military, Veterans and their Families. We are available 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, with high quality 

Troop & Family Support to meet the needs of our Servicemembers, Veterans and 

their Families. I will briefly describe some of those programs pertinent to today’s 

discussion. 

The Alaska NG Family Assistance Centers (FACs) offer information and referral 

services to Troops & Families from all military branches, whether active, Guard/Reserve, retired or not. Professional consideration and confidentiality are fundamental 

elements found at each FAC, with topics running the gamut from personal issues 

requiring advice to difficult challenges resulting in referrals to outside resources. We 

35 

have 9 FACs throughout Alaska that are ready to serve, assisting military members, 

veterans and their Families in building strong resilient communities. 

Our Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program’s mission is to end sexual 

violence and ensure high quality, comprehensive, and preventative measures, encouraging competent Servicemembers and Families. We also promote change that 

fosters a military environment that is responsive to victims and survivors of sexual 

assault. 

The Suicide Prevention Program recognizes the seriousness of suicidal behaviors 

and potential within the Military. The mission is to implement appropriate control 

measures that address and minimize the risk factors of suicide while strengthening 

the factors that mitigate those risks. We aid and equip commanders and leaders 

with the skills and resources necessary to combat suicide by providing quality interactive training on prevention, intervention, and postvention. We work to ensure 

early identification and treatment of emerging deployment-related health concerns 

for our troops and veterans. 

Through our Military Life Consultants, we provide short term, non-medical; solution focused counseling services to individuals, couples, and Families. We advocate 

psychological fitness for our members and their Families through the office of our 

Psychological Health Director. We also provide training on topics related to military 

life and everyday issues. 

The Child and Youth Program helps our youth understand why Family members 

serve in the military and introduce coping skills to deal with the stresses of deployment. 

Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve seeks to promote a culture in which 

all American employers support and value the military service of their employees. 

The Alaska Committee conducts employer and military outreach, and an ombudsman program to recognize outstanding support, increase awareness of the law, and 

resolve conflicts through mediation. We are evolving now to assist troops with finding jobs. 

The Transition Assistance Advisor is the statewide point of contact to assist members in accessing Veterans Affairs benefits and healthcare services. They provide assistance in obtaining entitlements through the TRICARE Military Health System 

and access to community resources. Whether our troops are going from civilian life 

to active duty or retiring, we are there to help them through the process. 

We also provide assistance with education benefits to ensure all members have 

an opportunity to attain their educational goals. 

Our Honor Guard renders professional military funeral honors, in accordance with 

service tradition, to all eligible veterans when requested by an authorized Family 

member. 

Our Yellow Ribbon Program provides information and referral for servicemembers, Families and employers throughout the deployment cycle. The Yellow Ribbon, ‘‘Reconnecting Veterans Program’’ is a partnership constituted between Alaska 

National Guard, Alaska Veterans Affairs, and the Veteran Service Officers from the 

state and was funded through a Federal Appropriation. This program has been operating since January 2009 and the goal is to visit every village in our great state 

while assessing our veteran’s needs. To date, nearly 125 villages have been connected and 1021 Veterans or Family members have been personally briefed, questions answered, and a survey filled out. We also provide VA applications for our veterans. The outreach team has found older veterans, including the Alaska Territorial 

Guard or their Family members, to be our biggest audience. They appreciate our 

effort and applaud the follow-up. 

All 42 of our folks are available to travel where the need is and we service all 

branches, no matter their status. 

I appreciate your time and I am available for any questions. 

36 

ADDENDUM


216MyersAdd1.eps
37 


216MyersAdd2.eps
38 


216NG_J1_PSST1.eps
39 


216NG_J1_PSST2.eps
40 


216NG_J1_PSST3.eps
41 


216NG_J1_PSST4.eps
42 


216NG_J1_PSST5.eps
43 


216NG_J1_PSST6.eps
44 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you very much. We’re going to be tight 

on time. I’m going to walk through a few things here. I don’t want 

to go too far past noon. I know the Anchorage assembly and the 

mayor would not want me to sit in the seat too long. They have 

so much business to take care of tonight. I’ll leave it at that. 

[Laughter.] 

First, thank you, Ray, for coming this long distance and being 

part of Alaska. One thing you mentioned which I wanted to follow 

up on—it wasn’t here that you talked about, it was outside the 

building while we were talking about the tour of the VA building. 

You talked about new job opportunities in regard to technology and 

the Internet. Can you put on the record what you envision there? 

Secretary JEFFERSON. Yes. 

Senator BEGICH. I thought that was interesting, especially for us 

here in Alaska—a new avenue. 

Secretary JEFFERSON. Sir, one of the things I’ve been looking at 

is: How do we provide value and help veterans in rural America? 

Communities where you don’t have Fortune 1000 companies, have 

smaller enterprises, and where people are geographically dispersed. 

It’s hard to move around. We’re going to be in Kotzebue on 

Wednesday and Thursday. What could be an innovative solution? 

One of the things that I want to explore is the value of e-commerce: 

Internet-based home businesses, where an individual using the 

Internet can create a whole business around us. There’s actually an 

interesting book out which has been a New York Times best seller 

maybe a year now called The 4-Hour Workweek that lays out the 

whole model. I think you’d want to spend more than 4 hours a 

week on it. 

Senator BEGICH. We’re looking for that job. 

Secretary JEFFERSON. This individual has done quite well for 

himself, for no other reason than for the book. On a serious note 

what we want to look at if this is a model that can be used for veterans in rural America. One of the things I mentioned as I’m working out in Washington, DC, is to bring all the government agencies 

that touch most of the business development together so we can 

work as a synergistic team. The Department of Commerce, Small 

Business Administration, the Minority Business and Development 

Agency, et cetera, for all of us to come together and ask: How can 

we better serve veterans in America? What do we currently have? 

Let’s make sure that all veterans are aware of everything that’s out 

there. What are some of the new opportunities such as this e-based 

commerce in a home-based business? 


216NG_J1_PSST7.eps
45 

Senator BEGICH. All of those agencies have aspects that they’re 

working with in some form or another. 

Secretary JEFFERSON. Yes, though we are not communicating 

with one another. We need to break that stovepipe down and I’m 

working on that now. 

Senator BEGICH. Are you going to try to be the lead convenor of 

that—— 

Secretary JEFFERSON. Yes. 

Senator BEGICH. I know about local bureaucracy; Federal is even 

a much different ball game when defining who takes the lead and 

puts effort into it. Is that what you’re thinking you should be able 

to do? Or are you looking for a partner to do that? 

Secretary JEFFERSON. In the short time I’ve served in this position, we do like to be action oriented. My understanding is that all 

heads are stepping up to bring the meeting together. We’re working 

to make it happen, before the holidays, though it’s a little challenging with people’s travel schedules. We’re working right now. 

My goal is to get the agency heads together, get commitment at the 

senior level, and cascade that down to all the States. 

Senator BEGICH. You will start with the convening of that? 

Secretary JEFFERSON. Yes. 

Senator BEGICH. Can you keep us informed, at least myself and 

the Committee? 

Secretary JEFFERSON. Yes, sir. 

Senator BEGICH. The other comment is that I appreciate your review of your 268-page PowerPoint. 

Secretary JEFFERSON. Page by page. 

Senator BEGICH. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen or done a 268-page 

PowerPoint. I can only imagine the effectiveness of that. I say that 

because it sounds like you understand that just doesn’t work. 

Secretary JEFFERSON. It doesn’t work, sir. And this was a wellintentioned program. One of the things that we talk about as an 

agency is, one, transformation; and two, incorporating best practices. So, what are the adult learning principles? We know it’s having people do things. We want to have them doing and practicing 

their skills during employment workshops and then bringing in the 

best practices which I previously mentioned so there’s new content. 

They enjoy it; they can use it immediately, and it has long-lasting 

benefits to the servicemember. 

Senator BEGICH. Very good. Thank you. Belinda, first, I appreciate the report that was done. I think, you know, for your capacity, 

to do reviews not every 5 years but now every 3 years is probably 

a huge benefit for the Regional Offices, because I think there’s always room for improvement no matter what you’re doing. Your office went through a lot of issues, and I want to follow up to make 

sure I understood what you said, and that is regarding the areas 

of concern. The Regional Office has accepted those as areas of concern and are taking action to do something. Is that—did I hear you 

say that right? That there was no disagreement, necessarily, but 

they recognized them. They acknowledged them. Am I saying that 

correctly? 

Ms. FINN. Yes, sir, they accepted all of the recommendations. 

While the team was on staff, there was discussion back and forth 

46 

on the various issues that we found. But the office did concur with 

all of our recommendations and proposed appropriate actions. 

Senator BEGICH. And what will be the follow-up from your agency and your staff? How are you making sure that what they have 

committed to is fulfilled and there’s actually results? In other 

words, the plan may be a good paper plan, but what happens to 

make sure that you can come back and say this is exactly what we 

hoped for and what’s your mechanism to do that? 

Ms. FINN. In this case, our mechanism generally will be our second visit to each Regional Office that hopefully will take place 

somewhere between 3 and 5 years, depending on how soon we hire 

everybody and how the schedule works out. 

Senator BEGICH. Is there anything we can do? Especially when 

I was mayor we did audits all the time; we always had a team that 

would follow up on a regular basis. If you wait too long, the systems don’t get corrected as quickly as you like. They may get corrected, but they’re not really producing results. Is there a mechanism to speed that up at all, or is it just really a staffing issue that 

you have to make sure that you have a lion’s staff to follow up? 

Ms. FINN. The Senate and the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee have been very supportive of our inspection program and 

provided more resources so that we could increase our cycle. I 

think the other action is to continue to keep the focus on our findings through hearings such as this. 

Senator BEGICH. Excellent. Do you think the types of recommendations that you’ve made are—assuming from your perspective—reasonable; do you think it’s what is going on in the Anchorage region? How do we compare, I guess, to other regions that 

you’re reviewing? I’m not sure what the right phrase is. Are we in 

the middle, in the bottom, on the top? How do we rank in the bigger picture of Regional Offices when it comes to the VA and its administration? 

Ms. FINN. We did cover that in our written testimony that will 

be part of the record, and Anchorage is somewhere in the middle. 

I will say that our inspection—our protocols and our team, they are 

pretty tough, because all of our inspectors are folks who used to 

work at VBA and so they know the process. 

Senator BEGICH. They know it all. 

Ms. FINN. They know where the errors occur. Brent, our director 

here spent 8 years with VBA before coming to the IG. So, none of 

the offices that we have inspected so far have gotten a clean bill 

of health. Everybody—every office has had some type of issue. 

As far as the percentage of errors, Anchorage is in the middle. 

Baltimore was the highest office with issues, and Anchorage followed them. However, I will say that when we looked at particular 

claim folders and looked at the errors on those, we had only—of the 

errors we found, a number of those are procedural, and Anchorage 

had three errors that actually affected veterans’ benefits. I think, 

Brent will correct me if I’m wrong, that in several other offices that 

rate has been much higher with where the errors affected benefits 

a lot more. 

Senator BEGICH. So, a lot of what was occurring here was process 

and as you shook it down, all the way down to the levels of the 

47 

benefits they received there was minimal or there was still benefit 

impact, but not like some others. 

Mr. ARRONTE. Yes, normally, that’s correct. There was a higher 

rate of procedural problems, like Belinda said. There were three 

disability claims that actually affected the veteran’s monthly benefit. And I believe that’s probably one of the lowest rates of the 

seven or eight offices that we had visited. 

Senator BEGICH. I want to thank you. I’m going to zip over, take 

a few minutes and go until about ten after. Mark, if I can ask you 

a few questions. Thank you for the tour of the office today. I do 

have to say the office is small and cramped and I know you’re looking forward to better space to actually be able to better process the 

claims; and it’s in a better environment. I can tell you I can only 

imagine what that’s like when the load gets heavy. I want to ask 

verbally for the record: What efforts are you making with regard 

to the training? I thought you pointed out in the report that training was one of the issues for employees. What are you doing to 

train your employees to be better qualified or better prepared to 

handle these? 

Mr. BILOSZ. We’re making an investment. We are taking the time 

to have weekly training sessions with our employees. We’re reviewing the errors that are being found on national quality reviews and 

also the errors that are being found on our local quality reviews 

and incorporating those as part of our training program. This has 

helped us to really improve our training. We, again, appreciated 

the Office of Inspector General’s report where we took all of the 

areas that they found which we needed to improve on and incorporated that as part of our review period. We’ve used that. 

Senator BEGICH. As you’ve reviewed, I know they’re in your testimony. Are those the measurements that your employees know that 

you’re measuring to? These are some of the measurement metrics 

you’re going to use in the long term, or is it more of a management 

knowledge? Do the employees understand how they’re being measured? 

Mr. BILOSZ. Yeah. We share that. That’s part of their training— 

to understand what we’re doing, how what we do affects our services to veterans. You may not have noticed as you zipped into the 

office, but there was a big white board where we walked in and it 

had a lot of the data on it. The employees see it when they come 

in. They know how what they do affects the claims process and 

how what they do affects the quality of the claims process, too. 

Senator BEGICH. During the tour, I forget which one mentioned 

to us, but the staffing levels that you now have, how many of those 

folks are new to the process in the last year? Some discussions occurred, I don’t remember—— 

Mr. BILOSZ. We have six rating specialists that actually do the 

rating decisions for veterans; and three of those have less than 6 

months of experience. We feel that six is adequate to get the job 

done, but they have to be fully trained, so we are ramping up the 

training with those folks so that they’re able to process claims as 

quickly as they can. 

Senator BEGICH. Do you have a high turnover rate that is caused 

by some factor that’s explainable? I went through one office of the 

VA. What is it like there? 

48 

Mr. BILOSZ. It hasn’t been a high turnover rate. I think that 

we’ve had a few people leave over the past year which we’ve replaced, obviously. We’ve also increased our staffing level from 

about 28 or 29 to 34, so we’ve had new people come on board. 

We’ve also promoted some folks. As I said we have two new supervisors that came up through the ranks and, again, that’s left a little bit of a void there in the short term. 

Senator BEGICH. Do you have a question, comment, Patrick? 

Mr. KELLEY. I do not feel—we do not have a high turnover rate, 

but we have people that will transfer down to the Lower 48 and 

get out of the VA down there which is generally when their spouse 

transfers through the military or circumstances such as that. But 

we haven’t had anyone just quit with the exception of one employee. 

Senator BEGICH. Very good. One of the comments was the review 

from Salt Lake City and kind of how that connection is. Comment 

on that? 

Mr. BILOSZ. Pat is the Veterans Service Center Manager. He’s responsible for the day-to-day operations of the office. Me being the 

director there, I have oversight over Pat to ensure that he and the 

service center are performing the way they should be, making sure 

that when we have a process in place that it’s being accomplished. 

So, again, Pat and I talk daily. We have more formal meetings a 

couple times a week. So, we’re all on the same page as to what is 

occurring in the office. 

Senator BEGICH. Is it possible—I’m going to move to two last 

questions for a couple of folks remaining here—but I want to first 

thank you folks for testifying for the record. Mark, you had some 

interesting statistics that you had mentioned this year already. 

Can you, by June, prepare a data point report that you could 

present at least to me and the Committee to give us an understanding of kind of where you’re at compared to a year ago? And 

how that also addresses some of the concerns that the IG has 

brought up. Is that something you can do? 

Mr. BILOSZ. Absolutely. 

Senator BEGICH. I’d be very interested in that. The metrics you 

used to measure were impressive the last 9 weeks of this year. I 

want to compare a longer period of time and compare a flow. And 

if you wouldn’t mind presenting it, that would be fantastic. 

Mr. BILOSZ. Absolutely. 

[The additional information requested during the hearing follows:] 

49 

Senator BEGICH. Two quick things, then we’re going to close. 

First, General Katkus, I want to thank you all for the effort with 

the ATG. I’m impressed that you are finding more folks who are 

eligible for benefits, so I want to thank you for that. 

Is there anything more we can do in the system from the Federal 

end to help with regards to this, or what we’ve done in the change 

of law to kind to give you the tools you need? 

General KATKUS. Sir, there was one last area of concern. That 

was the Federal association to use National Guard resources to 

help on this. Your letter to General Carpenter resulted in my being 

notified on the way over here that he has funded a Federal position 

to assist on that. I think that was the last hurdle we had. 

Senator BEGICH. Did he know you were coming to this hearing? 

General KATKUS. I think it was just timing, sir. 


216q2VBA1.eps
50 

Senator BEGICH. The position will be funded by them? 

General KATKUS. Yes, sir. 

Senator BEGICH. Excellent. That will assist you in your efforts. 

Fantastic. That’s great news. Thank you and your team and all the 

folks. 

The other thing I wanted to ask is what Rich Owens brought up, 

and that is maybe a dual question to you and Jan. You heard the 

concern that the well times, the deployment times are having more 

of an effect especially on the small businesses, not necessarily the 

large businesses, but the smaller operations. They’re starting to see 

the impact. Are you preparing or are you looking at that issue in 

a—kind of a vetted measure, rather than waiting for it to grow into 

a bigger problem? Is that something that is a concern to you? I 

heard from Rich. It makes me nervous, a little bit, to be frank. 

General KATKUS. I’ll start off before Jan. I’m sure she’s got some 

answers on that, also. As commander of the National Guard, we’re 

going to affect soldiers and airmen in their career paths, because 

they’re going to be away from the job. Those businesses have to be 

engaged. We have to engage them in a positive way. We try to do 

that in recognition programs. We try to keep them informed. We 

try to keep them involved and stress the importance of each drill. 

I think that the Nation as a whole, all is in concert that we are 

at war and they’re making sacrifices. But those small businesses 

continue to make sacrifice after sacrifice. Now after 8 years, it is 

a concern, and we’ll do our level best to continue to engage them. 

But if anyone has ideas on how to better compensate the businesses or make up for that loss of an employee, we’d certainly be 

open to support that and try to engage on those areas. 

Senator BEGICH. Jan, do you have anything to add to that? 

Ms. MYERS. Just that they are moving toward finding jobs and 

different jobs that possibly they can do with the rotation that we 

have coming up. More to come. 

Senator BEGICH. Ray, you gave some good commentary on kind 

of bridging this larger group of agencies and maybe part of that 

could be—I’m assuming you’re thinking this. If not, I don’t want to 

assume the obvious—the Guard and how they participate in that 

small business community, maybe there’s an opportunity to figure 

out the work you’re doing and getting this connection together. It 

does make me nervous. My wife runs four small businesses. I was 

a small businessperson for many, many years. The plumber example you gave, I actually had that situation with my plumber. He 

has three employees, and one has gone away off and on. When that 

happens the workload shifts, and you end up at the bottom of the 

list, literally. 

Secretary JEFFERSON. We actually met with the national director 

of ESGR right before the storm a week and a half ago, and we’re 

going to talk about looking at some things, because it’s a challenge. 

Use Hawaii as an example, because Hawaii and Alaska have a lot 

of similarities: 90 percent of the companies are small businesses; 

90 percent of those have less than 10 employees. What do you do 

when one or two of those are deployed? I think what General 

Katkus was talking about is exactly the way to look at this: Are 

there some ways we can provide a temporary fill or a temporary 

51 

solution? So we want to talk to ESGR about that and see what options we can come up with. 

Senator BEGICH. Could you keep us informed on that? 

Secretary JEFFERSON. Yes, sir. 

Senator BEGICH. Very good. 

Jan, I’d be very interested in the information on the work you’re 

doing with regard to suicide prevention. It’s a growing concern 

from my other role as a member of the Armed Services Committee. 

We have had this on our agenda a couple of times, and it’s a growing concern of how we handle it, especially since the numbers have 

not decreased; they’re increasing. What do we do regarding preventative work? I know from the Department of Defense they’re 

having mental health workers now in the field, which is a huge 

plus. They have a lot to hire. They’re going to the field rather than 

waiting for the back end. I’d be very interested, if you wouldn’t 

mind, to maybe share with our staff at some point some of the 

ideas that you’re working on, some of the work you’re doing specifically, and things that you think we could be doing in this area to 

have a positive effect, not only for veterans, but, obviously, our active military. What we can do more as preventative work? If you’re 

willing to do that—I was very intrigued by some of your conversation on that. 

Ms. MYERS. Sure. Love to, sir. 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you very much. 

Let me end there. Thank you. We’ve run over a little bit. 

Secretary JEFFERSON. Sir, if I could make one comment. We have 

our State director for veterans employment and training here, if I 

can just briefly introduce him. For any veterans who are unemployed or who know someone who is unemployed, or just seeking 

a job change, this is our State director for veterans employment 

and training. Please contact him. He will get you access to the employment representatives for Alaska. This is a portal, and we are 

ready and eager to help those veterans in Alaska find meaningful 

employment in their careers. 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you very much. Thank you to all those 

that traveled a great distance to be here. Thank you for being at 

the hearing today. I appreciate all the commentary. Again, all your 

statements, written and verbal, will be in the record to be shared 

with the Committee. Thank you very much. 

At this time the meeting is adjourned. 

[Field hearing adjourned at 12:15 p.m.] 

(53) 

A P P E N D I X 

STATEMENT SUBMITTED AT HEARING BY STEVEN CLAPP, AFGE NATIONAL

REPRESENTATIVE, ANCHORAGE, ALASKA


217Clapp.eps
54 

STATEMENT SUBMITTED AT HEARING BY ZULENE SIMMONS OF CHUGIAK, ALASKA


217apSimm1.eps
55 


217apSimm2.eps
56 


217apSimm3.eps
57 


217apSimm4.eps
58 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF RUSSELL N. KELL, VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA


216apKell1.eps
59 


216apKell2.eps
(61) 

SERVICES FOR VETERANS IN ALASKA 

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2010 

U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS, Fairbanks, AK. 

The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 1 p.m., Fairbanks 

North Star Borough Administrative Center, Hon. Mark Begich, 

Member of the Committee, presiding. 

Present: Senator Mark Begich. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MARK BEGICH, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM ALASKA 

Senator BEGICH. We’ll call this meeting to order. This is a Field 

Hearing on Services for Veterans in Alaska for the Veterans’ Affairs Committee of the U.S. Senate. 

First, I know that we have two mayors here. Mayor Hopkins, 

thank you very much for being here. Mayor Isaacson from North 

Pole, there you are. Thank you both for being here today and for 

your interest in veterans’ issues, and thank you for the great 

weather. I have come from the deep cold of Washington, DC, where 

there is fifty-plus inches and 25 to 30 degree weather. It’s amazing 

to come to Alaska and be in warmer weather with less snow, I have 

to tell you. 

I also have some folks here I’ll introduce in a second from Washington, DC, and I did tell them that they will be able to come to 

the tropics if they can come with me to Alaska in February. So, 

they are here. We want to give them special recognition for, one, 

traveling to Alaska, but, two, for traveling in February. We give 

them extra credit points, just so you know that. When they come 

in the summer, they don’t get any extra points for that. 

Let me make a few comments and then I’ll describe what today 

is going to be about and how it will work. This hearing will focus 

on the State’s services for veterans in Alaska, including support of 

returning veterans, job opportunities for veterans, benefits for veterans, and the December audit by the VA Office of Inspector General of the VA Regional Office in Anchorage. 

The Committee has had multiple hearings on VA benefits, health 

care, and services; however, this is the first time we are specifically 

focusing on the unique challenges confronting returning Alaskan 

veterans of Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom. 

I’m pleased that the Committee is joined today by Assistant Secretary of Labor Ray Jefferson. Ray, just raise your hand. I know 

you’ll be on our second panel. He was with me in Anchorage for a 

field hearing. We’ve been to Wasilla, today we’re in Fairbanks, and 

62 

then we’re off to Kotzebue tomorrow. So, we’re giving him a full, 

rounded Alaskanized approach to getting people familiar with 

what’s going on here in Alaska. In addition, you’ll hear when he 

testifies a little bit about the Department of Labor and some of the 

efforts and work they’re doing. 

We are also joined by Dr. Susan Pendergrass, the Director of 

Veterans’ Integration Service Network, or VISN 20. Dr. Pendergrass is responsible for the VA Northwest Health Network. Thank 

you again. She’ll be on the second panel. 

I want to give you a little bit of statistics though most of you 

know this already: Alaska has over 70,000 veterans; about 11 percent of our population. We are the highest per capita in the Nation. 

The Alaska population is very diverse, but also spread not only in 

the urban areas, but into the rural areas. So we have very unique 

situations that face our veterans in the challenges that they face, 

not only in employment, but other services that they need. Along 

with that, each year about 1,500 individuals from the military, especially from our recent conflicts, move out of active service and 

into veteran capacity. 

I want to applaud the VA employees in Alaska for the work they 

do—and the VA does a lot of very significant work in making a difference for Alaskan veterans; however, there is always room for improvement, as evidenced by the recent VA IG report dated December 7, 2009, that showed the Anchorage VA Regional Office failed 

to meet requirements in 13 of the 14 areas covered during the inspection. This concerns me deeply because providing accurate, 

timely, and comprehensive services to our veterans is one of my top 

priorities as a Member of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee. More 

work needs to be done. 

I hope that both of our panels will shed some light on the issues, 

such as why we continue to hear from some veterans that are not 

aware of their eligibility for VA benefits and services; why some 

veterans are not receiving appropriate VA services; and why veterans have such a tough time finding employment. I hope to discuss these and other important issues with our panels today. 

Indeed, our unique geography, diversity, and way of life require 

the VA develop a unique strategy to care for our veterans, especially those who reside in rural areas. Back in Washington, we 

have worked hard to ensure that the VA has the resources to provide the best care possible. Congress has provided record-breaking 

funding increases to the VA. Last year, I supported the VA’s Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act to ensure 

funding for veterans’ health care 1 year in advance of the regular 

appropriation process. This bill was signed into law in October 

2009. 

We have followed up on that success with passage of the Caregiver’s Bill, which would help wounded warriors and their families 

who care for them. This bill, which also improves care for women 

veterans, those who reside in rural areas, and those who are homeless, has been sent to the House of Representatives for their action 

and we expect action later this year. 

Finally, I know there are veterans here in the audience. As you 

know, back some time ago I came up and had a veterans’ roundtable at one of the facilities here. Today is a little different. Today 

63 

is a congressional hearing that I’m chairing here on behalf of the 

Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. The process, just so everyone 

is aware, is we will have two panels that will present testimony? 

You will see diverse thoughts and views on the services of the VA. 

This hearing will help us create a congressional record to understand specifically Alaskan issues that we can then bring back to 

Washington, DC. 

I know there are individuals who would like to testify. This congressional hearing does not allow for individual testimony; but saying that, we have created a document to allow anyone to submit 

testimony. Anything presented today will be part of our congressional record, shared with the rest of the Committee, as well as 

with my office. There is a form we put out front that you can fill 

out and put down additional comments, concerns, or questions that 

you’re not getting answered by the Veterans Administration. Let us 

know that. The staff will collect those or you can put them on the 

table. Would every staff member raise your hand. These are the 

folks that you want to hand that term to, please give it to them 

so we can make sure we keep a record of it. 

Again, it’s not the normal process that a lot of people are familiar 

with when they walk into an assembly chamber like this where 

people line up for 3 minutes to give testimony. This hearing is for 

the Committee to learn what we can do to improve veteran services. 

So, that’s the process here. Several of us in between our next appointment, leaving from here to our next one, will have available 

time for people to come up to our special guests to give them additional information. 

I will now introduce panel 1. 

Linda, I practiced your name; I think I got it right. Boisseau. Is 

that—— 

Ms. BOISSEAU. Boisseau, yes, sir. 

Senator BEGICH. Very good. Today we have Linda Boisseau, Department Service Officer, Disabled American Veterans. We also 

have Robert Roof, an OIF veteran; Joe Sheehan, a Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army Retired, and Chairman of the Northern Alaska 

Military Retiree Council; and Ron Woolf, Unit Representative, Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve. We’re going to have a 

ceremony afterwards with some other folks that are anxious to sign 

up, we’re very excited about that. 

The order will be just that, and we’ll start with Linda, who will 

give her presentation. As I said to the people who are testifying, 

just imagine we’re in your living room, all of us. Keep it casual. 

That’s what we try to do here: to give you the flexibility to express 

your views on things that we can do to improve service. Linda. 

Ms. BOISSEAU. I would like to have a Miller Lite, sir. 

Senator BEGICH. A Miller Lite for Linda. 

[General laughter.] 

STATEMENT OF LINDA BOISSEAU, DEPARTMENT SERVICE 

OFFICER, DISABLED AMERICAN VETERANS 

Ms. BOISSEAU. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, 

I’m glad to be here on the behalf of the Disabled American Veterans. I know that the VA has problems and there’s no need in conVerDate Nov 24 2008 20:49 Dec 09, 2010 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00067 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 H:\ACTIVE\021610AK.TXT SVETS PsN: PAULIN
64 

tinually ragging on it and saying, OK, you failed 13 out of 14 

things. So, if possible, I would like to just bring up a few instant 

issues that we’re having problems with. 

First of all, sir, we’re having to broker out our claims. A lot of 

them go to Salt Lake City. They also go to Seattle, WA, and they 

also go to San Diego, CA. I cannot overemphasize how horrible San 

Diego, CA, is on their claims. I wish the OIG would go in there and 

pull a lot of the claims that are being, you know, done down there 

to come back to Alaska. They result 9 times out of 10 is a Notice 

of Disagreement or appeals. It’s like they give vets zero percent or 

they deny them. There’s no in-between. It’s really very, very poor. 

That’s been one of—we have problems with Salt Lake City and 

Seattle, but not half as much as we do with San Diego, CA, rating 

our claims. 

Another issue that I have is mail continues to be misplaced. Instructions to VA by the veterans are overlooked and communication 

is non-existent. We’ve had a rash of people supposedly not showing 

up for their C&P exams. I don’t know if it’s a miscommunication 

from the people that are supposed to be sending out the notices to 

people who have C&P exams, but there’s been no mail forthcoming 

to—these people have missed appointments and are being denied 

their claims through the VA because of this supposed mailed-out 

notice of C&P exam missed. That’s been another big issue that 

we’re having. Some of these are pretty serious with Post Traumatic 

Stress Disorder that they have had since 2000. Now they’re doing 

a review and threatening to take them down from 100 percent to 

50 percent, assuming that their GAF has changed—their GAF 

score. Which is not 52, it’s 42, according to the records, but it was 

quoted as 52. It’s just a—it’s very irritating and when people have 

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, they haven’t worked since 1989, 

they even have trouble coming to some of the groups, and don’t 

even speak but have to sit in the corner. Yet they still need the 

camaraderie because they can’t continue staying in the dark, shall 

we say, all the time. I find that so offensive, and they need to fix 

that supposed C&P notification. I don’t believe it’s happening, honestly, for the majority of them. 

The phone centers cannot provide the information to veterans 

other than what is input into the system, and that is the problem. 

When we call 1–800–827–1000, we usually get Phoenix, AZ, out of 

Alaska. We have a problem with Phoenix in the fact that here in 

Alaska if you get 50 percent or higher rating, you receive up to 

$170,000 property tax exemption. 

When my veterans asked for the property tax exemption paperwork and the civil service preference letter, Phoenix seems to have 

a terribly difficult problem understanding what in thunder the 

property tax exemption letter is that has to be presented to the 

borough no later than the 31st of March. So, that is a delay for my 

veterans receiving those benefits. I would like to have that fixed. 

Somebody needs to educate those people that we live in Alaska and 

maybe some of—as you noted before, sir, when you came in—our 

circumstances are quite different from the Lower 48. 

Notes are not updated on a regular basis. We have a veteran 

that was awarded disability pension in August 2009. The veteran 

has a VA medical appointment scheduled back in November 2009 

65 

and again in February at the Fairbanks medical clinic. All right. 

He lives in Northway, which is 258 miles from the medical clinic 

here in town. The winter bus schedule out of Northway is such that 

the veteran has to stay in Fairbanks for at least four nights. He 

has to arrive on Wednesday and depart on Sunday, through no 

fault of his own; there’s no other transportation for this gentleman. 

The veteran has to have paid this out of his pocket, $776.10 out 

of his pocket, because his file did not reflect—it was not put into 

the computer that he was awarded disability pension. His annual 

income other than the pension that he receives is from social security, which is only $3,072, sir. He’s in poverty through no fault of 

his own. He hasn’t got the money to pay for something that should 

be taken care of by the Veterans Administration. 

There are some claims that haven’t had a progress note or action 

for approximately 6 months and the claims are still active. That’s 

another huge problem. An example: a Notice of Disagreement received and dated, stamped by the Anchorage VA, July 30, 2008. On 

December 10, 2008, the spouse received a letter from the VA indicating that the Notice of Disagreement procedure would be sent. 

On November 13, 2009, after a service officer inquiry as to the status of the claim, the VA indicated that the file had been closed and 

shipped to St. Louis, MO, prior to the date originally received and 

the date stamped. No communication on this death benefit for the 

spouse has been received as of this date. 

Thank you for your time, sir. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Boisseau follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF LINDA BOISSEAU, DEPARTMENT SERVICE OFFICER, 

DEPARTMENT OF ALASKA, DISABLED AMERICAN VETERANS

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: Thank you for the opportunity to 

present testimony on the current state of veterans services available to Alaska’s 

76,000 veterans. Before I begin my formal statement, I would like to thank Senators 

Begich and Murkowski and Representative Don Young for their support of funding 

reform and Senator Murkowski for her special interest and support of women veterans. 

In Alaska and across the country, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) offers 

a comprehensive array of benefits and services to military veterans and their survivors, including health care, vocational rehabilitation, readjustment counseling, disability compensation and pensions, educational assistance, home loans, life insurance, and burial services. 

Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Department Service Officers assist our National Service Officers (NSOs) in representing veterans and their families with 

claims for benefits from government agencies, including VA, and the Department of 

Defense. Veterans need not be DAV members to take advantage of this assistance, 

which is provided free of charge. 

NSOs function as attorneys-in-fact, assisting veterans and their families in filing 

claims for VA disability compensation and pension; vocational rehabilitation and 

employment; education; home loan guaranty; life insurance; death benefits; health 

care and much more. 

One of the biggest problems facing Alaska’s veterans today is their inability to get 

correct or timely decisions on claims for disability compensation. As you are aware, 

VA’s Office of Inspector General (VA OIG) recently completed an inspection of the 

disability compensation claims processing and Veterans Service Center (VSC) operations at the VA Regional Office in Anchorage. During this review, the OIG found 

that the Anchorage RO did not meet the requirements for 13 of 14 operational areas 

reviewed. While this may come as a surprise to some, it is consistent with what is 

been happening at VA Regional Offices across the United States. 

During recent inspections of other Regional Offices, as well as in reviews of Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) operations in general, the VA Inspector General found the same problems as those identified in Alaska: inaccurate decisions, too 

66 

much workload, not enough trained staff, inadequate oversight and quality control, 

and insufficient IT capability to handle the mountain of paper claims. 

In March 2009, VA OIG reported on the overall system and found that almost a 

quarter (22%) of all veterans’ claims for disability compensation were decided incorrectly in the 12-month period reviewed. During that period, over 200,000 veterans 

received inaccurate decisions on disability compensation. Here in Alaska, the OIG 

found that 29% of the cases reviewed had errors resulting in veterans being denied 

compensation due to them. Equally troubling, of the cases which the Regional Office 

itself found, 42% of those errors were not corrected. The chart attached at the end 

of my testimony depicts the result of the last six VA OIG visits. 

And while errors go uncorrected, the volume of claims is rising faster than VA’s 

ability to address this growing workload. As of January 11, 2010, there were 

466,985 claims for disability compensation and pensions awaiting rating decisions; 

162,352 (37.3%) of the claims have exceeded VBA’s 125-day strategic goal. In fact, 

the average time to approve a rating has exceeded 180 days for more than a decade. 

And to complicate the problem even further, claims folders for almost 300,000 veterans were misplaced and claims for 141,000 veterans are lost. 

VA today continues to rely on a cumbersome paper-based system to review and 

evaluate claims for disability compensation and pension. Beginning with the application for benefits, which is now a 23-page document, the system has become increasingly complicated. Moreover, in the past several years, there has been about 

a 50% increase in the most complex disability compensation applications, those in 

which a veteran cites eight or more disabilities, requiring even greater time and expertise to correctly reach a correct, equitable decision. 

Unfortunately, the VBA has yet to develop a modern information technology (IT) 

system to begin to move from such a paper-centric system to a contemporary electronic system. Regional Offices are being overwhelmed with massive amounts of 

paper, from the applications themselves to piles of medical evidence supporting 

those claims. 

In fact, after a recent inspection at the Roanoke, Virginia VA Regional Office, the 

VA OIG found nearly 11,000 folders sitting on top of file cabinets already filled to 

capacity with the paper claims and supporting evidence of tens of thousands of veterans. After calling in the building engineer to look at the situation, they determined that the load on floors 10, 11 and 12 of the 14-story building was double what 

is considered safe and heavy enough to cause the entire building to collapse. 

Mr. Chairman, too many disabled veterans and their survivors must wait too long 

for disability compensation and pension rating decisions that are too often wrong 

or inaccurate. If we do not address these problems and reform the claims processing 

system here in Alaska and across the United States, the entire system is in danger 

of collapsing on itself just from the sheer weight of the workload. 

Congress must reform the claims processing system so that disabled veterans and 

their survivors are able to apply for benefits through a simple, uniform and modern 

IT-based process that enables VA to make accurate decisions within acceptable 

timeframes. Active duty servicemembers should be able to apply for benefits before 

discharge and receive accurate decisions by the time of their discharge. 

To accomplish these goals, VBA must develop a work culture that emphasizes 

quality at all steps of the process. It must begin with the development of a management culture that measures and rewards the quality of results, not just the quantity, and that provides sufficient training of both VA’s management and workforce 

in order to arrive at correct decisions. 

VBA must modernize its IT infrastructure and optimize its business processes. 

The current paper-centric system must be replaced with a secure and accessible 

paperless system that rapidly moves and organizes information necessary to help 

rating specialists reach correct decisions. The new system must optimize both the 

workflow and the business processes. 

VBA must also implement a simpler and more transparent benefits application 

and approval process. There should be a universal and simple application procedure 

that provides veterans with regular updates on the progress of their claims and allows them to access their records and pending claims securely from any location. 

In the short term, there are several reforms that VBA could begin to immediately 

implement either on its own, or consonant with Congressional action. For example, 

VBA wastes significant time by ordering a VA medical examination for virtually 

every claim for compensation, even when sufficient medical evidence from the veterans’ private physician already exists. VBA should create standardized templates 

for private physicians so that private medical evidence can be developed and delivered in a standardized manner that meets VBA requirements and allows VBA rating specialists to use that private medical evidence to make determinations without 

the need for redundant VA examinations. 

67 

VBA should also take advantage of their existing authority to provide deferred 

rating decisions quickly to veterans when there is sufficient evidence to establish 

a compensable service-connected condition. This would allow VBA to quickly adjudicate those issues where the service connection matters and levels of disability are 

clear cut, assign an interim rating so that the veterans could begin to receive financial support and access VA health care services. Then, at a later date VA can schedule any necessary exams and develop the evidence necessary to determine the final 

rating for other more complicated disabilities. 

VBA must also take steps to establish comprehensive and uniform systems to 

train and provide continuing education to its workforce, including more substantial 

on-the-job-training. They must develop and implement a new quality control regime 

that places emphasis on the quality of decisions made, rather than only on the 

quantity of work completed and reward employees accordingly. A renewed commitment to and investment in training and quality control will help to ensure that benefits decisions are done right the first time, which will save time over the long run. 

For a more detailed explanation of these recommendations and their origins, please 

refer to the Independent Budget for fiscal year 2011, in which DAV is a major participant and partner along with AMVETS, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United 

States and Paralyzed Veterans of America. 

Although DAV NSOs and Department Service Officers do not heavily focus on the 

VA health care system, I would like to make a few comments on the state of medical 

care available to Alaska’s veterans. Today, VA operates a medical center in Anchorage, and Community-Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs) in Fairbanks, Kenai and 

Matanuska-Susitna Valley, in total providing more than 130,000 outpatient visits 

a year. We recognize the unique challenges our veterans face in Alaska and I am 

pleased DAV Resolution 247, adopted by the delegates to DAV’s last National Convention, assembled in Denver, Colorado, August 22–25, 2009, fully supports the 

right of rural veterans to be served by VA. Our resolution further notes that funding 

for additional rural care options and outreach be sustained and not be the cause 

of reductions in highly specialized VA medical programs. 

Public Law 109–461 authorized VA to establish the Veterans Health Administration Office of Rural Health to promulgate policies, best practices and innovations to 

improve services to veterans who reside in rural areas. We strongly urge this Office 

to coordinate with VA medical care facilities and veterans service organizations in 

Alaska to ensure alternative and creative programs and services are developed to 

meet the unique needs of sick and disabled veterans residing in this area. 

Mr. Chairman, this completes my written testimony. 

68 

ATTACHMENT


217psBOI5.eps
69 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you very much. You did very well. What 

I’ll do is take the testimony from all four and then I’ll come back 

with questions. 

Ms. BOISSEAU. Thank you for your time on this, sir, very much. 

Senator BEGICH. Very good. Thank you very much. Robert. Robert and I had a great conversation just before we started, and I told 

him, don’t worry, just say what’s on your mind. 

STATEMENT OF SPC ROBERT L. ROOF, USA (RET.) 

Mr. ROOF. I’ll do the best I can, sir. I do want to say before I 

go on with my tirade, pointing fingers and attempting to describe 

the flaws in the system, I’d like to mention that I do so humbly. 

For despite the errors of a few and the system as a whole, there 

have been many more instances of good individuals, many who are 

sitting in this room today, that I have come across that have done 

their best to aid in my path of recovery and transition. 

I would also like to acknowledge the idea that my generation of 

veterans has the greatest understanding and support than any 

generation of the past. It is with the utmost respect to the warriors 

that have come before me, those individuals who have tirelessly 

helped me to navigate my recovery and to you, Senator, that I dare 

to voice my complaints. Sadly, there are still issues that must be 

addressed, particularly health care issues. 

I’ve found that there lacks available counseling. In order to get 

in and see anybody or to be prioritized, you must basically be a 

harm to yourself or someone else. There’s just a lack of people 

available. And when I was seen in counseling, it was once a month 

at best. A few times I had appointments canceled without being notified until I was walking through the door, yet I continually got 

reminded that, you know, if I’m going to miss an appointment that 

I need to notify them so that someone else can have my time slot, 

or if I fail to go to a certain number of appointments, then, you 

know, I’m at risk of losing my counseling, which I’ve never heard 

of happening, but the threat is always there. 

Numerous times because of the lack of VA facilities here in Fairbanks, I’ve had to fly to Anchorage, missing—you know, taking 

time off of work and losing days’ worth of wages and/or missing out 

on school. To get down there and find my meds that I was supposed to be receiving not be there and then be told by the nursing 

staff that I need to do my best to, next time I have an appointment, 

to call and let them know, to remind them to order my medication, 

when I thought that’s what my patient record was for. As someone 

suffering from the disabilities I have, I have trouble remembering 

if I locked my door when I leave the house each day, let alone trying to worry about if me flying to Anchorage and losing out on my 

day, if, you know, I’m going to get the care that I went down there 

for. 

Since my transition out of the military—I was a gunshot wound 

victim and receiving OT and was meeting with surgeons before I 

left Fort Campbell, but after receiving my orders to get out on a 

medical board there has been no follow-up care on my injury, which 

at this point I’m sure there’s not much that could be done. But it 

was a simple fact that I fell through the cracks, basically. There 

70 

was no further attention paid to my gunshot injury. The only issue 

that has somewhat been addressed is the PTSD. 

I mentioned the lack of VA facilities here in Fairbanks. You 

know, you have to go all the way out on post and—which is a hassle in itself at times just trying to go through the gate. 

I’ve been trying to go back to school since I returned to Alaska 

and I enlisted the help of the voc rehab program as opposed to the 

GI Bill because as a disabled veteran, I thought it was the goal of 

the voc rehab program to provide the additional support needed for 

disabled veterans such as myself, and that has not been the case. 

When I first went to set up my voc rehab, I was told by the counselor that I needed to go out and gather up all this information. 

As I mentioned, as a person with my disabilities, I’m not the most 

sociable. And, as a student, I mean it’s—the school system is hard 

enough to navigate on my own, but then with the additional problems that I have, basically, I was on this wild goose chase. I 

brought back this information, which I thought he had asked for 

numerous times, and he failed to communicate exactly what he was 

looking for or what I thought he was looking for didn’t work, and 

after the third time I was finally able to give him what he needed. 

And, let’s see, I apologize—— 

Senator BEGICH. No, you’re doing fine. 

Mr. ROOF. At one point, I enrolled in a class that was for—it was 

a humanities degree requirement for my program. I received a 

phone call from the voc rehab counselor stating that this class 

wasn’t listed on my degree requirements and that therefore the VA 

was going to fail—was not going to pay for it and that I cannot be 

out there freelancing my education. Honestly, I really don’t care for 

school. I love to learn, but school is just really not for me, and I 

really don’t want to spend any more time with it than I have to. 

I’d much rather just get on with life and get my degree. So, you 

know, I felt insulted that this accusation was made. The fact is, he 

just didn’t have a full understanding, apparently, of how the school 

system works and what was really being asked of me to fulfill 

these degree requirements. How can he sit there and make these 

accusations that I’m out there freelancing my education when he 

doesn’t even know what’s going on? So, I think part of that is lack 

of understanding, too, on the veterans coordinator up at the university who I’ve tried to speak with on multiple occasions and who 

was always unavailable. 

And the aid needed to navigate the school system. Like I said, 

apparently there’s the Office of Student Services for Disabilities 

though I just recently found out that they could have been doing 

a lot more to help me get through my classes by tailoring my classes more to my needs. This is all new information. Here, I’ve been 

faking my way through my education now for 2 years just trying 

to get by and scrape by and get whatever little I can out of it. And 

here, you know, like I said, all this stress and all this trouble and 

failing classes could have hopefully been avoided if I would have, 

you know, had the additional aid and support that I felt I needed. 

Speaking of voc rehab and what’s disheartening about it is that 

under this new GI Bill—not to sound like a money-grubber, but 

part of the reason why I chose the voc rehab is, like I said, is for 

the additional support I thought I would receive as a disabled vetVerDate Nov 24 2008 20:49 Dec 09, 2010 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00074 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 H:\ACTIVE\021610AK.TXT SVETS PsN: PAULIN
71 

eran. And now, I mean, I might as well just have done the GI Bill 

and gotten the additional money so that I wouldn’t have to try to 

work and go to school and put this all together when, you know, 

if I’m not getting the help, then I might as well just switch over 

the programs. 

I mean, I can’t really touch base on employment. I’ve found a job; 

I work part-time. Like I said, I’ve been going to school just simply 

because I got the job with the same company my mother works for 

and they’ve been more than gracious to give me time off for, you 

know, appointments and to go to class, or if I have PTSD flare-ups, 

as I have had recently. I’ve taken a leave of absence from work now 

for 2 weeks. So, once I lose this job or move on in the world, you 

know, that’s something I’ll have to face, but as of right now I can’t 

really touch base on employment opportunities. 

That’s about it. All I can really say, too, is recently I was just 

contacted as part of that PTSD lawsuit saying that I was shorted 

on my medical board ratings. I’ve only been given 30 percent for 

PTSD when the standard was supposedly 50 percent. And so this 

makes me, what, you know, out of 4,300, not a large number. But 

I just don’t understand why—you know, who’s accountable for this, 

the fact that there’s supposed to be a set standard and—to my understanding, we were all shorted. So, it doesn’t really pertain to 

these issues, but, basically, you know, I’ve been getting the short 

end of the stick now for a little while and that’s just one more way. 

So thank you for your time. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Roof follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF SPC ROBERT L. ROOF, USA (RET.) 

To members of the Senate Committee of Veteran’s Affairs, I would like to first 

take this opportunity to say thank you for your time, and the request to present 

whatever testimony I may concerning the issues that are facing today’s recently discharged veterans. I appeal to you not only as disabled combat veteran myself, but 

also as a patriotic citizen who truly and rightfully believes in these United States. 

Before I go on my tirade pointing fingers and attempting to discriminate every 

hole in the system I would like to mention that I do so humbly. For despite the errors of a few and the system as a whole, there have many more instances of good 

individuals that I have come across that have done their best to aid me in my path 

of recovery and transition. I would also like to acknowledge the idea that my generation of veterans has had the greatest understanding and support then any generation past. It is with the utmost respect to the warriors that have come before 

me, those individuals who have tirelessly helped me to navigate my recovery, and 

to you Senators that I dare begin to voice my ‘‘complaints.’’ 

You’ve asked to me to share my story of transition, particular since leaving active 

duty, but for the combat wounded veteran our story begins the day we are injured. 

To my understanding some the issues that I had to face have been addressed since 

they occurred but I would like to mention them because it will help for a clearer 

understanding of the larger issue and help shine light on why I am so qualified to 

share my concerns. 

Briefly, I was born and raised in the communities of Fairbanks and North Pole, 

Alaska. I graduated from North Pole High School in 2003 and enlisted in the US 

ARMY Delayed Entry Program in March 2004 and shipped to Infantry School at Ft. 

Benning in July 2004. Upon graduation from OSUT I was stationed at Ft. Campbell, KY, with the newly stood up 4th BCT which would then be flagged the 506th 

RCT. In November 2005 I deployed with B Co, 1/506th In, 101st ABN DIV 

(AASSLT) to Ar Ramadi, Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom IV. 

I loved the Army, I loved the Infantry. In the short year I was at Ft. Campbell 

prior to deployment I successfully earned my Air Assault Badge, my Expert Infantryman Badge, amongst other certificates and most importantly the respect of my 

peers and leaders. My Army career was off to an amazing start, I had yet to fail 

a task that the Army had given me and I took pride in playing even the smallest 

role in the backbone of the Army and these United States. I loved being a ‘‘Grunt.’’ 

72 

But as a Infantryman you also know that you are expendable. That is what keeps 

our military as strong as it needs to be, maintaining the fighting force is a first and 

foremost responsibility, something I fully understood... the mission must always 

go on. Yet I had this perceived conception that if you fell in battle and were able 

to survive then our government would be there to help stand you back up. When 

America needed its sons and daughters to answer the call there I was willing waiting for my orders. 

It is through this detail of my love and success that I hope to convey that I poured 

myself into performing the best I possibly could and put my trust in our military 

and government. But it is because of this that made it so difficult to accept the circumstances that I had to deal with due to my war injuries and the erosion of my 

belief in the way our military treats it own. The military is tough business to run 

but I feel that there is a certain code that should be used to conduct it if America 

is going to live up to the promise it has made to its warriors. 

On 20 May 2006 while manning the .50 Caliber machine gun mounted to the turret of a Humvee I took a single enemy sniper round to my left chest/axilla. From 

there I was ground medevaced to my Battalion Aid Station where medics attended 

to me until I was airlifted to Al Taqqadium Air Base. From there I moved on to 

Balad, then was airlifted to Landstuhl where I spent my 21st Birthday, and then 

flown to Walter Reed. This is where my difficulties would begin. 

While at Landstuhl I was able to make contact with my mother, who was instructed at that time by a member of my nursing staff that she should try to meet 

me at Walter Reed because that was my final destination based on all information 

available at the time. My mother attempted to make contact with the Army to see 

about getting a flight to meet me at Walter Reed she was then informed it would 

take nearly 10 days to process. This is something that any parent or loved one simply can’t accept, so instead she was able to purchase her own tickets and bring herself and her husband to Walter Reed where they wheeled their luggage around the 

hospital waiting for me until they were finally able to find assistance and get lodging. To this day my mother was never able to get reimbursed and eventually gave 

up trying. In the scheme of things it isn’t that big a deal but a matter of principle 

that my loved ones were told that it would be over a week before the military could 

help her come to my side. 

My first difficulty at Walter Reed was in regards to my immediate care by my 

team of doctors. The resulting surgeries from my injury had left a fairly large hole 

in my chest/arm and when trying to discuss a treatment plan with my doctors, there 

was a lack of. At first it was presented to us that I would have this large whole 

in chest/arm for the rest of my being and that was just no getting any answers out 

of my doctors. Again, I know the Army has its way of doing things and that at the 

time I was lowly PFC, who am I to ask questions? But I did not nor do not believe 

that is the most beneficial approach if we are truly concerned with the mental and 

physical wellbeing of our injured troops. I can honestly say that it wasn’t beneficial 

to lie in that hospital in that beginning week not knowing what was to become of 

me. It took my mother contacting Senator Ted Stevens office for my doctors to finally come in and answer the questions we had, which weren’t many, but the simple 

reassurance and insight of the doctors made it a little easier to start to accept what 

had happened to me. 

After my impatient stay I was downgraded to outpatient status and attached to 

the Medical Hold Company where I made it very clear that I was only ‘‘attached’’ 

and not ‘‘assigned’’ as I was eager to return to Ft. Campbell. I had heard the horror 

stories of fellow soldiers who had been at Walter Reed for years waiting to see what 

the Army had in store for them, and I wished not to become part of that trap. Because my mother was still at Walter Reed I was able to just stay with her at the 

Mologne House Hotel on the compound and therefore I didn’t have to suffer the poor 

living conditions that others had to deal with, but I do remember listening to some 

of the other soldiers discuss how terrible their quarters were. My barracks at Ft. 

Campbell had black mold that seemed to get ignored by our chain of command, but 

then again none us had open wounds we had to care for either. I was asked by a 

leader in my Med Hold Company if I could reschedule an appointment so that I 

could stand in formation for a Change of Command ceremony, something I refused 

to do. 

After my last outpatient appointment I was reassigned to my unit back at Ft. 

Campbell where I served on Rear Detachment with many of the other wounded soldiers from my company. It is at this time that I began my symptoms and was diagnosed with PTSD. 

It was here me and my fellow wounded E–4 and below types was asked to trim 

hedges and run lawnmowers by able-bodied, newly transferred, E–5 types. But let 

me mention that my skin graft to my chest/arm hadn’t healed sufficiently enough 

73 

to provide me with the strength to properly and safely maneuver a push lawnmower. Nor do I think it was the job of my friend was ankle was held together by 

bands and had a flat land walking profile to try and drag his bad leg over the uneven ground we were asked to cut. Prior to our injuries we would have willingly 

performed these duties, but not like this, not as we were still doing our best to heal 

ourselves. 

We were moved 3 separate times because there were no barracks for us as our 

company barracks were being ‘‘reset’’ for the return of our company that was still 

in Iraq. It is also here that we ‘‘discouraged’’ from attending our appointments because there was painting to be done, it is here that we were punished for not showing up to formation or flag raising duties, because whatever medication many of us 

were on interrupted or lengthened our sleeping schedules. 

Whatever lack of understanding on the part of the Rear D leadership there was, 

it didn’t get much better when my company returned from Iraq. Since my departure 

from Iraq there had been changes in leadership on the company and platoon level. 

So now my new leaders who knew nothing of me and prior performance and I were 

faced with challenge of what to do with me until the Army and my injuries dictated 

what was next for me. As it would come to be I would eventually start my Med 

Board due to the permanent damage to my chest/arm and the PTSD both which 

interfered with my responsibilities as an infantryman. 

Looking back I do want to say that I no negative feelings on the actions of the 

leadership and the things were we asked to do on Rear Detachment. It was simply 

the result of untrained leaders who hadn’t been properly trained in how to deal with 

those of us who had these injuries. I understood it then and I understand it now. 

Before I was discharged, Ft. Campbell was very close to setting up its Warrior Transition Unit, and from what I have heard it addresses many of the challenges that 

I and others had to face post-injury with our regular line companies. I just feel it 

is important for me to voice how much I agree with the establishment of the WTUs 

and that I hope that they are making a difference in the recovery and even possibly 

saving the careers of injured soldiers. The worst thing that can be done is forcing 

someone to soldier when they haven’t fully healed. 

In June 2007 I was placed on the TDRL with a combined disability rating of 60%. 

The process of leaving Ft. Campbell was interesting to say the least. Once I had 

received my Med Board findings and received my retirement orders then it was all 

out rush to try and check all the boxes that I had to check before I could leave, 

yet my doctor was a little unpleasant with the idea that I was leaving the area 

while my arm/chest injuries were stilling being treated. Since my last appointment 

with him at Ft. Campbell I have not had any further treatment or attention paid 

to my chest/arm, with the exception of brief physicals for VA C&P exams and Army 

Med Boards. At this point I don’t believe that much there is anything that could 

be done besides continuing my prescription for pain medication that I have to take 

to help numb the daily pain. But the fact that I was doing OT at Ft. Campbell, and 

my doctor was concerned with me not finishing whatever he may have had in mind 

simply makes me wonder. 

Upon leaving Ft. Campbell I returned to Alaska where I enrolled in school at the 

University of Alaska-Fairbanks hoping to keep myself busy and to try and move on 

with my life. I was able to find employment at a local liquor store with the help 

of my mother, as it is the same company she works for. I simply took because it 

was offered to me and I had made it very clear that school was my priority and 

that I may have occasional VA appointments to attend. 

(Also upon my return to Alaska I would receive a VA pre-stabilization rating of 

100%, which would eventually be downgraded to a stabilization rating of 80% due 

to the improvement of my hearing. I can also say that my PTSD is anything but 

stabilized and has gotten worse.) 

My PTSD really began to give me even more trouble as I was away from my fellow wounded friends and had little support here with the exception of a few family 

members and friends who understood nothing of my situation, but I was able to 

scrape by through the use medication, some counseling, and trying to force my way 

through school, and I believe at one point I was making some progress. 

In December 2008 I had my Army PEB re-evaluation where I was permanently 

retired at a stabilized 60% combined rating. But in light of recent events I have now 

learned that I was one of the 4,300 veterans who were shorted on my PTSD rating. 

Apparently a 50% disability rating is the standard when rating for PTSD, yet I 

among all these others were given less, myself 30%. (So I don’t know what this will 

mean for my final rating if it will be increased or not. But why were we shorted?) 

You have asked me to describe some of the difficulties I have had in the transition 

from active duty to being veteran and a civilian...

74 

For starters the first difficulty is simply accepting the lowered social status that 

being a veteran is. When you wear the uniform, you are easily identifiable. It’s all 

there... name, rank, awards, combat patches. As veteran you lose that, my physical scars are hidden by my clothing; my mental scars are buried even deeper and 

everything I worked so hard for in the Army had been taken away from me and 

doesn’t mean anything in the civilian sector. If only it was so easy to walk around 

with a t-shirt that says ‘‘I have PTSD, please don’t bother me.’’ Even if it was, how 

can I ask society to understand something that I don’t even understand? 

The foremost difficulty is trying to find a place to fit in and people to relate to. 

I’ve been trying to go to school for a profession that probably isn’t suited for me, 

yet I have been faking my way through my courses because I can’t actually concentrate to learn and retain anything. When I am in class, young 19 and 20 year 

kids stare at me because I remain at my seat during group activities and projects. 

At work, I am berated on a daily basis by alcoholics and other members of societies’ 

cesspool. I frequently am told that I need to ‘‘be more sociable and friendly.’’ I have 

to listen to people get upset because I don’t ask them how their day is going, but 

instead try focus on counting money correctly and trying check ID birth and expiration dates. At home I find myself sifting through my book, music, and movie collections trying to find something to block out the demons, but usually find myself staring off into space. The few intimate relationships I have been able to maintain are 

usually hindered by my bouts of depression and anxiety. My personal interactions 

last until the Valium wears off. It is hard to accept being a disabled veteran since 

the age 22 and never knowing what tomorrow is going to bring. 

I have tried to use some of the resources available to me when they are available. 

As I have mentioned I have been trying to go to school to make something of myself 

but it has not been an easy process. I choose to go the route of VA Voc Rehab when 

deciding to use my education benefits hoping that it would be tailored to the more 

specific needs of disabled veterans such as myself. Yet this hasn’t been case. When 

I first went to set up my education plan I was told to go out and find all sorts of 

information that was required to put together my future education goals. Naturally 

I wasn’t really sure where to start and was further disheartened when my Voc 

Rehab counselor not only couldn’t guide me but I felt sent me on a wild goose chase. 

Again I would like to remind you that I thought that by going the Voc Rehab route 

as opposed to the G.I. Bill route I would have access to additional resources and 

aid in the whole planning of my Vocational Rehabilitation. I went out and found 

what I thought was being asked of me and returned it to the counselor only to be 

told it was sufficient enough. It was only on the 3rd time that I have apparently 

gathered the necessary information to set up my education plan. I truly felt and still 

feel that there was a complete lack of communication on the counselor’s part in 

making it clear what he needed from me. It is because of this that I spent time, 

fuel, and energy searching for something that should have been easier to obtain had 

I been given proper guidance. 

I enrolled in a course one semester and again lacking information and not knowing how the course withdraw process worked I ended up failing a course I could not 

complete due to a flair up of my PTSD symptoms. But instead of getting sympathy, 

and an air of understanding, instead I got the lecture that if I fail another course 

then we may have re-analyze the VA’s commitment in my future educational goals. 

Understandable, we can’t have the VA dumping tax-payer dollars down the drain 

while I sit around trying to battle my way through my new disability. Sadly I had 

the misconception that I would get a little more support being a disabled veteran 

using the Voc Rehab program. 

As per my degree requirements I have to take humanities elective. When I enrolled in this course I then received emails and phone calls from the counselor informing me that the UAF Veterans Coordinator had informed them that this course 

wasn’t part of my degree and the comment was made that I can’t just be out there 

‘‘free lancing my education.’’ Let me make it very clear that I hate school. I love 

learning new things, but if I had it my way, I’d be done with school already and 

on with life. When I tried to explain things I became extremely frustrated that such 

an accusation was made toward me especially considering that I was going off of 

the same piece of information that it had been such a pain to get a hold of in the 

first place. It reached the point where I decided that I wasn’t going to put up with 

it anymore and I decided that I would pay for the course out of my own pocket because I wasn’t going to deal with any more of the counselor’s lack of competence 

in this matter. 

When I contacted a supervisor about some of these issues I was basically told that 

it wasn’t the Voc Rehab counselors’ job to ‘‘hold my hand.’’ Fair enough, but then 

why I am using the CH. 31 Voc Rehab benefits which provides no additional support 

when I might as well use CH. 33 G.I. Bill benefits where I stand to at least gain 

75 

additional monetary benefits. But that’s not what I am after; I just want to get 

healthy enough to function. As it may not be the job of Voc Rehab resources to ‘‘hold 

my hand.’’ At the same time I don’t believe it’s my job to hold theirs. How can accusations of how I am handling my schooling be made when these individuals no nothing more of how the university works then I do? 

(But I do ask the question: Will we ever see a day when Voc Rehab compensation 

will match G.I. Bill compensation?) 

The VA isn’t the only one to blame when in regards to some of these issues 

though, the university has their weight to bear as well. I have yet to officially meet 

with an academic advisor to plan my course of action. The Veterans’ Coordinator 

is never allowed to be seen the two times I have requested, and it is only in this 

past semester that I have learned the Student Services for Disabilities could have 

been helping me to possibly tailor my courses to fit my needs a little better. I just 

wish there were someone that could say, ‘‘We understand you have problems, but 

we are going to work the best we can to help you be successful in school, here is 

what is available to help you.’’ 

All of these resources, whether they be for school or for healthcare are difficult 

obtain at times. The first battle is even learning they exist, and then trying to access them is a whole different battle altogether. It seems like whenever I go anywhere to ask for help, there is always someone else I have to talk to first. Then 

when I go to speak to that person, I have first have to talk to another additional 

individual. 

As we all know access to healthcare is probably the largest issue concerning veterans. When I have actually been able to get an appointment I haven’t had too 

many issues, but have had issues none the less. 

Mental health counseling appointments are non-existent. When I was receiving 

counseling it was once month until my counselor left for a new job and has yet to 

be replaced. Unless you are at the very moment they ask you, an immediate danger 

to yourself or others there are no time slots available. Instead I have maintained 

myself with a steady stream of Valium until I eventually slide just far enough down 

the spiral that I can honestly say I may injury myself or others. 

I have taken time off work on multiple occasions to go to appointments to have 

them be canceled by the doctor without informing me before I walk though the door, 

or to sit and wait for hours to get in for a 10 minute visit. These are appointments 

requested by the doctor mind you. Or better yet I had to take time off of work, skip 

class, fly to Anchorage at 6AM for a 1015 appointment, only to be taken into the 

examination room at 1130 and be told that my medication wasn’t ordered and I 

would have to come back the following month. So not only had I lost a half day’s 

wage, class room time, but the icing on the cake was when the nurse also informed 

me that I should be sure to call next time before I fly down to make sure that VA 

employees had ordered my medication. Mind you I spend half my day trying to remember if I locked the house before I left it. 

As far as my employment goes, as I mentioned I was fortunate to find a job that 

has been willing to be more then gracious in letting me take time off for school and 

my injury related issues. But it has come at the cost of sanity and overall wellbeing, 

as of writing this testimony I have in fact taken an indefinite leave of absence from 

my work to try to recover from a recent mental breakdown. I am doing my best to 

just manage my simple daily affairs and hope that one day soon I might be able 

to return to work providing I can get my PTSD back under control. But these are 

going to be real concerns if I lose this job because I can’t work, or what am I going 

to do in the future when I can’t find an employer who is willing to give me the time 

off I need to battle my demons and spend my time waiting for canceled 

appointments. 

I feel terrible, for it seems that all I have provided is a laundry list of complaints, 

and don’t feel I have addressed what was asked of me. I wish I could provide solutions instead of excerpts of whining. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers and 

filling holes I feel is a mighty task and I applaud the efforts given whatever they 

may be. As with much in life there must be some level of attrition when addressing 

who should receive and how much in benefits should be given out. It is sad that 

there are individuals out there that have found a way to take advantage of the system, while those of us who fully deserve it are forced to fight tooth and nail for what 

we have earned. 

For me the two biggest problems facing a young, transitional, disabled combat 

veteran such as myself . . . is the understanding of my injuries, particularly the 

PTSD and the availability and utilization of resources. 

I don’t understand myself, society doesn’t understand me, and the resources are 

lacking right now to help bring me back as a participating member of society 

76 

through counseling and education. What resources are available, nobody either 

knows about them themselves or they choose to not inform me about them. 

Thank you for your time. 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you, Robert, very good. I appreciate your 

testimony. 

Lieutenant Colonel Sheehan, why don’t you go next. I appreciate 

you being here and good to see you again. 

STATEMENT OF LTC JOE SHEEHAN, USA (RET.), CHAIRMAN, 

NORTHERN ALASKA MILITARY RETIREE COUNCIL 

LTC. SHEEHAN. Good afternoon, Senator, and ladies and gentlemen. I’m Joe Sheehan, a retired Army officer, a life-long Alaskan, 

and a former inspector general for the Army here in Alaska. 

First, sir, I want to thank you all for coming here to listen as 

well as for allowing me the opportunity to contribute here today. 

And, Senator, I’d like to also personally recognize you and thank 

you for your focus on veterans’ and retirees’ issues since you’ve 

been in office. 

In the interest of time, I’ll let my written submission speak for 

itself. It lays out the same broad issues that are unfortunately just 

as valid today as they were 3 years ago. And, frankly, that’s truly 

the problem. I could tell you the horror stories of veterans with lost 

records, delays, and denied benefits, et cetera, but I don’t want to 

focus on the symptoms of problems in VA. You’ll hear that from 

others, and the VA IG report is damning enough. 

Instead, I want to constructively focus instead on laying out a vision for the way ahead on systemic issues, for where to go from 

here. How can VA better meet its mission obligations to veterans? 

How can that effort also make a critical difference in this fragile 

but interdependent fabric of health care that we have here in Alaska with limited capabilities? And how can we leverage VA and 

interagency capabilities to pioneer a model for the rest of the system that might benefit everybody? 

I have five key points I want to take away here. The first, Senator, is that I appreciate your determined efforts since we talked 

in November, toward establishing the Alaska Health Care Task 

Force. That is a critical effort. I can’t tell you how important that 

is to prioritize and help develop a strategic vision up here for improving efficiencies and useful support. That can’t be done from 

Washington, DC, in a cookie-cutter fashion; it has to be done from 

the ground level. It will significantly improve access to health care 

for the rest of Alaskans in addition to us Federal beneficiaries, of 

which we comprise 43 percent of all Alaskans. And there are many 

examples where veterans, retirees, and our active-duty family 

members in Alaska are unfairly denied both access and delivery of 

health care on a level equitable to other States, and that’s a proven 

fact. 

The second critical need, meanwhile, is to take care of the lowhanging fruit, such as a few unique and simple frustrations that 

we have that we can’t surmount because Congress must allow them 

an actual legislation and word of law. Some of these include things 

like: the inability of TRICARE managers here in Alaska to designate patients to civilian PCMs, just as most other States do; the 

lack of reimbursable travel provision and TRICARE for life, where 

77 

people have to travel around from our remote regions and have 

nothing when they get there, and have to take their families along 

with them; proposed distance and drive-time limits on TRICARE 

Prime here in Alaska, which are currently on waiver of being 

threatened again. 

The third issue I want to discuss is that I don’t want to see all 

of the dedicated members of VA tarred. Many wonderful people, 

like Linda B. over there, work daily and work very hard and there 

isn’t a veteran in this town that doesn’t know her. However, I do 

want to say that we do need to change the culture of VA as an 

agency and especially in regard to both its level of commitment and 

its focus of investment here in Alaska. 

I’d love to get specific and I can later if you’d like, but the key 

concerns are in the areas of attitude, capacity, access, and outreach. VA has an unhealthy Anchorage-centric mentality in a State 

one-fifth the size of the United States. Rural vets do not have acceptable, let alone equitable, access to health care. Fairbanks 

should be a more viable VA hub for Northern Alaska and the watershed that it serves. 

VA education programs should be the catalyst for spreading a 

homegrown health care capacity across this State and the synergy 

of these and other task force-style ideas would save VA a lot of 

money while delivering far better access to veterans, but would 

also grow sustainable health care services for all of our rural veterans and serve as a foundation for the prosperity of this State. We 

cannot fail to do that. This would be a win/win for everybody. 

The fourth point is the importance to note that VA, as you well 

know and I know you know this, is not the only subset of Veterans’ 

Affairs. Too often, however, hundreds of veterans’ bills, quote/unquote, focus upon VA, but most of the Members of Congress don’t 

seem to understand that these bills usually do not include or even 

help retirees and the families of our active-duty military. These active-duty military are on the same TRICARE and are not part of 

the VA system. A young specialist or young airman has to go out 

there and find access in the community here in Alaska while they 

have two kids, and they have trouble finding that, and especially 

doing it affordably and a lot of times things are deferred as a result 

of that. 

However, while they’re entirely separate systems, there is much 

to be improved by way of mutual support and shared efficiencies, 

and we aren’t mining those now, but these must be allowed in legislation and by policy. 

This brings me to my fifth and final point. With respect, sir, Congress has been part of the problem instead of being part of the solution, and that’s why I appreciate your direct efforts here today 

and your focus on these issues. Too much of the system is based 

upon stovepipe parochialism and entangling regulations which restrict each agency’s ability to effectively offer a best practices approach to delivering services and health care, let alone optimize efficiencies between agencies. 

Then there is the annual fight to sustain things like the funding 

of inadequate band-aid patches for things like 21 percent Medicare 

that we spend all that energy on every year. And why? Often the 

best answer is not more money, but to truly fix the programs or 

78 

policies at hand. We need to change the paradigm at both VA and 

in Congress, otherwise, if we do what we always did, we’ll get what 

we always got. 

The bottom line, sir, is we can do better, we should do better, we 

must do better. 

Senator, and ladies and gentlemen, I could cover more, but my 

5 minutes are up. So, subject to your questions, this concludes my 

initial statement. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of LTC. Sheehan follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF JOE SHEEHAN, NORTHERN ALASKA

MILITARY RETIREE COUNCIL

VA/AFAP 2010 ISSUE SHEET FWA 2010 

Two related issues submitted by the Northern Alaska Military Retiree Council: 

1. ISSUE TITLE/SUBJECT: TRICARE authorization to designate patients to a civilian PCM. 

SCOPE: Bottom line: Alaska TRICARE managers need authorization, like other 

states already have, to designate to civilian PCMs (primary care managers) for care 

unavailable locally or too distant for the members who are in TRICARE Prime. This 

greatly affects both our active duty military families and retirees in Alaska, as well 

as having a direct impact upon the ability of local military medical capacity to optimally manage patient requirements and demand using best practices. In addition 

to providing many efficiencies for the TRICARE system as well as the promised and 

equitable level of service/care for retirees and active duty family members, this 

would benefit the entire fragile interrelated fabric of health care in Alaska by supporting a more robust medical capacity in these under-served areas. TRICARE managers in other states can and do establish civilian PCMs, but Alaska has no such 

authority within the TMA or contract at this time, even though we are arguably in 

the greatest need due to remote and far flung health care facilities with very limited 

capabilities that are not now sufficient or mutually supportive. This is yet another 

example of where Alaska has been excluded, by policy, from levels of care standards 

equitable to that provided to the rest of the US. 

RECOMMENDATION: Approve authorization for Alaska TRICARE managers to 

designate patients to a civilian PCM and best manage their available resources. 

2. ISSUE TITLE/SUBJECT: Modify the TMA proposed rule change language 

which allows exclusion of Alaska’s TRICARE Prime enrollees who are not within 

drive time waiver areas. 

SCOPE: The TRICARE Management Activity (TMA) has proposed a rule change 

(below) which rightly codifies the current reimbursement rate demonstration project 

as permanent. That highly successful demo project has been sustaining our critical 

local rates and access to care since we asked for that as an interim band-aid solution to the access concerns of our active duty military families and military retirees 

who all rely upon TRICARE access. However, our concern with this current proposal 

is the wording at the end which would allow TRICARE to specifically exclude Alaska’s Prime enrollees who are not enrolled to a military treatment facility and thus 

can be subject to losing eligibility for Prime based upon an arbitrary drive time (distance) concept which is inappropriate for Alaska. This problem is especially critical 

to both our active duty family members and retirees who are just outside this limited drive time area, which has recently been waived for now. This issue is directly 

related to our other submitted issue (see issue # 1, above) regarding the need to 

allow TRICARE managers to designate to a civilian primary care manager (PCM). 

The availability of care in Alaska’s remote areas does not fit a cookie cutter approach appropriate for more densely populated regions of our Nation and this part 

of the TMA rule would be highly detrimental to Prime enrollees who truly have no 

other valid option for promised and equitable levels of care. They should not be 

forced to reduce their policy to TRICARE Standard due to location. A fair and more 

effective alternative solution is proven by the example of other states who can establish civilian PCMs, but Alaska has no such authority within the TMA or contract 

at this time. In addition to hurting our active duty family members and retirees who 

reside outside these drive time limits, approval of this proposed rule will result in 

the certain failure by TMA to allow TRICARE managers the flexibility to manage 

for best practices in the best interests of its patient population which must rely 

upon TRICARE PRIME, since there is no other equitable level of promised health 

care available. 

79 

TMA’s Proposed Rule: 

‘‘TRICARE Management Activity published a proposed rule in the Federal Register <http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/E9-28357.htm> on Nov. 27, 

2009, to incorporate current practices from an ongoing demonstration 

project as permanent changes to the administration of the TRICARE program in Alaska.’’ 

‘‘TRICARE has recognized the unique circumstances existing in Alaska, 

which make the provision of medical care to TRICARE beneficiaries 

through the TRICARE program operated in the other 49 states unrealistic. 

Recognizing these unique conditions and circumstances, the Department of 

Defense has conducted a demonstration project in the State of Alaska since 

implementation of the TRICARE program under which certain exceptions 

have been made for administration of the program in Alaska.’’ 

‘‘This rule proposes no change to the TRICARE benefit or to those who 

are eligible for it. However, the rule does eliminate the financial underwriting of health care costs in the State of Alaska by a TRICARE contractor. In addition, TRICARE Prime may be limited to those eligible beneficiaries enrolled to a military treatment facility and those eligible for 

TRICARE Prime Remote.’’ 

RECOMMENDATION: Modify the TMA rule proposal to specifically eliminate any 

potential to restrict Alaska’s TRICARE Prime enrollment or coverage using a drive 

time limitation. Instead, specifically allow Alaska’s TRICARE managers to more 

flexibly resolve the problem by designating these enrollees to a civilian PCM (see 

issue #1). 

CONTACT INFO: Joe Sheehan, joe.sheehan@gci.net. 

Senator BEGICH. I want to thank you, Joe, for your testimony. 

And just to remind folks, as you do testify and you have that written statement, that is also part of the record. Again, thank you for 

visiting Washington, DC, that one time. It gave me a great idea 

and I appreciate you sharing that number 1 choice because we 

moved it forward. I thank you for that. 

LTC. SHEEHAN. Thank you for your efforts, sir. 

Senator BEGICH. Absolutely. I’ll have some questions I know on 

that. Ron Woolf, thank you for being here with the ESGR and a 

great group of supporting our employers supporting the Guard. 

Oh, you know what we need to do, we need to slide that microphone over. I apologize. One, we want to make sure the people can 

hear you, but also that it’s on the record. There we go. So, please. 

STATEMENT OF RON WOOLF, CONTROLLER AT GOLDEN VALLEY ELECTRIC ASSOCIATION; AND UNIT REPRESENTATIVE, 

EMPLOYER SUPPORT, GUARD AND RESERVE 

Mr. WOOLF. I’d like to thank you for the opportunity to testify 

here today. In my real job, I’m the controller at Golden Valley Electric Association and I volunteer to support men and women serving 

our Nation’s National Guard and Reserve. I think I’ll just read my 

testimony. 

Senator BEGICH. Sure, please. 

Mr. WOOLF. Thank you. Members of our local Employer Supported Guard and Reserve met to discuss my testimony and the 

message we’d like to share. ESGR is a Department of Defense organization that seeks to promote a culture in which all American employers support and value the military service of their employees. 

The Nation’s reserve components, referring to the total of all National Guard members and reserve forces from all branches of the 

military, comprise approximately 48 percent of total available military manpower. The current national defense strategy considers 

the National Guard and Reserve as full partners in the fully inteVerDate Nov 24 2008 20:49 Dec 09, 2010 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00083 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 H:\ACTIVE\021610AK.TXT SVETS PsN: PAULIN
80 

grated total force. ESGR’s mission focuses on building relationships 

between guard members and reservists and their employers. We 

strive to educate employers about the Uniform Services’ Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, USERRA, while promoting 

the benefits of hiring military personnel. 

USERRA is a Federal law intended to ensure that persons who 

serve or have served in the Armed Forces, reserves, National 

Guard, or other uniform services are not disadvantaged in their civilian careers because of their service, are promptly reemployed in 

their civilian jobs upon their return from duty, and are not discriminated against in employment based on past, present, or future 

military service. The Federal Government is to be a model employer, as it says in the act. 

Our experience with Fairbanks employers is excellent. As you’ve 

mentioned, we have a lot of veterans and a lot of military in Alaska. The Federal and State upper management are very well versed 

on USERRA, but mid- and low-level managers do not receive training on the Act’s requirements. This is an opportunity where the 

Veterans’ Affairs Committee can help our returning soldiers. 

When I first started with ESGR, our mission was to educate employers about their traditional National Guard and Reserve employees who are gone for short periods of time. We’ve informed employers about the importance of those missions. The extended deployments now being experienced by our soldiers has created new 

challenges for our men and women returning to the workplace. I’d 

like to share the following experiences with you. 

Deploying or returning servicemembers are often put in situations that make the transition difficult due to their immediate supervisors’ lack of knowledge. They are not provided authorized benefits, they’re excluded from consideration for promotion, and forced 

to provide written documentation to justify the rights they are 

granted under the law. 

Servicemembers have had to educate their immediate supervisors on their rights. The Federal Government is to be a model 

employer under USERRA and yet large entities like Federal and 

State agencies often have the largest number of inquiries or requests for assistance after deployment due to lack of knowledge of 

mid- and low-level managers. Co-worker relationships are challenging for many National Guard and Reserve servicemembers. Deployed servicemembers return to a work environment that sometimes is hostile due to lack of knowledge on the part of the co-workers, co-workers who have had to pick up additional workloads or 

wonder why the deployed employee received a benefit or seniority 

when they are not at work. Co-workers hired while a servicemember is deployed often have the hardest time understanding the 

situation because they did not see the support the deployed worker 

received prior to deploying, all the effort made by the deploying 

servicemember to help the employer prior to their departure. 

When servicemembers return to this type of workplace negativity, it is hard to readjust to their jobs and their deployment can 

be seen as a cause of strife in the workplace. When one local soldier returned to work with an employee that was temporarily promoted to backfill his position during his deployment, that employee 

enlisted the support of several other personnel in the office in an 

81 

attempt to keep himself at the higher grade. This led to a very 

negative work environment until several months later when the 

temporary replacement was moved to another position in the 

department. 

Businesses and organizations have a difficult time temporarily 

replacing National Guard and Reserve members who are educated 

and trained for their jobs that need to be filled by other employees. 

Some businesses and organizations are unable to find temporary 

employees and will fill from within or for a current employee the 

opportunity to work temporarily in another position at a higher 

level, which still leaves the employer short of personnel. 

The Veterans’ Affairs Committee can help National Guard and 

Reserve members by rallying the support of mid- and low-level 

managers for our soldiers. While this is an overall task to educate 

all employers, you do have influence over our Federal managers 

and front line employees. Education will be the key to understanding perhaps federally mandating supervisor training that includes USERRA. It would benefit the employer, employee, and the 

co-workers. 

We at ESGR have posters that identify basic USERRA rules directed primarily to the employer. We could use the same medium 

directed toward co-workers to provide an understanding and to obtain their support rather than a disdain for our soldiers and airmen. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Woolf follows:] 

82 


Woolfps1.eps
83 


Woolfps2.eps
84 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you very much. That was very good, Ron. 

Thank you for your testimony. Thank you, all four of you, for your 

testimony and presenting it. I have some questions. I’ll randomly 

go through them and then as I finish this, we’ll have a second 

panel with some questions you have generated for me to ask them, 

which is good. That’s part of the process here, and so you have 

given me some good thoughts. 

Linda, you had mentioned several areas that claims are sent out 

or brokered to, but the one that really stuck out for you was San 

Diego. 

Ms. BOISSEAU. Oh, the claims are horrible, sir. 

Senator BEGICH. And is it that once they receive them, it’s the 

process they take? Or is it a combination of things, how long it 

takes them to do it, or lack of communication? What are the—— 

Ms. BOISSEAU. It’s a little bit of both. 

Senator BEGICH. OK. 

Ms. BOISSEAU. First of all, it’s not necessarily the length of time. 

It’s the caliber of the rating decision that they render. 

Senator BEGICH. Because you said there’s a high rate of appeals 

off of those. 

Ms. BOISSEAU. Absolutely, because of—they have not looked at 

the evidence that was presented in the medical records. It’s like 

they didn’t even open the darn thing. 


Woolfps3.eps
85 

Senator BEGICH. Is there something you have at your disposal 

and if not I’ll be asking some other folks on the next panel, but 

these claims get brokered out to, you said, Salt Lake, Seattle, and 

San Diego as examples. Do you have in your capacity to report, 

well, San Diego, 70 percent go to appeal? Or Seattle, 20. Do you 

have any of that hard data? If you don’t, that’s OK, I’ll ask the next 

panel to—— 

Ms. BOISSEAU. No, not at this time, but the thing of it is we have 

to broker those claims out because we do not have the people 

trained in Anchorage—— 

Senator BEGICH. Right. 

Ms. BOISSEAU [continuing]. To handle obviously the rating systems. I’m not being disrespectful and I do understand that. I’m not 

dinging the VA here for that, you know, because to become a rater, 

it’s a very long process if you’re worth your salt; and it’s really an 

intense system, you know. But for some reason they have a lot—— 

Senator BEGICH. They always have a high appeal rate. 

Ms. BOISSEAU. A very high appeal rate as compared to the other 

sources, yes, sir. 

Senator BEGICH. That’s a good point. I mean part of what the 

process of this hearing is, is to not only look at some of the VA 

services, the employment services, those issues, how we can look to 

improve them, but this is good information. I’ll—— 

Ms. BOISSEAU. It’s like having to do the claim all over again because you’re trying to start from square one because then you’ve 

got the official Notice of Disagreement. They have to go through 

the process, and we win anywhere from 63 to 82 percent of those 

claims on appeal or Notice of Disagreement. I mean, like from February of last year to this year, we have done over $8 million in 

claims just for the disabled veterans in the State of Alaska. 

I mean, we’re out there humping and trying really hard—— 

Senator BEGICH. Right. 

Ms. BOISSEAU [continuing]. I mean I’m just at a frustration level, 

which I know also for Anchorage because they don’t have control 

over those raters from those other places. 

Senator BEGICH. Other places. 

Ms. BOISSEAU. I don’t know that it’s being brokered out until I 

receive the final determination on that claim. So, it’s nothing like, 

hey, wait a minute. Should I put a note on this: Do not broker out. 

I can’t do that. I can’t do that. That would be ludicrous. 

Senator BEGICH. Right. But you don’t get noticed on when 

they—— 

Ms. BOISSEAU. I get no notice until the claim comes back. 

Senator BEGICH. Until completion. 

Ms. BOISSEAU. Absolutely. Yes, sir. 

Senator BEGICH. So you don’t know where it’s actually being 

dealt with at that point? 

Ms. BOISSEAU. Correct. 

Senator BEGICH. Let me ask you one other question and that is— 

I thought it was interesting—the Call Center. I don’t want to put 

words in your mouth, but what I heard was your concern that the 

Call Center, when there are questions they may not be aware of 

some of Alaska’s, kind of unique situations—— 

Ms. BOISSEAU. Absolutely. 

86 

Senator BEGICH [continuing]. Like the property tax exemption is 

a great one. 

Ms. BOISSEAU. Absolutely. 

Senator BEGICH. And you’re right, it’s 170,000. 

Ms. BOISSEAU. Uh-huh. 

Senator BEGICH. And, you know, how does that work? 

Ms. BOISSEAU. Hunting, fishing license, all the other stuff that 

goes with it. 

Senator BEGICH. Right. The hunting license, the fishing license. 

Ms. BOISSEAU. But they can’t get any of that without that letter 

stating, you know, that—— 

Senator BEGICH. Right. 

Ms. BOISSEAU. You know. And they have to be handled in a timely manner, by the 31st of March. And if it’s not, then—— 

Senator BEGICH. Yeah, you lose the year. 

Ms. BOISSEAU. Absolutely. 

Senator BEGICH. There’s no two ways about it. 

Ms. BOISSEAU. They do not acknowledge the property tax like, 

let’s say that somebody filed in January of this year. It was granted, you know, all the way. But I mean retroactively they still have 

to pay those taxes. So I mean—— 

Senator BEGICH. That’s right, yeah. 

Ms. BOISSEAU [continuing]. For that delay, it’s a big loss of revenue for the veteran’s family. 

Senator BEGICH. And is it your sense, and I’ll ask this as we get 

to the next panel, but is it your sense that maybe some additional 

training for those call centers—— 

Ms. BOISSEAU. Perhaps on Alaska’s unique situation. I don’t—— 

Senator BEGICH. Right, for those that handle Alaska calls. 

Ms. BOISSEAU. It should not be that difficult. But who is to say? 

The VA may take it any time and say, OK, we’re not going into 

Phoenix anymore on the 1–800 number; maybe we’re going to go 

to blah, blah, blah. So it’s an easy fix, but it’s frustrating because 

the veterans are not getting that paperwork in a timely manner. 

It’s a simple, easy fix if the training includes, ‘‘Alaska is unique 

with the property tax exemption ladder.’’ It shouldn’t take a rocket 

scientist to figure that out—to make sure that if it says Alaska, 

let’s just say, OK; Alaska, the benefits associated with 50 percent 

or higher. That’s an easy fix for a telephone person. 

Senator BEGICH. Yeah. And the good thing about Alaska is we 

just have one area code, so it’s not complicated to figure—— 

Ms. BOISSEAU. No, it’s not. 

Senator BEGICH. I’m learning that in DC, you can be calling just 

a few miles and have a whole different area code. 

Ms. BOISSEAU. I’m not trying to be mean about it, but it does—— 

Senator BEGICH. No, no, that’s good information. 

Ms. BOISSEAU. It does need to be fixed. I mean, these little things 

add up to frustration levels at—— 

Senator BEGICH. Yeah. 

Ms. BOISSEAU. But, I mean, $170,000. I would be chewing somebody’s foot off. OK? 

Senator BEGICH. Yeah. No, I hear you. Thank you, Linda. That 

was very good. That helps me with some additional work. But let 

me ask Robert. 

87 

You did a great job. You had good testimony. You clearly are 

anxious to be productive, have a job, work, get educated, do all the 

things that you want to do to be successful in life. 

I noted you found additional services through student services 

within the university that you were unaware of, but not until later 

down the road, where you had a veterans’ coordinator maybe not 

as aware of some of those services. Is that a fair statement or am 

I—— 

Mr. ROOF. Well, she works in financial aid. It’s just one of those 

things that you—— 

Senator BEGICH. Two different—— 

Mr. ROOF. You tag ‘‘veterans’’ onto something and so automatically I say, oh, that’s for me. You know, like that’s who I think I 

should be talking to—— 

Senator BEGICH. Gotcha. 

Mr. ROOF [continuing]. Naturally. Because like I said, navigating 

this whole system, that’s all I spend my time doing, you know, trying to find some guidance. So I’ve tried talking to them, you know, 

as far as asking is this the correct paperwork I’m filling out; is this 

what I need to be doing? 

Senator BEGICH. Right. 

Mr. ROOF. Is there anything else I need to know as a student, 

as a disabled veteran going to UAF, is there anything else I need 

to know that can help me be successful? Like that’s all I’m trying 

to do, is get on with my life and move past, you know, these things 

that have happened to me. I don’t regret any of this, but I’m trying 

to now make a new path in life and any help I can have doing 

that—and, like I said, in dealing with all these things—I’d be more 

than grateful. 

And not knowing about them until after all this time—you know, 

I’ve probably taken years off my life just stressing out about this 

stuff; and it’s unfortunate to me, I feel, that I’ve had this much 

trouble in trying to—like I said, I’m not looking for handouts, I’m 

not looking for people to sit there and do my homework for me. 

Senator BEGICH. Right. 

Mr. ROOF. But just tailoring these classes—I mean, I don’t know 

how to learn some of the ways some of these other students do. I 

mean, everybody has different learning styles, but coupled with the 

PTSD and my own learning style, it’s very frustrating. Like I sit 

in class, yet I can’t concentrate and just—— 

Senator BEGICH. Well, let me ask this, Robert. Was the assumption that when you saw the veterans’ coordinator, you had a broader sense of what they were offering, but learned it was really about 

financial aid. 

Mr. ROOF. Correct. 

Senator BEGICH. And when you went to student services, it was 

much broader and suddenly you saw some opportunity there. 

Mr. ROOF. Well, all that I really got out of student services—my 

VA counselor at the time had told me that, you know, the university has something, but basically all that was, was I went in and 

they asked, oh, what is it that you feel? And I said, well, I have 

terrible anxiety. You know, there’s times where I may just need to 

get up and walk out of class because I’m having whatever issues. 

And so, it’s basically a letter that’s written up and you get two 

88 

choices. It says this student might choose to leave class for a few 

minutes to, you know, bring himself back together and then return; 

or this student likes to work in smaller groups because he can’t 

deal with large groups at this time. And that was all it was. There 

was no additional explanation that I have these difficulties concentrating and, you know, whatever. I wasn’t informed that there 

could be more that was done. 

Senator BEGICH. Sure. 

Mr. ROOF. Say I was, you know, an autistic student or, you 

know—— 

Senator BEGICH. Well, let me ask you this, Robert, if I could. 

Would it have made a difference if when you walked in to the university for the first time and you wanted to be a student, that there 

was a person that said they work with veterans and they worked 

on everything: financial aid, services, stuff that students need. 

They said I’m going to be your partner while you figure out what 

you want to do and help you through this early stage of getting 

started. Would that have made a difference to you? 

Mr. ROOF. Sir, what’s the voc rehab program for? That’s my 

question. That’s what I thought I would be getting from them. 

That’s why I elected to use the voc rehab program. And I may be 

wrong. I—— 

Senator BEGICH. Well, we’re going to ask some folks next up, 

so—— 

Mr. ROOF. Apparently, I was wrong because when I—I failed to 

mention before, but when I made a call to the supervisor explaining that I was basically told that they—the voc rehab program— 

weren’t there to hold my hand. So, therefore, I feel that it’s not my 

job to hold voc rehab’s hand. 

Like why am I going out and being sent to find all this information and all these inner workings of the school system when—and 

constantly, you know, being forced to prove that I’m doing the right 

thing, like I don’t have enough problems going on. I don’t need to 

be harassed by people that are supposed to be helping me. 

Senator BEGICH. Right, right. 

Mr. ROOF. So yes, basically, it would be nice if there was someone there at the university or in-house at the VA that says, OK, 

this is your goal, this is what we want to do, this—you know, make 

you a productive member of society again. And, say these are the 

necessary steps that you’ll be taking. 

Senator BEGICH. Right. Kind of guide you. 

Mr. ROOF. Right. 

Senator BEGICH. To give you the freedom to figure it out, but 

also be there to kind of say, well, here’s the 20 services that are 

available for you. Kind of help you select, but yet at the end of the 

day you’re ultimately responsible for it, though helping guide you 

through that. 

Mr. ROOF. Right. Well, just being aware of the information. Like 

I said, I just now found out about the whole disability thing—— 

Senator BEGICH. Sure. 

Mr. ROOF [continuing]. And the tailoring of this. To say these are 

certain things someone that better understands. That’s just it; I 

think part of the problem with voc rehab is he doesn’t fully understand the whole—— 

89 

Senator BEGICH. The whole picture. 

Mr. ROOF. The whole picture of my disabilities and the school 

system. Like I said, when you put those two things together there’s 

a reason why I failed my class. It’s not because I didn’t show up 

or I didn’t want to be there or I didn’t do the work. It’s because 

I had other issues going on. I have symptoms, flare-ups, or whatever, and things happen. It’s not me wanting to go burn, you know, 

taxpayer dollars and freelancing my education, as they put it. I’m 

just trying to get on with life. 

Senator BEGICH. Yeah. That’s very good, Robert. Thank you very 

much for some of that information. 

Let me go to Joe. When you were in my office, you were like, 

bam, bam, bam, and once again you are consistent with that, which 

clearly shows your military background; that is, about mission, accomplishment, and goals. 

So, I want to pick one of them out and comment on one. I agree 

with you on the efforts of—on the issue of the Congress and how 

they can really mess things up because there are multiple jurisdictions; they try to, you know, package a little bit here, package a 

little bit here—stovepiping. 

So, in your situation of your description, the culture change 

which is probably the most difficult to do in any organization— 

military/non-military, government/non-government—what would be 

the one thing that you could say here’s that would make a difference to really help change the culture of the VA to understand 

what we need to be doing? This may be a bigger question than you 

can answer in a very simple way, but could you try to do that? Give 

me a thought there. 

LTC. SHEEHAN. Yes, sir. I honestly don’t know if I’m in a good 

position to judge that. I can give you a spectator’s viewpoint—— 

Senator BEGICH. Sure. 

LTC. SHEEHAN [continuing]. And I think that would give a fair 

assessment. I would say, you know, it’s a large and ponderous bureaucracy that’s tied down by politics and cultural inertia, if you 

will, which is not anybody’s fault in particular. You’ve got some 

wonderful people leading it: General Shinseki and General Peake 

before him at the very top. In the trenches every day, like I said, 

there are wonderful people like Linda B., who, you know, are caring and dedicated, are making it happen, and they know where the 

rubber meets the road, what they need on the ground. 

Unfortunately, what you have in between there, and I don’t want 

to tar everybody, is a lot of people who are invested in the status 

quo and there’s rice bowls to protect and there’s budgets that come 

down from Congress, and it’s the typical thing in any typical bureaucracy. 

Senator BEGICH. Organization, yeah. 

LTC. SHEEHAN. And I don’t mean that as a pejorative. I mean 

it as a—— 

Senator BEGICH. No, no, no, that’s good. 

LTC. SHEEHAN [continuing]. As a definition of a bureaucracy. 

And so the question is, are you listening? Do you have a cycle and 

a process for self-improvement? And even if you do, are you able 

to fit that into the paradigms that are given to you by Congress 

and the mandates for roles and missions and say this is what you 

90 

must do and you can’t cross money over to other agencies and everything like this. 

So it’s real easy to tar people with saying they’re not doing whatever, and I think in many ways people have their arms tied behind 

their backs yet there are some people who outright need to be fired. 

I’ll just give you that perspective. On the other hand, you know, 

99 percent of them out there are working hard and they have effective leadership. They just need to have the sort of task force effort 

we’ve been discussing—— 

Senator BEGICH. Right. 

LTC. SHEEHAN [continuing]. To be able to say—— 

Senator BEGICH. To kind of shake it up a little bit. 

LTC. SHEEHAN [continuing]. How can we make this work on the 

ground? What kind of culture do you have? And going back to, you 

mentioned my military background, so this is my perspective. How 

can you win the battle if you know that you’re losing it and you 

aren’t listening to your commanders out there on the ground who 

are decisively engaged every day? That’s what they’ve got to do. We 

don’t do that well, I’ll tell you, which is a charitable way of saying 

it. 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you very much. Ron, I just wanted to 

comment and then you can comment if you want to. I was very intrigued by your comments about the Federal Government and that 

we could be doing more with our mid-level management regarding 

education on the importance of the program. It seems like what I 

was hearing is there’s just an information gap. Is that—— 

Mr. WOOLF. Exactly. I think the training needs to go down to the 

managers that are on the front lines that deal directly with our deployed soldiers. Get some education for them plus something that 

would give the rest of the employees understanding of what’s going 

on and the rights that their fellow employees who choose to be in 

the guard and reserve—— 

Senator BEGICH. I want to ask at a later time, maybe not during 

the hearing here, but for my staff to follow up on a question. And 

that is, I know when I was mayor of Anchorage, every Monday we 

had new employee orientation. You know, we’d have a high turnover rate in one department, low in others, but generally you have 

new people always coming in. And because of the conflicts we’re engaged in, how engaged everyone is, I’d be very curious as we talk 

to the Federal workforce what kind of orientation do they offer at 

that first point of entry for a new employee, for example. Because 

there are all ranges, everything from the entry-level staff to management and everything in between. 

So you’ve given me some real good food for thought here. I greatly appreciate that. 

Mr. WOOLF. Thank you. 

Senator BEGICH. Let me end this panel. Again, thank you all 

very much. You did a great job in helping shed some light on the 

positives and the negatives and where we can make some improvements. So thank you very much. 

We’re going to switch out panels. Again, thank you all for being 

here, absolutely. 

[Pause.] 

91 

Senator BEGICH. If the next panel can line up, that’d be great. 

As the next panel is coming up, I want to say we’re going to run 

a little bit behind, so I want to keep things rolling along here. We 

have five presenters, some with additional staff. Go ahead and take 

your seats, those that are participating in the next panel. 

This next panel will be five individuals: the Assistant Secretary 

of Labor, Ray Jefferson, Secretary of Labor for Veterans’ Employment and Training; Mark Bilosz, Director, Anchorage Regional Office, Veterans Benefits Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Verdie Bowen, Sr., Administrator, Office of Veterans 

Affairs, Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, State of Alaska; Belinda Finn, Assistant Inspector General for Audits and Evaluations, Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Veterans 

Affairs; and Dr. Susan Pendergrass, Director of the VISN 20, Veterans Health Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs. 

We have other folks who will be joining them for the question 

portion if there are questions that they need to answer. 

What I’d like to do at this time, if Borough Assembly Member 

Hank Bartos is still here. He was here earlier. We want to thank 

him for joining us in this presentation and meeting today. 

We will lead off with Assistant Secretary Ray Jefferson. Ray, you 

have been around a little bit in the last couple days and I really 

appreciate you coming here to Alaska. For those that are unaware 

of what enthusiasm is, you are about to feel it and see it. I’m always nervous now going to meetings with Ray because I always 

thought I was impromptu with ideas and getting things done. He, 

by far, exceeds me by light years. 

So, Ray, you’re on. 

Mr. JEFFERSON. All right. 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you very much for coming here, Mr. 

Secretary. 

STATEMENT OF HON. RAYMOND JEFFERSON, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF VETERANS’ EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING SERVICE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 

Mr. JEFFERSON. Thank you, sir, it’s my pleasure. So, Senator 

Begich, thank you very much for the invitation. And to those behind me, veterans and citizens of Alaska and the Fairbanks community, I’m thrilled to be with you here today. 

Let me tell you a little bit about who we are and what we do and 

how we can be helpful. Myself, a veteran, served with one of the 

ranger battalions, through the ranger bat, and also 1st Special 

Forces Group. I lost my hand in the line of duty trying to protect 

some colleagues from a hand grenade, went down through the voc 

rehab program through the Department of Veterans Affairs, and 

right now I have the privilege of serving with this great agency. 

What we do is we proudly serve veterans and transitioning 

servicemembers. We prepare and guide them in their quest for 

meaningful employment; we protect their employment rights; we 

maximize their employment opportunities. How do we do that? We 

have 240 people around America, so we do it in partnership with 

Congress, sir, with the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, ESGR and State workforce agencies, the veterans 

92 

service organizations, the private sector, and nonprofits and other 

government agencies around America. 

So, what are some of the programs that we have that are relevant here and can help veterans in Alaska? First let’s start with 

a program that we call Jobs for Veterans State Grants. In simple 

terms, we have 2,000 employment representatives around America; 

13 of them are in Alaska and 8 of those 13 can be accessed through 

Anchorage or through Fairbanks. So if you’re a veteran who is 

seeking employment or who wants to make a change, contact one 

of our 13 employment representatives. Tom Hall, I’m going to 

quickly ask if you could just stand up. This is my State director. 

This is the go-to person in Alaska for employment opportunities. 

Number 2, homeless veterans. We do one stand-down a year. It 

is in Anchorage, but we can connect you with opportunities if you 

are a homeless veteran. Three, Rob Roof, I hope you’re still here. 

AUDIENCE MEMBER. He stepped out. 

Mr. JEFFERSON. All right. I would like to connect him with a program we have called America’s Heroes at Work. If you know a veteran who has PTS or PTSD or TBI, we have a program that can 

help them find meaningful employment. It gets rave reviews from 

the servicemembers who are in it and also from the employers. I 

also want to connect Rob and any other veteran taking advantage 

of the new GI Bill in Alaska with Student Veterans of America. Sir, 

this is a new veterans service organization. Their whole job is to 

make sure that when veterans like Rob hit campus that they can 

assimilate easily to the culture, the programs, the resources there. 

That’s what it’s set up for and it’s a great dynamic new, young veterans service organization. 

Let’s shift to Native American veterans. I, myself, am part Penobscot. My great-grandfather was 100 percent Native American. 

This is an issue that’s near and dear to my heart. We’ve recently 

invited a core group of tribal leaders to the U.S. Department of 

Labor. The Secretary and all the agency heads were there to begin 

learning how we can better serve tribal leaders throughout America. But that’s what’s happening in Washington. 

Right here in Alaska this morning we met with a variety of Native Americans and Native American veteran business leaders, and 

we are doing an assessment right now to determine the best ways 

to serve Native American veterans in America. And, as of today, 

I am instructing that team to make contact with the tribal council 

leaders in Alaska to make sure that the issues, recommendations, 

and suggestions of tribal council leaders here are heard. Sir, I want 

to thank you for bringing me to that meeting this morning. 

We are also going to be out more on the tribal lands and to the 

major convening events and conferences of Native Americans and 

Native American veterans this year, 2010. 

Next, rural outreach. You know, it’s great if you have a lot of 

fancy companies in your city, but suppose you’re in Kotzebue where 

we’re going tomorrow, or in the villages? So we want to be exploring the power of e-commerce and Internet-based home businesses 

to provide employment opportunities for veterans in rural America, 

and, sir, as you’ve educated me, highly rural Alaska. 

Two more quick things—USERRA, protecting employment rights. 

You know, I was very glad to know that the employer community 

93 

in Alaska is very supportive of the guard and reserve. In this entire State with this tremendous number of veterans, there’s only 

five to six complaints a year. That’s incredible. But we also know 

that there’s tremendous stress being placed, so we want to look at 

how we can work to help employers that have very small numbers 

of employees where some of those are guard and reserve that are 

going for extended deployment. We are meeting with the head of 

ESGR in DC to begin a dialog to try to get to some action items 

and see if there are some things we can do even as a demonstration 

project. 

Finally, we have 165,000 servicemembers who leave the military 

every year. They go to a 3-day transition assistance program. I’m 

really changing this to a transition acceleration program. The bottom line is this program hasn’t been modernized in 17 years. Right 

now it’s a 240 slide Power Point show over 3 days. You can imagine 

how exciting that is. We’re going to go ahead and transform the entire thing, bring in best practices, improve the facilitation. We want 

to make it economically relevant, immediately useful, more engaging, and even fun—let me bring that word in—for participants. 

So this is my first trip to Alaska. I’m a kama’aina of Hawaii. Hawaii is home. I look forward to this being the beginning of a relationship, this being the beginning of a journey; and also the opportunity to learn from all of you here in this room regarding decisions 

of Alaska and how we can do a better job. 

Thank you, sir. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Jefferson follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF RAYMOND M. JEFFERSON, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR

VETERANS’ EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Senator Begich and Distinguished Members, thank you for inviting me to appear 

before you today to discuss the employment assistance and outreach services provided to the Veterans in Alaska. 

The mission of the Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) is to provide Veterans and transitioning Servicemembers with the resources and services to 

succeed in the workforce by maximizing their employment opportunities, protecting 

their employment rights, and meeting labor market demands with qualified 

Veterans. 

We accomplish our mission through three distinct functions: 1) conducting employment and training programs; 2) enforcing relevant Federal laws and regulations; and 3) providing transition assistance services. 

VETS’ PROGRAMS

VETS administers a formula grant program to States that directly meets the 

goals of its mission. The Jobs for Veterans State Grants (JVSG) program funds two 

occupations, the Disabled Veterans Outreach Program specialist (DVOP) and the 

Local Veterans Employment Representatives (LVER). DVOP specialists provide outreach services, and intensive employment assistance to meet the employment needs 

of eligible Veterans. LVER staff conducts outreach to employers and engages in advocacy efforts with hiring executives to increase employment opportunities for Veterans, encourages the hiring of disabled Veterans, and generally assists Veterans 

to gain and retain employment. In Alaska, VETS funds six LVERs and seven 

DVOPs. Of these 13 individuals, eight are accessible in Anchorage and Fairbanks. 

To meet the needs of homeless Veterans and help reintegrate them into the workforce, VETS administers the Homeless Veterans’ Reintegration Program (HVRP). In 

Alaska, VETS sponsors one stand-down each year in Anchorage for homeless Veterans. The stand-down provides basic services, medical care, food and clothing for 

Alaska’s homeless population. Veterans with significant barriers to employment or 

service-connected disabilities are also served through the Veterans’ Workforce Investment Program (VWIP)—a focused and innovative training program that coordinates services available through other VETS administered programs. 

94 

Both the homeless and workforce investment Veterans programs are funded 

through a competitive grant process. This year, for the first time ever, VETS will 

issue a Solicitation for Grant Applications (SGA) for homeless women Veterans. We 

also will soon issue an SGA to reinstitute the Incarcerated Veterans Transition Program (IVTP) to assist Veterans who will be transitioning back to society from incarceration. Additionally, we are in the process of developing an SGA for both HVRP 

and VWIP. Service providers for these deserving populations in Alaska are encouraged to apply for these competitive grants. 

NATIVE AMERICAN VETERANS

To meet the needs of Native American Veterans, especially those on tribal lands, 

Secretary Solis hosted—and VETS participated in—a Summit of Tribal Leaders at 

the Department of Labor late last year. We discussed the challenges facing Native 

American Veterans and potential solutions. This event began the process of better 

serving this community. VETS will also participate in a number of major Native 

American outreach events in 2010. Furthermore, we are conducting a study on the 

employment needs of Native American Veterans living on tribal lands to identify 

best practices for serving this population. 

USERRA

Our compliance programs investigate an average of five or six complaints per year 

filed by Veterans and other protected individuals in Alaska under the Uniformed 

Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). We also assess 

complaints alleging violations of statutes requiring Veterans’ Preference in Federal 

hiring, and implement and collect information regarding Veteran employment by 

Federal contractors. 

One of our commitments to Veterans is to increase awareness of USERRA, thereby increasing our ability to protect vulnerable populations. To improve USERRA’s 

impact, VETS recently completed a Lean-Six-Sigma quality enhancement and process efficiency assessment of USERRA, with a view toward streamlining, improving 

quality, and increasing responsiveness to our Veteran clients. The goals of the assessment were to: 1) identify ways of ensuring a consistent, high standard of investigations; and 2) determine other steps to improve the program and its outcomes. 

We have begun work on identifying an electronic case management system to eliminate the paper-centric aspect of investigations and improve efficiency. Access to this 

system will be shared with our Federal enforcement partners. We are also working 

closely with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to ensure that the Federal 

Government serves as a role model for honoring USERRA. 

TRANSITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

VETS’ transition assistance services are offered through the Transition Assistance 

Program (TAP), which provides employment workshops and direct services for separating military members, including those who are seriously wounded and injured. 

TAP is a Department of Defense (DOD) program that partners with the Department of Labor (DOL), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the Department 

of Homeland Security (DHS). TAP has four components: 

1. Pre-separation counseling—this is mandatory for all transitioning Servicemembers and is provided by the military services; 

2. TAP employment workshops—these are voluntary on the part of the transitioning Servicemember and are administered through DOL and its state partners; 

3. VA benefits briefing—these briefings are also voluntary and administered by 

the VA; and 

4. Disabled Transition Assistance Program—also voluntary and administered by 

the VA. 

TAP EMPLOYMENT WORKSHOPS

Since 1991, when DOL began providing employment workshops pursuant to section 502 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1991 (P.L. 101– 

510), we have provided employment and job training assistance and other transitional services to more than one million separating and retiring military members 

and their spouses. DOL was further directed to provide these services at overseas 

locations by section 309 of the Veterans Benefits Act of 2003 (P.L. 108–183). 

VETS began facilitating TAP workshops at overseas military installations where, 

by previous interagency agreement, the DOD had provided TAP workshops since the 

program’s inception. We are currently conducting TAP employment workshops at 55 

sites overseas, including Germany, Japan, Italy, Korea, Guam and the United KingVerDate Nov 24 2008 20:49 Dec 09, 2010 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00098 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6621 H:\ACTIVE\021610AK.TXT SVETS PsN: PAULIN
95 

dom. Our mission is to provide TAP at every location requested by the Armed Services or National Guard and Reserve Components. 

VETS provides employment search workshops based on projections made by each 

of the Armed Services and DHS, for the U.S. Coast Guard. DVOPs and LVERs are 

the primary source for TAP Employment Workshop facilitation stateside. However, 

because of the distance between many state employment offices and the military installations, as well as the rapid increase in Workshop participants, contract 

facilitators were added in early FY 1992 and supplemented by Federal staff in FY 

1996. Alaska currently does not use contract facilitators. 

DOD recently set a goal for TAP Employment Workshop participation of 85 percent of separating servicemembers. Eighty-one percent of active-duty transitioning 

Servicemembers currently attend the DOL TAP employment workshops, a 30 percent increase in participation since 2001. TAP employment workshop participation 

is expected to increase over the next year, and we plan to target workshop delivery 

to spouses and family members of separating Servicemembers, including those with 

limited English proficiency. 

VETS is committed to ensuring a consistently high level of instruction, service 

and quality for all Servicemembers and spouses attending TAP Employment Workshops. Therefore, VETS requires that all TAP facilitators receive training conducted 

by the National Veterans Training Institute (NVTI) at the University of Colorado 

in Denver. NVTI provides competency-based training to further develop and enhance the professional skills of Veterans’ employment and training service providers 

throughout the United States. 

An Alaska DVOP or LVER representative attends each TAP workshop session 

here to discuss their respective roles and responsibilities in providing job search assistance. Since most transitioning Servicemembers return to some other state, this 

information is provided to help the Servicemember contact the DVOP and LVER 

representative in their respective states to assist them directly with their re-integration into the local job market in their areas. 

Alaska averages more than 60 TAP employment workshops annually with approximately 1,500 transitioning Servicemembers in attendance. This includes about 

one work shop per quarter with the Coast Guard. There are four major TAP sites, 

encompassing all military service branches plus the U.S. Coast Guard with an additional four sites that vary in size and frequency according to need. 

National Guard and Reserve personnel in Alaska are informed that they can attend TAP for up to 180 days after they complete their active duty commitment. An 

individual DVOP or LVER can facilitate a TAP employment workshop, or they may 

do so as a unit. 

The Alaska DVET (Director of Veterans’ Employment and Training) meets annually with the DVOPs and LVERs who facilitate the TAP employment workshops to 

discuss transitioning Servicemember’s feedback and curriculum updates based on 

the input provided by these TAP recipients. 

In addition to presently reviewing TAP’s performance and impact, we are also 

working to modernize the workshop, increase its effectiveness and improve participants’ employment outcomes. Specifically, we want the content to be more economically relevant, immediately applicable, and engaging for participants. Thus far, 

we’ve solicited input from external content experts and service providers to help us 

determine what should be included in a best-practice employment transition program. We are working in close cooperation with our partners at DOD, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 

this endeavor. 

Late last year, our three agencies engaged in a weeklong working group to develop a joint, multi-year, strategic plan for TAP. We’re all committed to ensuring 

the plan is action-oriented and will have a direct, positive impact on our transitioning Servicemembers. The plan will involve an increased emphasis on the employment needs of the Reserve components and Servicemembers who have been wounded or injured, or who are ill. 

RESERVE COMPONENT AND NATIONAL GUARD EMPLOYMENT WORKSHOP

Global military commitments have necessitated a mobilization of Guard and Reserve members that is unprecedented in modern times. The longer mobilization periods result in these Servicemembers now being eligible for Veterans’ benefits, including TAP. The employment workshop is available for Guard or Reserve Members, 

along with all other Servicemembers, at one of the 215 transition offices located on 

military installations in the United States as well as overseas locations. 

However, Reserve and National Guard members usually transition at fewer locations, referred to as demobilization sites. Typically the demobilization process is 

96 

rapid, taking a matter of days once the Servicemembers arrive back in the United 

States from overseas. During demobilization, Servicemembers may be expected to 

participate in many separate briefings and activities. This leaves little or no time 

for a full two and one-half day employment workshop. Nevertheless, we have found 

that many National Guard and Reserve Servicemembers would benefit from such 

transition assistance. Our State Directors have coordinated with each State Adjutant General, and they work directly with the individual Reserve and National 

Guard commanders to make special arrangements following demobilization in order 

to present a modified TAP employment workshop to Guard and Reserve Servicemembers. Based on requests from Reserve Component Commanders or Adjutant 

Generals and through coordination with our VETS’ state directors and local VA 

staff, VETS has offered to tailor the workshops to the identified needs of the transitioning Reserve and National Guard members. 

In fact, since 2001 VETS has provided transition services to over 146,000 National 

Guard and Reservists. These transition services range in size and content from mobilization and demobilization briefings to the full-scale TAP employment workshops. 

They are provided in 43 states and the District of Columbia. In some states, National Guard and Reserve members have been allowed to attend the regular TAP 

for Active Component Servicemembers. The services provided to the National Guard 

and Reserve are tailored to the needs and requests made by DOD. 

To meet the transition needs of the National Guard and Reserves, in FY 2007, 

DOL directed the NVTI to develop a modular version of the TAP employment workshop. The traditional TAP employment workshop was turned into a 15-module menu 

from which Reserve and National Guard commanders may select relevant services 

for their unit members. This modular TAP menu includes a mandatory module that 

covers local labor market information, USERRA, the One-Stop Career Center system, small business opportunities, and the risks of homelessness. The other 14 modules consist of the current TAP employment workshop curriculum broken down into 

logical and connected blocks of instruction. This is not a new or separate curriculum 

for the Reserves and National Guard; rather it has been packaged to better serve 

this community. 

USERRA briefings are conducted upon request and through outreach by VETS’ 

staff. This year, VETS already has provided TAP briefings and USERRA outreach 

to the State of Alaska Army and Air National Guard units, as well as Marine Corps 

Reserve. 

In closing, I again thank you for allowing me to address you today on this very 

important issue. 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you very much. I have to tell you, when 

you mentioned that Power Point yesterday, I could not imagine sitting in a training program, seeing 240 Power Point slides and 

thinking that’s going to get me excited. So I thank you for that. 

Ray also learned today that when he asked the question how many 

people have been to Hawaii, I whispered in his ear, that’s our second home. So many Alaskans visit Hawaii. So thank you again for 

being here. 

The next person I’d like to hear from is Belinda Finn, Assistant 

Inspector General for Audits and Evaluations, Office of Inspector 

General, who did the report in regards to the VA Anchorage Regional Office. She’ll give a summary of that. 

STATEMENT OF BELINDA J. FINN, ASSISTANT INSPECTOR 

GENERAL FOR AUDITS AND EVALUATIONS, OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS; ACCOMPANIED BY BRENT ARRONTE, DIRECTOR, 

BENEFITS INSPECTIONS DIVISION, OFFICE OF AUDITS AND 

EVALUATIONS 

Ms. FINN. OK. Can everybody hear me? OK. 

Senator BEGICH. Very good. This is much better than the Anchorage assembly room, I want you to know. 

Ms. FINN. Yes, it is. 

Senator BEGICH. You hear that, Fairbanks, what I said? 

97 

Ms. FINN. Senator Begich, thank you again for the opportunity 

to be here today and testify about our inspection of the VA Regional Office in Anchorage. With me today is Mr. Brent Arronte, 

who is the director of our Benefits Inspection Division. 

The Benefit Inspection Program is a recent initiative to ensure 

that our Nation’s veterans receive timely and accurate benefits and 

services. The OIG had been scheduled to review all 57 regional offices during the 5-year cycle, but we recently began a hiring initiative that will allow us to review the offices in 3 years. 

During our inspections, we review functional and operational activities in each VARO using five protocols that cover claims processing, data integrity, management controls, information security, 

and public contact. We report on our results of each inspection as 

a snapshot in time. 

In the summer of 2009, we conducted an inspection of the Anchorage VARO focusing on the 14 operational activities and found 

that the office had problems meeting standards in 13 of those 

areas. We concluded that the management team has challenges in 

the oversight of the operational activities; improving insufficient 

network capacity to support the business processes; providing 

training to staff; and managing an internal claims brokering process. We felt that two issues specifically contributed to the challenges in management oversight at the office. 

First, the office did not have a Veterans Service Center manager 

for approximately 8 months in fiscal year 2009 and the manager 

had just recently come to the office when we did our inspection. Additionally, the VARO director manages the office from afar; he is 

currently located in Salt Lake City. Both of these positions are key 

to managing the effective operations of any regional office. 

As a result of the network capacity issues, the regional office employees had difficulty consistently accessing the computer applications required to perform their jobs and employees told us this 

problem had been occurring for over a year. 

During our review, we noted that the director had moved many 

claims from the Anchorage office to offices in Fort Harrison, MT, 

and Salt Lake City, UT. This movement of claims made it difficult 

for the staff to manage workload and associate mail with the corresponding claim folder. Because of this, we compared the staffing 

levels between Anchorage and the Boise VA Regional Office. Our 

analysis showed that Boise had about 22 more full-time employees 

for a comparable inventory of rating and non-rating claims. 

I’d also like to add that my office is currently working on a national review of VBA’s claims brokering process and we hope to report out later this year on results from the national program. 

In conclusion, we recommended that the VARO director improve 

oversight of the quality assurance process, develop a mail routing 

guide to ensure proper mail processing, research the cause and solutions to improve network capacity, and provide additional training. The director concurred with all of our recommendations and 

provided responsive comments and action plans to our recommendations. 

Senator, that concludes my oral testimony today. Thank you 

again for the opportunity to be here. Mr. Arronte and I would be 

pleased to answer any of your questions. 

98 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Finn follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF BELINDA J. FINN, ASSISTANT INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR AU- DITS AND EVALUATIONS, OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF

VETERANS AFFAIRS

Senator Begich, thank you for the opportunity to testify today on the Office of Inspector General (OIG) report, Inspection of the VA Regional Office, Anchorage, Alaska. I am accompanied by Mr. Brent Arronte, Director, Benefits Inspection Division, 

Office of Inspector General, Department of Veterans Affairs. 

BACKGROUND

The Benefits Inspection Program is a new OIG initiative to ensure our Nation’s 

veterans receive timely and accurate benefits and services. The Benefits Inspection 

Division contributes to the improvement and management of benefits processing activities and veteran services by conducting onsite inspections at VA Regional Offices 

(VAROs). 

Under the current organizational structure, the Benefits Inspection Division, consisting of two teams, will complete a review of all 57 VAROs during a 5-year cycle, 

performing 12 inspections annually. The OIG recently implemented a new hiring 

initiative to create a second Benefits Inspection Division. Tentatively, this new division will be operational by the end FY 2010. This initiative would allow the OIG 

to complete a review of all VAROs within a 3-year period. 

For each inspection, we issue a report describing VARO performance as measured 

against current VBA and VA policy. The scope of our inspections allows for a narrow 

review of work performed at each office and our reports represent a ‘‘snapshot’’ in 

time. Currently, we perform our reviews using five protocols focused on distinct 

functional areas and specific operational activities within the VARO. The protocols 

are claims processing, data integrity, management controls, information security, 

and public contact. We designed these protocols based on a risk analysis of previous 

OIG national audits and Combined Assessment Reviews, VBA’s Compensation and 

Pension Site Visit reports, Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports, and information provided by the Senate and House Veterans’ Affairs Committees. Our 

plan is to review the protocol areas annually to identify new high-risk areas and 

adjust as necessary. 

ANCHORAGE VARO RESULTS

In late July and early August 2009, we conducted onsite work at the Anchorage 

VARO. Our inspection focused on the following 14 operational activities within the 

5 protocol areas: 

• Processing of disability claims for specific service-related conditions—Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury, diabetes and disabilities related to 

herbicide exposure, and Haas claims. A Haas claim is a claim affected by a U.S. 

Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims decision that involves veterans who served in 

waters off Vietnam but did not set foot in Vietnam and whether those veterans are 

entitled to the presumption of service connection to herbicide agents. • Integrity of VBA’s Claims Management Data—Establishing correct dates of 

claim and properly tracking veteran’s claims folder using VBA’s Control of Veterans 

Records (COVERS) database. • Management Controls over Claims Processing—Systematic analysis of operations (SAO), a management driven analysis of key business activities designed to 

identify existing or potential problems; systematic technical accuracy review (STAR), 

an integral part of VBA’s quality assurance program designed to measure VARO 

performance in processing claims; and accountability for VARO date stamps and 

usage of the claims process improvement business model. This business model requires employees to rotate between the different teams within the VARO to maintain skills required to process claims. 

• Security of Veterans’ Information—Mail handling procedures and controls for 

the safeguarding of veterans documents to prevent unauthorized destruction 

• VARO Public Contact Functions—Inquiry Routing and Information System 

(IRIS), VA’s internet based public message system that allows beneficiaries a means 

to communicate with VA electronically. 

During our visit, we interviewed the VARO Director, Veterans Service Center 

Manager (VSCM), supervisors, and employees responsible for processing claims and 

providing benefit services to veterans and their dependents. We reported the Anchorage VARO management team faces challenges in providing benefits and services 

to veterans. These challenges include addressing oversight of operational activities, 

99 

improving insufficient network capacity to support business processes, providing 

training to staff, and managing an internal claims brokering process. The VARO did 

not meet VBA’s standards for 13 of the 14 operational areas inspected. 

Our analysis of disability claims processing revealed a 29 percent error rate at 

the Anchorage VARO. The error rate represents our analysis of 78 disability claims 

and not the entire caseload of the VARO. Of the 78 claims reviewed, processing errors occurred in 23 claims, of which only three errors directly affected veterans’ benefits. The VARO underpaid two veterans, one for $288 and one for $4,758. The other 

error did not involve monetary benefits. The majority of processing errors involved 

claims for PTSD and Haas claims. These errors occurred because of a lack of training for Rating Veterans Service Representatives (RVSR) responsible for making disability determinations. 

Of those 13 operational areas that did not meet VBA standards, 9 occurred because of a lack of management oversight. These areas were: tracking veterans 

claims folders, establishing the correct dates of claim, correcting errors identified by 

VBA’s STAR quality assurance program, completing SAOs, safeguarding VARO date 

stamps, safeguarding veteran’s personally identifiable information (PII), properly 

handling claims related mail, responding to electronic inquiries submitted by veterans, and, responding to congressional inquiries. 

For approximately 8-months during FY 2009, the VARO had no manager for its 

Veterans’ Service Center, a key management position affecting many operational 

areas in the Anchorage VARO. Further, the VARO Director geographically residing 

in Salt Lake City may have also attributed to diminished oversight. For example, 

the Director could not observe the effectiveness of SAO recommendations designed 

to improve station performance and delays in implementing several SAOs occurred 

while waiting for the Director in Salt Lake City to approve the plan. 

In addition to the 14 operational areas inspected, we identified serious concerns 

regarding network capacity to support current business processes. Employees reported difficulty maintaining consistent access to certain VBA applications required 

to perform their jobs. These difficulties included applications being unresponsive 

and the need for employees to restart their computers several times a day. The employees informed us this problem had already existed for over one year. We estimated the Anchorage VARO might lose 7.5 productive hours per rating specialist 

a month due to network capacity problems. 

The VARO Director implemented an internal brokering plan that moves ratingrelated claims between Anchorage, AK, Ft. Harrison, MT, and Salt Lake City, UT. 

VBA normally brokers work between VAROs because of insufficient resources to 

process certain types of work. The Anchorage VSCM informed us it is difficult to 

create a workload management plan and to control the workload of pending claims 

brokered to other VAROs. A supervisor from the Anchorage VARO indicated 

brokering impacts mail handling procedures and it is difficult to associate claims related mail with claims folder located at other VAROs. Currently, the OIG is performing a national audit to determine the effectiveness of claims brokering across 

all VBA regional offices. 

Because the Anchorage VARO was moving so much work to other VARO’s, we 

compared staffing levels between the Anchorage VARO and the Boise VARO to determine if the staffing level was commensurate with similar VARO’s. Our analysis 

revealed the Boise VARO has 22 additional full-time employees while maintaining 

a comparable inventory of rating and non-rating claims. We based this comparison 

on the total number of actual claims pending in each office. We believe this provides 

the best comparison of actual workload, rather than the number of veterans who 

reside in each state or those veterans who might file claims. 

The Benefits Inspection Division completed 6 VARO inspections during FY 2009. 

A comparison of the percentage of claims processing errors revealed the highest 

error rate occurred at the San Juan, PR VARO, (41 percent), followed by Anchorage, 

AK (29 percent), Roanoke, VA (25 percent) Baltimore, MD (20 percent), Nashville, 

TN (19 percent) and Wilmington, DE (11 percent). These error rates represent our 

analysis of a sample of disability claims and not the entire caseload at each VARO. 

None of the VAROs inspected complied with 100 percent of the operational areas 

we reviewed. The Baltimore office had the highest rate of non-compliance with VBA 

standards followed by Anchorage, San Juan, Nashville, Wilmington, and Roanoke. 

We recommended the Director improve oversight of the quality assurance process 

for several of the operational areas that did not meet standards, develop a mail 

routing guide to ensure proper processing of mail, research the cause and solutions 

to improve network capacity issues, and train staff to maintain required skills. The 

VARO Director concurred with all of the OIG’s recommendations in the inspection 

report. 

100 

SUMMARY

Although our inspection found the Anchorage VARO management team faces 

many challenges in providing benefits and services to veterans, we believe the Director’s comments to our recommendations are responsive. The Benefits Inspection 

Division has not performed any follow-up regarding the implementation of these recommendations at this time. 

Senator Begich, thank you for the opportunity to testify here today. 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you both very much for being here and 

I will have some questions. I won’t make it Groundhog Day where 

it’s the same questions as yesterday. 

Ms. FINN. That’s good. Thank you. 

Senator BEGICH. You betcha. So the next person to present is 

Mark Bilosz, who is the director of the Anchorage Regional Office, 

Veterans Benefits Administration, Department of Veterans Administration. 

STATEMENT OF MARK M. BILOSZ, DIRECTOR, ANCHORAGE REGIONAL OFFICE, VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION, 

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS; ACCOMPANIED 

BY WILLIE C. CLARK. SR., WESTERN AREA DIRECTOR; AND 

PATRICK KELLEY, VETERANS SERVICE CENTER MANAGER, 

ANCHORAGE REGIONAL OFFICE 

Mr. BILOSZ. Thank you. Senator Begich, it’s my pleasure to be 

here today to discuss our efforts in meeting the needs of veterans 

residing in the State of Alaska. Accompanying me here today is the 

Western Area VBA director, Mr. Willie Clark, and the Veterans 

Service Center manager in Anchorage, Patrick Kelley. 

I will discuss important benefits and services provided to veterans living in Alaska, as well as discuss concerns about the Anchorage Regional Office addressed in a recent VA Office of Inspector General report. The Anchorage Regional Office administers the 

following benefits and services: disability compensation and pension for veterans; vocational rehabilitation and employment assistance; and outreach for all veterans and survivor benefits. Our goal 

is to deliver these benefits and services in a timely, accurate, and 

compassionate manner. This is accomplished through the administration of comprehensive and diverse benefits programs. 

Currently, a total of 34 employees work in the Veterans Service 

Center and 7 employees in the vocational rehabilitation and employment division within the regional office. Employees at the Anchorage regional office are very motivated and are providing excellent service to Alaska veterans. Performance indicators reveal the 

Anchorage Regional Office is performing much better than in the 

past, completing a greater number of claims each month, while improving accuracy. 

As the outbased director of the Anchorage Regional Office, I visit 

Anchorage at least once quarterly and have daily discussions with 

division management to maintain an open line of communication 

and provide direction and oversight. A new VHA clinic is scheduled 

to open in May 2010 and VBA has secured space at the new site. 

The Anchorage Regional Office is looking forward to moving into 

this new space, as it will provide us with improved working space. 

In June, a new Veterans Service Center manager reported for 

duty in Anchorage. The Veterans Service Center manager position 

101 

was previously vacant for approximately 8 months. This position 

was vacant due to the difficult task of recruiting an experienced 

person to the Anchorage area. 

Additionally, the Anchorage Regional Office recruited and hired 

two new supervisors. The appointment of the new supervisors has 

had a positive impact on the overall management and performance 

of the office this fiscal year, as the station is making strides toward 

improvement in many performance measures. For example, rating 

inventory has trended in a positive direction every month this year. 

Compared to December of last year, Anchorage completed 226 more 

claims this year—an increase of about 156 percent. In addition, rating and authorization quality have both showed improvements. In 

fact, due to the focus on internal training, rating quality in Anchorage exceeds the national average. 

The Anchorage Regional Office vocational rehabilitation division 

is one of the top performing divisions in the Nation and it was 

identified and awarded a Tier II level award last year. In addition 

to the improvements in quality, the management team has successfully implemented several policies pertaining to the workflow that 

I’d like to highlight here today. 

A policy for timely corrective actions of errors identified by the 

Veterans Benefits Administration’s National Quality Review Program was implemented. A policy outlining control and tracking of 

claims folders was implemented. This policy provides for better control of the location of claims folders. The management team has implemented a consistent local quality review process to complete 

timely quality assurance reviews that ensure veterans service representatives establish the correct date of claim. The most recent review in January showed only a 1 percent error rate. As VBA has 

an ethical and legal responsibility to maintain adequate controls 

over all date stamps throughout our facilities, two new electronic 

date stamps with locking devices are now in place and kept in secure locations. 

The Veterans Service Center has also taken action to more efficiently safeguard veterans’ personal identifiable information. All 

employees receive training on the proper safeguard and destruction 

of materials, desk inspections of work stations and common areas 

are performed regularly. In September a new workflow plan was 

implemented to ensure Veterans Service Center staff properly control and process all mail. 

To ensure congressional inquiries are processed in a timely and 

accurate manner a new policy for handling congressional inquiries 

was implemented. Our goal is to complete inquiries within 5 days 

and so far this fiscal year we’re completing them within 4.3 days. 

The Office of Inspector General conducted an investigation during the summer of 2009. The Office of Inspector General report recommended 12 areas of improvement. Action has been taken to correct the deficiencies identified by the Office of Inspector General 

and those items have been addressed in my oral testimony and my 

written testimony that you also have today. 

With the help of the OIG report findings, specific shortfalls at 

the Anchorage Regional Office have been identified and action 

plans are in place. VA senior leadership is committed to providing 

the necessary resources, funding, employees, and facilities to the 

102 

Anchorage Regional Office to ensure the best possible service is 

provided to Alaska veterans and their families. I also am fully committed to continuing to improve the claims processing in Alaska. 

Mr. Chairman, this concludes my testimony and I greatly appreciate being here today and look forward to answering any of your 

questions. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Bilosz follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF MARK M. BILOSZ, DIRECTOR, ANCHORAGE VA REGIONAL

OFFICE, VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS

AFFAIRS

Senator Begich and Members of the Committee, it is my pleasure to be here today 

to discuss our efforts in meeting the needs of Veterans residing in Alaska. 

The Anchorage Regional Office (RO) serves Veterans throughout the state. We 

also provide outreach services to Veterans in Fairbanks, Fort Wainwright, Fort 

Richardson, Elmendorf Air Force Base, and Eielson Air Force Base. 

The Anchorage RO administers the following benefits and services: 

• Disability compensation and pension for Veterans and dependents; 

• Vocational rehabilitation and employment (VR&E) assistance; and, 

• Outreach for all Veteran and survivor benefits. 

Our goal is to deliver these comprehensive and diverse benefits and services in 

a timely, accurate, and compassionate manner. 

The Anchorage RO is responsible for delivering non-medical VA benefits and services to over 76,400 Veterans and their families in Alaska. Approximately 14,000 of 

these Veterans receive disability compensation. In fiscal year 2009, the Anchorage 

RO completed more than 2,100 decisions on Veterans’ disability claims. 

The Denver Regional Loan Center (RLC) administers VA home loan services to 

Alaska Veterans. Alaska Veterans are served by a full time RLC employee who is 

stationed at the Anchorage RO. Most Native lands are leasehold estates, which 

qualify for VA’s guaranteed loan program. VA has guaranteed 65,575 home loans 

in Alaska with a cumulative loan amount of over $9 billion. 

STAFFING

The Anchorage RO hired five employees as a result of the American Recovery and 

Reinvestment Act. The employees are making direct contributions to improving 

claims processing by assisting with development of claims and mail processing. Currently, 34 employees work in the Veterans Service Center (VSC) and 7 employees 

work in VR&E. 

Employees at the Anchorage RO are very motivated and provide excellent service 

to Alaska Veterans. Performance measures indicate that the Anchorage RO is performing well, completing a greater number of claims each month while improving 

accuracy. 

MANAGEMENT TEAM

As the out-based Director of the Anchorage RO, I visit Anchorage at least quarterly and hold weekly videoconference calls with division management to maintain 

open lines of communication. In addition, I hold a weekly conference call with the 

Veterans Service Center Manager (VSCM) to provide direction and oversight. I also 

communicate regularly with the Anchorage VA Medical Center Director, as the Anchorage RO is currently co-located with the Medical Center. 

A new VA clinic is scheduled to open in May 2010, and the Veterans Benefits Administration has secured space at the new site. The Anchorage RO is looking forward to moving into this new space as it will allow VSOs and all claims files to 

be located in the RO. The new facility will also include a large training room. 

In June 2009, a new VSCM reported for duty in Anchorage. The VSCM position 

was vacant for approximately eight months due to the sometimes-difficult task of 

finding an individual with the right leadership and managerial skills to fit the position. Many times relocating an employee and his/her family to Alaska is difficult. 

Additionally, the Anchorage RO recruited and hired two new supervisors. The appointment of the new supervisors has had a positive impact on the overall management and performance of the office this fiscal year. 

For example, rating inventory has trended in a positive direction every month this 

year. Compared to December of last year, the Anchorage RO completed 226 more 

claims this year, an increase of 16 percent. In addition, rating and authorization 

103 

quality have both improved. Rating quality at the Anchorage RO exceeds the national average. 

A new training plan was developed and implemented in September 2009. Rating 

Veteran Service Representatives (RVSRs) receive weekly training from the Decision 

Review Officer. Training topics are aimed at eliminating the errors found during 

various reviews. All RVSRs attend the monthly Systematic Technical Accuracy Review calls to discuss commonly found errors and to prevent future errors. 

The Anchorage RO’s VR&E division is one of the top performing divisions in the 

Nation. Identified as a top performer in fiscal year 2009, the VR&E division was 

awarded Level II performance award. 

OUTREACH EFFORTS

Our employees conduct an average of 580 personal interviews per month, and last 

year conducted 47 Transitional Assistance Program (TAP) briefings for 1,078 servicemembers. VR&E personnel provide monthly DTAP briefings at Elmendorf Air 

Force Base and Fort Wainwright. 

The Anchorage RO conducted two significant rural outreach initiatives in 2009. 

In February and March, the RO participated jointly with the Alaska VA Health 

Care System to offer Alaska VA Education Forums. Teams traveled to Kotzebue, 

Fairbanks, Nome, Dillingham, Ketchikan, Juneau, and Sitka to provide benefits information and counseling to Veterans and medical providers. 

We also participated in two Homeless Standdowns at Fort Richardson and in 

Fairbanks in August 2009. An RO representative provided information and VA benefits counseling at these events. Earlier this month, a Standdown was held to introduce Veterans to the VA Domiciliary facility in Anchorage. 

In October 2009, the Anchorage RO teamed with the Medical Center to staff an 

information booth for 500 Veterans and family members via the Alaska Federation 

of Natives (AFN). AFN is the largest statewide Native organization in Alaska. Its 

membership includes 178 villages (both federally-recognized tribes and village corporations), 13 regional Native corporations and 12 regional nonprofit and tribal consortiums that contract and run Federal and state programs. 

As of December 31, 2009, 134 servicemembers were participating in the DOD/VA 

Disability Evaluation System Pilot at Ft. Wainwright, Ft. Richardson, and Elmendorf AFB. This pilot is instrumental in streamlining disability processing for separating servicemembers. 

IMPROVEMENTS IN SERVICE DELIVERY

The new management team successfully implemented several new workload management and quality assurance policies and procedures. 

A policy for the timely corrective action of errors identified by VBA’s Systematic 

Technical Accuracy Review Staff was implemented in November 2009. The VSCM 

tracks all errors and corrective actions. A review process was established to ensure 

Veterans Service Representatives (VSRs) correctly enter claims data into our processing systems. Refresher training was provided to all claims assistants and VSRs. 

Weekly training is held on scheduled topics and errors identified in quality reviews. 

A policy outlining the use of COVERS, VBA’s system to control and track claims 

folders, was also implemented in November. This policy requires claims folders to 

be ‘‘COVERed’’ every Monday and also requires supervisors to perform weekly spot 

checks. 

Systematic Analyses of Operations (SAOs) are now completed accurately and 

timely. A tracking mechanism is in place to monitor the status of required SAOs 

and training on SAO writing techniques was provided. 

The VSC has also taken action to more efficiently safeguard Veterans personally 

identifiable information. All employees received training from the Records Management Officer in August 2009 on the proper safeguard and destruction of materials. 

Inspections of workstations and common areas are performed regularly. Two new 

electronic date stamps, with locking devices, are now in secure locations. 

In September 2009, the Triage Workflow Plan was implemented to include a mail 

routing guide to ensure VSC staff properly control and process the mail. The Triage 

Coach provides the VSCM with a monthly summary of all mail actions as well as 

any required follow-up actions. Triage training is conducted every Thursday to ensure the workflow plan is being properly implemented. 

An Inquiry Routing and Information System (IRIS) Quality Review Policy was implemented in November 2009 to improve quality assurance reviews. The IRIS system is the electronic method Veterans use to communicate with VA. The Public Contact supervisor reviews a minimum of five IRIS responses per employee every 

month. The supervisor also discusses errors during weekly training sessions with 

104 

individual employees to ensure the highest level of quality and accuracy is 

maintained. 

To ensure Congressional inquiries are processed in a timely and accurate manner, 

a new policy for handling Congressional correspondence was implemented in November 2009. The Public Contact Team maintains a log of all Congressional correspondence where inquiries are annotated within one day and assigned to an employee to review and complete. The individual receiving the assignment has two 

working days to present a response for approval by the VSCM. Our goal is to complete Congressional inquiries within five days. 

The Anchorage RO reports the results of internal brokering to VBA leadership 

monthly. The Western Area Office is informed monthly of any transfers of work. 

Brokering claims, or sending claims to another RO, is done to provide better service 

to our Veterans. Brokering is a short-term strategy to assist ROs with workflow 

challenges. 

VA OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL REPORT

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted a review of the Anchorage 

RO from July 28, 2009 to August 6, 2009. The five areas examined were disability 

claims processing, data integrity, management controls, information security, and 

public contact. The OIG report recommended 12 areas of improvement. Action has 

been taken to correct the deficiencies identified by the OIG. 

The Western Area Director and staff conducted an on-site review of the Anchorage 

RO from January 6, 2010 to January 7, 2010. A major part of this visit was to 

evaluate compliance with the OIG’s recommendations. All action plans implemented 

in response to the OIG’s recommendations were reviewed for compliance and effectiveness. The Western Area Director found the Anchorage RO had implemented the 

required actions to be fully compliant with all 12 of the OIG recommendations. 

CONCLUSION

VA leadership and the employees of the Anchorage RO are committed to ensuring 

the best possible service is provided to Alaska Veterans and their families. Mr. 

Chairman, this concludes my testimony. I greatly appreciate being here today and 

look forward to answering your questions. 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you very much. Thank you for your testimony. The next person to present is Dr. Susan Pendergrass, who 

is the director of the VISN 20, Veterans Health Administration, 

Department of Veterans Affairs. Dr. Pendergrass. 

STATEMENT OF SUSAN PENDERGRASS, DrPH, NETWORK DIRECTOR, VISN 20, VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, U.S. 

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS; ACCOMPANIED BY 

ALEX SPECTOR, DIRECTOR, ALASKA VA HEALTH CARE 

SYSTEM 

Dr. PENDERGRASS. Thank you very much, Senator Begich. Thank 

you for the opportunity to appear before you and discuss VA health 

care of Alaskan Northwest Network. I’m accompanied today by Mr. 

Alex Spector, who is the director of the Alaska Health Care System. I would like to thank you for your leadership and the advocacy on behalf of veterans and Alaskan veterans. You have continued to show that commitment and we are very appreciative of all 

of the assistance that you have given us. 

My written testimony has been submitted and I will focus my remarks on several issues that are important to the Alaskan veterans 

including TeleHelp, rural help outreach, and the Veterans Beneficiary Travel Program. 

We provide access to health care to eligible Alaskan veterans 

through an integrated delivery system which consists of clinical 

care sites, joint ventures of DOD facilities, and contract care. We 

have continued to see an increase in the number of veterans using 

VA health care. It has grown by close to 14 percent since 2005. 

105 

We have clinics and Vet Centers in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Kenai, 

and Wasilla, and we are providing primary care including preventative services, health care screenings, and mental health services 

at all of those sites. Our inpatient care is provided through the 

DOD Joint Venture Hospital on Elmendorf Base, contracts with 

Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, and we purchase 

care from community hospitals throughout the State. 

In addition, we have two outreach clinics. Outreach clinics are 

not clinics that are open 5 days a week, but several times during 

the week, and those are in Homer and Juneau, AK. We are expanding the Juneau outreach clinic, which is currently under construction and will be completed by mid summer, and the hours of 

that clinic will then expand. We have a new construction replacement of our main clinic in Anchorage and that will provide expanded capacity to serve the veterans. 

By the end of 2010, we will have a VA clinic presence that will 

serve more than 88 percent of enrolled veterans, who will have the 

care in the borough with which they reside. So 88 percent of those 

veterans will have access to care in their boroughs. 

We have specialty services and have continued to improve our 

care with homeless veterans. We have inpatient mental health 

services that are provided by contract care and we also have specialty VA programs. We use the Lower 48 State veterans service 

capability. We have active programs here and long-term care in 

both for institutional and non-institutional services. 

What we are doing also is to have an active coordinated home 

care TeleHelp program, where 31 percent of the TeleHelp users live 

in highly rural areas, 16 percent live in rural areas, and 53 percent 

in the urban areas. This enables us to place an assistant device in 

the home that the individual can utilize to monitor help information, provide that information to the VA so they do not have to 

come in for a visit. We have been using that primarily to monitor 

chronic diseases, but we are now expanding to help monitor some 

conditions such as PTSD, substance abuse, and some psychiatric 

disorders. 

The Alaskan VA health care system has recently also expanded 

TeleHelp in several specialty areas. We have implemented a Teleretinal Diabetic Screening program. This enables an individual 

with diabetes to get an eye exam, it’s read, and the monitoring of 

any effects of eye disease as a result of their diabetes. We also have 

instituted teledermatology so that a picture can be taken of a lesion 

and read by a dermatologist remotely and provide for treatment 

and consultation so that the individual does not have to travel for 

that specialty service. 

We have just recruited a psychiatric nurse practitioner for a telemedicine mental health provider. We have just connected this 

month that provider with Anchorage and the Fairbanks clinic and 

through TeleHelp we will allow a VA neuropsychologist to screen 

veterans for TBI. Again, its very difficult to provide these specialists within some of the rural and remote areas. So using tele-mental health and telemedicine is one of our primary options. 

We are also exploring options to partner with other groups such 

as the American Native Health Consortium, the Bristol Bay Area 

Health Consortium, and the Maniilaq Health Corporation. We’ve 

106 

hung great promise in increasing the use and availability of mental 

health care resources to the Alaskan veteran system and the veterans in Alaska. 

We have also established several rural health pilots that are 

reaching out into the Yukon-Kuskokwim area and it is a pilot in 

which we are able to try to enhance primary care to rural veterans 

and be able to contract that service through the Tribal Health Consortium. We’ve also placed tribal veteran representatives to assist 

in outreach to the Alaskan Native veterans and in training other 

VA health care providers of VA benefits. 

We have a special outreach to the Alaska Native Tribal Health 

Consortium organizations and a major deployment with—and also 

we have the deployment of the Alaskan National Guard in our 

OEF/OIF outreach. We have a Memo of Understanding with the 

State of Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs to 

meet the needs of the returning servicemembers. 

Our final benefit I would like to address is the VA Beneficiary Travel Program. In 2009, we spent over $4 million to transport 

Alaskan veterans by ambulance, car, van and air travel, as well as 

mileage reimbursement. Approximately 50 percent of travel expenses were airline tickets for travel; 77 percent of that was within 

Alaska and the remaining were to VA facilities in the Lower 48. 

In summary, we continue to increase access to meet the needs of 

the Alaskans residing in—the veterans residing in Alaska. We have 

included not only clinical services, but additional sites of care to try 

to improve that access, and we have maintained a high performance rating and quality of care, access standards, patient satisfaction, and employee satisfaction. 

I thank you again for the opportunity to testify at this hearing. 

[The prepared statement of Dr. Pendergrass follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF DR. SUSAN PENDERGRASS, DIRECTOR, VA NORTHWEST

NETWORK (VISN 20), VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF

VETERANS AFFAIRS

Good Morning Senator Begich and Members of the Committee. Thank you for the 

opportunity to appear before you today to discuss VA health care in the Northwest 

Network (Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 20) and Alaska. I am accompanied today by Mr. Alex Spector, Director of the Alaska VA Healthcare System 

(AVAHS). 

First, Senator Begich, I would like to thank you for your leadership and advocacy 

on behalf of Alaska’s Veterans. During your tenure on the U.S. Senate Committee 

on Veterans’ Affairs, you have consistently demonstrated your commitment to Veterans and to improving the care and benefits they receive. 

Today, I will briefly review the VA Northwest Network and the Alaska VA 

Healthcare System. I will also discuss several issues important to Alaskan Veterans, 

including telehealth, rural health outreach, and VA’s beneficiary travel program. 

VA NORTHWEST NETWORK (VISN 20)

The VA Northwest Network (VISN 20) includes the states of Alaska, Washington, 

Oregon, most of Idaho, and one county each in Montana and California. Our 135 

counties cover approximately 23 percent of the United States land mass. Eighty-six 

(86) percent of our total counties are classified as medically underserved areas or 

containing medically underserved populations. 

Our network of health care facilities is composed of 6 medical centers (including 

2 complex care hospitals), 1 independent outpatient clinic (Anchorage), 1 rehabilitation center, 33 operational community-based outpatient clinics (CBOCs) or part-time 

outreach clinics and 2 mobile clinics. Other services include 5 nursing home care 

units, 2 homeless domiciliaries and 16 readjustment counseling centers (Vet Centers), as well as 4 mobile Vet Centers operating in Washington, Idaho and Oregon. 

107 

Approximately 1,180,000 Veterans live in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, 29 

percent of whom received health care services from VA in fiscal year (FY) 2009. Our 

medical centers currently operate approximately 1,655 inpatient beds, including 

acute medical/surgical, domiciliary, mental health, nursing home and rehabilitative 

care, and VISN 20 facilities recorded approximately 33,000 hospital admissions and 

2.7 million outpatient visits in FY 2009. VISN 20’s patient population has an average age of 60.8 years, and 46.6 percent of our patients are service-connected Veterans. Approximately 9.5 percent of our patients are women. 

The VA Northwest Health Network continuously strives to improve access, quality, patient satisfaction and wellness to better serve the Veterans of the Pacific 

Northwest. Two of our health care systems have major academic affiliations and our 

Network hosts a significant number of Centers of Excellence, while also supporting 

a large and broad research portfolio that was funded in excess of $33 million last 

year. We also have expansive and collaborative relationships with the Department 

of Defense (DOD), including two highly successful partnerships in Alaska. 

The VA Northwest Network has not only exceeded inpatient and outpatient satisfaction goals, but its employee satisfaction scores are also strong. For each of the 

past several survey cycles, VISN 20 has received some of the highest scores in the 

country. We recognize that employees who feel challenged and valued are more productive and healthier, and we continually strive to make VISN 20 an employer of 

choice. For the second year in a row, VISN 20 ranked highest among networks for 

Diversity Acceptance. Other top satisfiers included: Type of Work, Coworkers, Senior Management, Work Conditions, Customer Satisfaction and Praise. 

Given VISN 20’s large and diverse geographic nature (including rural or frontier 

lands and remote islands), access to care is a priority. In FY 2010, the Network will 

activate five new sites of care in three states (California, Oregon and Montana). In 

FY 2009, we also hired two new full-time employees to support Tele-Health and 

Rural Health efforts across the Network. 

ALASKA VA HEALTHCARE SYSTEM

The Alaska VA Healthcare System (AVAHS) provides access to health care to eligible Alaskan Veterans through an integrated delivery system consisting of clinical 

care sites, joint venture DOD facilities and contract care. By FY 2009 estimate, 

there were over 76,400 Veterans living in Alaska; 26,708 are enrolled in VA. 

AVAHS has continued to increase the number of Veterans seeking health care, 

growing by 13.6 percent since FY 2005. In FY 2009, AVAHS provided services to 

more than 15,000 Veterans; this consisted of 142,246 outpatient visits and more 

than 60,000 visits to private sector providers. This latter effort amounted to approximately 38 percent of the FY 2009 budget for VISN 20. AVAHS was home to 488 

full-time employees in FY 2009 and received a five percent increase in its operating 

budget for a total of $118.1 million, with a 5.44 percent increase for FY 2010. 

The AVAHS provides medical care to Alaska Veterans through VA clinics in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Kenai and Wasilla. These cities are also home to VA Readjustment Counseling Centers, or Vet Centers, which provide counseling, psychosocial 

support and outreach to Veterans and their families. AVAHS provides or contracts 

for a comprehensive array of health care services. AVAHS directly provides primary 

care, including preventive services and health screenings, and mental health services at all locations. AVAHS inpatient care is provided through the VA/DOD Joint 

Venture Hospital located on Elmendorf Air Force Base, as well as through a contract with Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage. Inpatient care in outlying communities is provided through purchased care from local hospitals. AVAHS 

has hired specialists in general surgery, podiatry, orthopedics, urology, cardiology, 

ophthalmology, and inpatient medicine. Specialists in dermatology and neurology 

travel from the Lower 48 and hold clinics at the Anchorage VA facility. The Anchorage facility also has a small dental clinic and an audiology clinic. Audiologists travel 

to VA CBOCs and Coast Guard clinics in Southeast Alaska to provide better and 

more convenient care to Veterans. 

In addition, we provide care through two VA outreach clinics in Homer and Juneau, Alaska. The Homer outreach clinic is an extension of the Kenai CBOC and 

serves Veterans once a week at the South Peninsula Hospital under a contract 

agreement for space and ancillary services. The second VA outreach clinic provides 

care once a month under a sharing agreement with the Coast Guard in the Juneau 

Federal Building. Currently, Anchorage-based primary care providers travel to Juneau to staff this clinic. Additional space for the Juneau VA outreach clinic is currently under construction, and VA expects this will be completed by mid-summer. 

The expanded space will allow for a full-time primary care and mental health staff 

and be operational on a daily basis. AVAHS also is constructing a new replacement 

108 

clinic in Anchorage that will offer expanded capacity. It will be located just outside 

the Muldoon Gate entrance to Elmendorf Air Force Base, and it will be connected 

to the Third Medical Group Hospital by a secure, enclosed access point. Access to 

the VA clinic will be outside the Air Force Security checkpoint, and the clinic is 

scheduled currently to open in May 2010. VA has located its sites of care in areas 

of the state with the largest concentration of Veterans. By the end of FY 2010, more 

than 88 percent of enrolled Alaskan Veterans will reside in a borough with a VA 

clinical presence. 

Area FY 2009 

Vet. Pop. 

FY 2009 

Enrollees 

% Veterans 

Enrolled 

Anchorage ........................................................................... 31,301 12,426 39.7% 

Fairbanks ............................................................................ 13,182 4,200 31.9% 

Mat-Su ................................................................................ 10,157 3,414 33.6% 

Southeast ............................................................................ 7,798 1,827 23.4% 

Kenai ................................................................................... 5,951 3,414 57.4% 

West/SW Alaska .................................................................. 4,308 804 18.7% 

Northern Alaska .................................................................. 1,144 112 9.8% 

Kodiak ................................................................................. 1,343 320 23.8% 

Valdez/Cordova ................................................................... 1,259 337 26.8% 

AVAHS also participates in one of nine nationally recognized VA/DOD joint ventures at the 3rd Medical Group (MDG), Elmendorf Air Force Base, and an InterService Sharing Agreement with Bassett Army Community Hospital at Fort Wainwright. If a Veteran requires care that is unavailable at an AVAHS clinic or a VA/ 

DOD facility, VA refers the patient to the nearest VA facility, the VA Puget Sound 

Health Care System (VAPSHCS) in Seattle, WA, or contracts for care with a local 

provider. VA is required by law to ensure such fee-for-service care is consistent with 

the care provided in the contiguous United States. 

AVAHS offers a comprehensive continuum of care for homeless Veterans. VA provides outreach and a 50 bed Domiciliary for Homeless Veterans, along with programs in Compensated Work Therapy and Veterans Industries, Compensated Work 

Therapy Transitional Residence, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development-VA Supportive Housing (HUD/VASH) program in Anchorage. This program 

expanded to Fairbanks in December 2009. AVAHS also provides oversight for two 

grant and per diem programs awarded to the Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation 

Program in Anchorage and the Rescue Mission located in Fairbanks. 

Inpatient mental health services are provided through contract care in local community psychiatric facilities and hospitals, as well as specialized programs at VA 

facilities in the Lower 48. There is an active contract nursing home program and 

other non-institutional care programs, including adult day care, respite, homemaker/home health aide, and skilled nursing. AVAHS started a Home-Based Primary Care program in July 2009 that serves more than 60 Veterans within a 20 

mile radius of the Anchorage VA Clinic. 

ACCESS

AVAHS exceeded VA’s national performance goals for primary care access in FY 

2009. Nationally, VA requires that 99 percent of Veterans will be scheduled within 

30 days of the desired date for an appointment. AVAHS has continually exceeded 

this measure, as less than 0.12 percent of Veterans waited more than 30 days in 

FY 2009. In FY 2010, AVAHS has continued to exceed these standards. 

For most of FY 2009, AVAHS was not meeting the national performance measure 

for mental health access. VA’s national standards require prompt evaluation of new 

patients (those who have not been seen in a mental health clinic in the last 24 

months) with mental health concerns. New patients are contacted, within 24 hours 

of the referral being made, by a clinician competent to evaluate the urgency of the 

Veteran’s mental health needs. If it is determined that the Veteran has an urgent 

care need, appropriate arrangements, e.g., an immediate admission, are to be made. 

If the need is not urgent, the patient must be seen for a full mental health diagnostic evaluation and development and initiation of an appropriate treatment plan 

within 14 days. Across the system, VA is meeting this standard 95 percent of the 

time. However, AVAHS was not meeting this performance measure for most of 

FY 2009. In response, AVAHS performed an analysis to identify barriers and conducted a systems redesign to remove obstacles and provide timely care for these patients. After implementing these corrective action plans, AVAHS met or exceeded 

109 

the measure for the last few months of FY 2009, and through January in FY 2010, 

100 percent of new mental health patients are seen within 14 days of their initial 

evaluation and 97 percent of established mental health patients are seen within 

14 days. 

TELEHEALTH

Coordinated Care Home Telehealth—AVAHS has an active Coordinated Care 

Home Telehealth (CCHT) program with 223 enrolled Veterans throughout the state. 

Thirty-one (31) percent of telehealth users live in highly rural areas, 16 percent live 

in rural areas and 53 percent live in urban areas. Veterans enrolled in the CCHT 

program receive a device that uses a standard phone connection to send information 

from their home to CCHT staff in Anchorage. Types of information sent by patients 

include blood pressure, pulse, weight, blood sugar, and oxygen measurements. Patients also answer health-related questions. The CCHT registered nurse staff reviews the information on a daily basis and can identify early warning signs or ‘‘out 

of bounds’’ measurements before the patient even begins to be symptomatic. Initially, CCHT was focused on working with Veterans with chronic diseases such as 

diabetes, hypertension, congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or depression. In recent months, however, AVAHS has explored uses of home 

telehealth to monitor other conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder 

(PTSD), substance abuse and bipolar disorder. Additionally, Veterans who are at 

risk of losing their independence are receiving special attention from CCHT care 

coordinators. 

Through the daily use of the home telehealth technology, Veterans are improving 

their ability to live in their own home safely, healthfully, and for a longer period 

of time. CCHT results have been impressive. Ninety-five (95) percent of CCHT users 

with diabetes have improved their blood sugar control and 93 percent with high 

blood pressure have improved blood pressure control. 

Tele-Retinal Imaging—AVAHS implemented a tele-retinal diabetic screening program in FY 2009. This program allows Veterans with diabetes to be screened for 

diabetic eye disease. Images are captured at the Anchorage, Fairbanks or Kenai 

clinics and forwarded to analysts at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System for 

interpretation. These analysts later forward a consultative report with recommendations back to the patient’s primary care provider for implementation. During FY 

2009, 280 patients received these services, and through January FY 2010, 108 patients have been cared for through this technology. 

Tele-Dermatology—AVAHS started a tele-dermatology program in November 

2009. This program employs technology to facilitate timely dermatology care to Veterans in Alaska. Images of skin lesions are captured while the patient is in clinic. 

Those images, along with a request for consultation, are forwarded to the VA Puget 

Sound Health Care System for interpretation. There, a dermatologist writes a consultative report with recommendations and forwards this information to the primary 

care provider. Interpretations and recommendations are received within 24 to 48 

hours. Thus far, 37 consults have been completed this fiscal year. 

Tele-Mental Health—During FY 2009, AVAHS successfully recruited a psychiatric 

nurse practitioner for a new position as a tele-mental health provider. Currently, 

a Tele-Mental Health Clinic is held with the Kenai CBOC by videoconference 3 to 

5 days per month. Approximately 60 unique patients are being seen through this 

clinic, and four to six additional Veterans are being seen each month. 

VA will open a new Tele-Mental Health this month to connect Anchorage and the 

Fairbanks CBOC to allow a VA neuropsychologist to screen Veterans for Traumatic 

Brain Injury (TBI). A PTSD Tele-Mental Health Group Clinic was initiated on January 7, 2010, by a VA psychologist/PTSD specialist for Veterans in the Anchorage 

DeBarr Clinic and the VA Domiciliary in mid-town (Anchorage). As a result of the 

successful deployment within the city, AVAHS plans to expand this service to its 

CBOCs in the near future. In addition, AVAHS has assembled a working group to 

explore the best method for expanding group counseling opportunities to its CBOCs. 

AVAHS tele-mental health services have been offered to the Yukon-Kuskokwim 

Health Corporation (YKHC) in Bethel, AK. A video-conference for staff consultation 

between Anchorage and Bethel has been held with educational and screening instruments shared. YKHC has requested peer-to-peer consultation with VA professional staff as needed. VA has visited both YKHC and Maniilaq Health Corporation 

in Kotzebue to educate local health care providers about AVAHS’ tele-mental health 

resources. 

A recent VA presentation to the Alaska Federal Healthcare Partnership Telehealth and Technology committee resulted in positive contacts with staff from the 

Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, Bristol Bay Area Health Corporation, and 

110 

Maniilaq Health Care Corporation. This venue holds promise for spreading the message about tele-mental health resources at AVAHS. 

RURAL VETERANS

AVAHS has initiated several programs to meet the needs of Veterans living in 

rural Alaska, including: 

Rural Veteran Liaison—This is a 3-year pilot program to hire a full-time VA employee to be a local community-based contact for VA questions on health care and 

benefits. In June 2009, VA hired a Bethel-based liaison to perform outreach to the 

Yukon-Kuskokwim area. AVAHS has continued to recruit for a Kotzebue-based position since December 2008 and recently added Nome to the recruitment announcement. So far, there have been no qualified applicants for the position to cover the 

northern area of the state, but VA continues to advertise and respond to inquiries. 

Rural Health Care Pilot Project—This project is a 1-year pilot program that began 

in August 2009. The goal of the pilot is to enhance primary care for rural Veterans 

through contract care. The pilot areas are the Bethel census area, Bristol Bay Borough, Dillingham Census Area, Nome Census Area, Northwest Arctic Borough, 

Wade Hampton Census Area, and the city of Cordova. Under the pilot, Veterans 

may be authorized three primary care visits and two mental health visits within a 

6 month period. If the Veteran requires additional visits, the Veteran or health care 

provider may contact VA to request additional care as needed. VA sent letters to 

548 enrolled Veterans in the pilot areas inviting them to participate, and through 

January 2010, approximately 20 percent have enrolled and 10 have requested appointments (eight for primary care and 2 for mental health care). 

Tribal Veteran Representative (TVR) Program—The TVR program uses local community volunteers to assist VA in reaching out to Alaska Native Veterans. A TVR 

is an Alaska Native Veteran or recognized individual appointed by an Alaska Native 

health organization, tribal government, tribal council, or other tribal entity to act 

as a liaison with local VA staff. The representative is a volunteer unless paid by 

the Alaska Native entity who selects the individual to represent them. Collaborative 

training is provided by VA health care and benefits staff. VA has completed two annual trainings, one in Anchorage and the other in Southeast Alaska, and as of January 25, 2010, 12 people have completed the TVR training. 

Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) Outreach— AVAHS made special efforts to reach out to Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium organizations upon the first major deployment of the Alaska National Guard 

in OEF/OIF. A multi-disciplinary group of VA staff traveled to rural areas to provide education on PTSD, TBI, and Suicide Awareness and Prevention. Audiences included providers, nurses, mental health staff, community health aides, behavioral 

health specialists, and village-based counselors. In addition to the educational aspect of these sessions, VA staff and Alaska Native Tribal health staff focused on providing a pathway of care for each system to work together to ensure returning servicemembers and other Veterans living in rural areas could seamlessly access their 

Alaska Native health benefits as well as access their benefits through the VA health 

care system. The presentations on the pathway of care focused on the VA enrollment, eligibility, and fee authorization process to assist Veterans in accessing VA 

health care and how to bill for reimbursement from VA should their health corporation seek authorization to provide services to Veterans. Packets of information with 

contact names and phone numbers were given to each participant, and information 

tables were staffed in community settings such as post offices, grocery stores, and 

community gatherings to raise awareness within the general community. 

AVAHS has a signed a memorandum of understanding with the State of Alaska 

Department of Military and Veterans Affairs that outlines a partnership to work together to meet the needs of returning soldiers. OEF/OIF staff members regularly attend Post Deployment Health Re-Assessment (PDHRA) events and Yellow Ribbon 

Reintegration Program events to deliver information about VA benefits to servicemembers and their families. AVAHS actively participates in pre- and post-deployment events for active duty servicemembers. VA also participates in outreach with 

the National Guard’s ‘‘Reconnection Veterans’’ program, which has a goal of sending 

its liaisons to all 237 villages in Alaska within a single year. The Rural Veteran 

Liaison and OEF/OIF staff members have accompanied these liaisons on a number 

of trips to rural Alaska to provide information about various VA programs and 

benefits. 

BENEFICIARY TRAVEL

Beneficiary travel benefits are a limited benefit for Veterans who meet specific eligibility criteria outlined in Federal statute. In FY 2009, AVAHS spent $4 million 

111 

for travel for Alaskan Veterans. Types of travel include ambulances, cabs, wheelchair vans, mileage reimbursement, and air travel. Approximately 50 percent of 

travel expenses were for airline tickets for travel within (77 percent) Alaska and to 

VA facilities in the Lower 48 (23 percent). VA purchased almost 3,900 tickets at an 

average cost of $552 per ticket. 

Veterans are eligible for beneficiary travel benefit if they: 

• Are rated 30 percent or more service-connected; 

• Are rated less than 30 percent service-connected, but only for travel in connection with treatment or care of their service-connected condition; 

• Are receiving VA pension; 

• Have an annual income below the maximum applicable annual rate of pension 

($11,830 for a single Veteran); or 

• Are traveling for a scheduled compensation and pension examination. 

CONCLUSION

In summary, AVAHS has continued to increase access to meet the needs of Veterans residing in Alaska. These have included not only clinical services but additional sites of care. AVHAS has maintained a high performance rating in quality 

of care, access standards, patient satisfaction, and employee satisfaction. Senator 

Begich, thank you again for the opportunity to testify at this hearing. 

112 

ADDENDUM


217VAltr1.eps
113 


217VAltr2.eps
114 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you very much. Our last person on this 

panel is Verdie Bowen who is the administrator, Office of Veterans 

Affairs, Department of Military and Veterans Affairs for the State 

of Alaska. Good to see you again, Verdie. 

STATEMENT OF VERDIE BOWEN, ADMINISTRATOR, OFFICE OF 

VETERANS AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF MILITARY AND VETERANS AFFAIRS FOR THE STATE OF ALASKA 

Mr. BOWEN. Thank you, Senator, for inviting me here. I have a 

couple of things that I’d like to address today and the first one is 

the prescription drug coverage that we have at the Pioneer Homes; 


217VAltr3.eps
115 

and the next area I’d like to highlight is the GI Bill and some of 

the issues that we have experienced in the State. 

First of all, I want to really let you know that your staff, especially C.W. Floyd, have been a world of help on most of the stuff 

that we have done. He’s sitting back there smiling, but it’s actually 

the truth. When I—— 

Senator BEGICH. Don’t get his head to grow too large. 

Mr. BOWEN. No, I won’t. When I was appointed to this position 

in May of last year, I think I was in the office about 20 hours before my first phone call came in about the denial of prescription 

drugs—VA prescription drugs—to members within our VA home. 

And it specifically dealt with veterans, which at that time we had 

14 veterans in the homes that the Pioneer Home had refused to administer the medications that came to them free. They wanted veterans to purchase the medications through the pharmacy. It took 

probably about 3 weeks to determine that the reason they had 

stepped back in time was because someone had unearthed a policy 

that was covered with dust in the corner which said that they could 

not administer medications to those people that are unable to administer medications themselves from pharmacies outside of the 

Pioneer Home. I thought that this would be an easy fix, that we 

should be able to just sit down and open up the bottles and hand 

the pills out. But, apparently, you know, it shows you how inept 

I am at administering medications, especially in this case. 

We sat down and had a roundtable before the end of that month 

and I thought we had a work-around where we were bringing in 

a part-time physician assistant to help with these issues, and that 

lasted about 2 weeks. Then I went back through the process and 

I—at that time, the unique experience that I had was that I discovered that we had 60 representatives in the State of Alaska. At that 

time, I didn’t know, but before that time they had always spoken 

to me. 

I had also spoken to probably 20 retired State representatives. 

The last person that called me was Mayor George Wuerch to let me 

know that his neighbor was involved with this process as well. But 

the unique thing about this was it fell under the Department of 

Social Services. Next, I spoke to the commissioner of social services, then we had a complete roundtable. Bill Hogan, who was outstanding, stepped in and put in a large fix. He wrote an Administrative Order to fix the law so that they could receive their 

medications. 

Currently, as I speak today, I am glad to announce that the 

State House has taken ownership of this and it’s passed into State 

law so that this will never happen again. And what is going to 

occur for our veterans in the home is that if this ever does come 

into effect, then the State itself will take on the cost of the medications, not the patient. But in this process, we also uncovered the 

fact that our patients that were in the homes that fell under Indian 

Health Care Services that were receiving medications would also 

be denied theirs as well if they were incapacitated. So this law will 

also fix that. 

Currently, like I said, it is through both committees in the House 

and Senate and it’s now in the Finance Committee to get its final 

review. To me it took too long, really. It gives you a point to underVerDate Nov 24 2008 20:49 Dec 09, 2010 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00119 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 H:\ACTIVE\021610AK.TXT SVETS PsN: PAULIN
116 

stand that when you have State and Federal agencies involved, 

there’s a lot of bureaucratic nightmares that you have to follow 

through to try to fix. A problem so simple as that should have 

taken just a few hours; instead, it took probably about 7 months. 

So it gives you an idea that some of the problems that we’re facing 

within the VA system itself are virtually that same kind of nightmare and ownership as you trace each one of the problems back to 

the end of their programs. 

The next thing I’d like to talk about is the new GI Bill in its current status. I’m a firm believer that if you’re in Muskogee, OK, 

today and you’re unemployed it’s because you choose to be. General 

Shinseki has done such a wonderful job of fixing some of the issues 

that we have with the Post-9/11 GI Bill. The first thing I really 

want to point out about the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which is probably the 

greatest thing that has occurred for veterans since the GI Bill that 

was introduced after World War II, are the values that the veteran 

receives, especially here in the State of Alaska—and I’ll give you 

some examples. Here in Alaska, a veteran will receive up to $159 per credit hour, which means if they go to UAA, it’s free. They receive $13,429 in 

fees that are covered. That allows them to go to the aeronautical 

school at UAA and it covers all of their fees. They get $1,000 each 

year for their books, for their fees for their books. And this is something that’s unique that a lot of people won’t point out, but in rural 

Alaska where you have less than six people per square mile, this 

program will give you $500 to fly into the schools. Also in the State 

of Alaska, we’re blessed to have 16 of our universities that are located here to be part of the Yellow Ribbon Program, and what that 

means is that if their tuition is higher than the $159, then they 

will utilize the Yellow Ribbon Program to cover that extended cost. 

Who is covered under this cost is any person that has accomplished 

36 months past 9/11. 

This here, like I said, is an outstanding program. But, you know, 

there are some issues that we have that need to be addressed. Robert brought these up and this is something that you won’t find in 

my memos, but he did bring up something about voc rehab. Voc 

rehab is probably half of—— 

[Microphone feedback] 

Senator BEGICH. There we go. 

Mr. BOWEN. Maybe that’s not a good sign. Voc rehab virtually is 

about half of the payment to the veteran. When you’re dealing with 

your monthly stipend, if I had my book—I bet you Miss B has her 

book that will tell you that voc rehab is probably around six to 

eight hundred dollars a month stipend that they receive, versus the 

amount that they receive through the Post-9/11 GI Bill. You see, 

under the Post-9/11 GI Bill, they receive $1,836 for their monthly 

living stipend. Under the voc rehab program, I, too, was under the 

impression that voc rehab would provide them the services that 

they need—the extended services that they need—to help them get 

through the programs if they have special needs. 

I spoke to the guidance counselor at UAA, Mr. Floyd, several 

months back and we discussed some of the needs and resources 

available for disabled veterans. He was under the same understanding—that the voc rehab program could provide these guys 

117 

special assistance. We have disabled veterans currently enrolled 

under the Post-9/11 program that need special counseling, that 

need special tutoring and things like that, which are not provided 

under the new Post-9/11 GI Bill. So, this is probably something 

that we need to look into, bringing the benefit levels under the voc 

rehab program up to the level that Post-9/11 is currently. 

This concludes my testimony and I want to thank you for having 

me speak before you. 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you very much. Our time is running 

short, but I want to walk through a couple things. I’ll just start 

first with Ray. We’ve had lots of opportunities already, so I’ll just 

ask you a couple of quick things if I could. 

Mr. JEFFERSON. Yes, sir. 

Senator BEGICH. I thought this was interesting on the young student vets. Can you expand on what that is within the university, 

not only for me to understand, but also Robert is still here and others to kind of hear—explain that to us a little bit more. 

Mr. JEFFERSON. Sure. So, as you know, sir, there’s a variety of 

veterans service organizations. Some of them have, you know, a 

long history: American Legion, Vietnam Veterans, et cetera. 

Senator BEGICH. Sure. 

Mr. JEFFERSON. One of the newer ones is Student Veterans of 

America and I would encourage people to go to the Web site. It is 

an organization created by and created for this youngest generation 

of veterans from OEF/OIF. What they really focus on is helping 

this young generation of veterans take full advantage of the new 

GI Bill, but also I would say to deal with all of the potential challenges of going—— 

Senator BEGICH. Like a mentor to—— 

Mr. JEFFERSON. Well, sir, a few things. You can find a mentor, 

you can—they will help you—they are on many campuses. So, for 

example, the way it works is if Robert—if there’s a Student Veterans of America coordinator of the University of Alaska campus, 

you contact this person. And it was exactly what he said. You 

know, I want to call someone and say, hey, I’m here; I came from 

OEF/OIF, you know, how do I transition here? How do I get help 

with the courses? How do I just navigate this huge campus system. 

And, by the way, when I lost my fingers to a grenade, I went 

through the same process at the University of Hawaii, and it takes 

a while to adjust to being in a room with folks who maybe are a 

few years younger than you who have come straight from high 

school, you know, and you’ve been doing all these other things in 

the military. 

So Student Veterans of America help with that transition, that 

translation, to make sure that whatever needs you have are addressed and they serve as a bridge between the new GI Bill and 

the veteran and the resources and programs of that university. So, 

I would highly encourage folks to take advantage of it to connect. 

I don’t know for a fact that they’re in Alaska. I believe they’re in 

all 50 States. I would say they’re very dynamic, they’re growing, 

and they’re very action-oriented. 

Senator BEGICH. Very good. Now, that’s something that we can 

obviously, from our office, too, follow up to see if Alaska has—— 

Mr. JEFFERSON. Yes, sir. 

118 

Senator BEGICH [continuing]. Someone at our university. 

Mr. JEFFERSON. And we can connect. We have a great relationship with the president, sir, so we can make that connection this 

week. 

Senator BEGICH. Fantastic. That’d be great. The second thing 

real quick, if I can, you mentioned the American Vets at Work. 

Mr. JEFFERSON. Yes, sir. American Heroes at Work. 

Senator BEGICH. American Heroes at Work. Can you, for the audience that’s here and because I didn’t ask you this yesterday, just 

describe a little bit about how that works. 

Mr. JEFFERSON. Absolutely. We had a chance, sir, to dialog on 

that yesterday. 

Senator BEGICH. Right. 

Mr. JEFFERSON. One of the programs that we have is designed 

to help veterans with PTS and/or TBI and/or PTSD find meaningful employment. What we found is the accommodations that these 

veterans want and need tend to be very normal, easy accommodations, but the employers themselves just need to be educated. So 

this program connects a veteran with an employer and educates 

the employer on the accommodations. 

And here is what’s so interesting about the accommodations. 

Many of them are things such as: I want to be able to get up and 

walk around for, you know, 10, 15 minutes a few times a day; 

please don’t walk up behind a veteran, you know, and grab him or 

her from behind or on his shoulders; please don’t place them in 

areas where there’s lots of loud, unexpected noises or very bright 

lights. When employers hear what the accommodations are, it’s the 

same thing anyone would want a great percentage of the time. 

The other thing I’d say is we brought the employers and the veterans together and they rave about this program. It’s called America’s Heroes at Work. I will connect with your office, sir, so you will 

have access to that. Robert, if you’re still here, I’d love to connect 

you with our director for this program and also anyone else here 

in the building. 

And, again, our access point directly is Tom Hall. Tom, would 

you stand one more time, please. You’re getting some good exercise 

with me. It’s a great program, sir. We just need to raise awareness 

of it. I want to do a lot more with it. 

Senator BEGICH. That’s great. I mean, you told me about it a little bit and that’s why I wanted you to kind of expand a little bit 

here. But, again, thank you for that. That’s a great access point 

and I know people will take advantage of it. Robert is here and he’s 

patiently watching and listening. So thank you. 

Mr. JEFFERSON. All right. 

Senator BEGICH. Thank you, Ron. Now Belinda, I promised you 

I wouldn’t have the same questions as yesterday. One thing that 

intrigued me was an item I think you added today and that’s of a 

national brokering process review you’re doing. You’ve done a pretty significant review on the Anchorage Regional Office in a variety 

of areas, but on a national level you’re taking a look at brokering 

as a whole. 

I know Linda B. brought up a lot of issues about brokering. Is 

that what you’re looking at, the whole system and trying to figure 

119 

out what’s good, what’s bad? Is that—it will go on automatically 

[referring to the microphone]. Yeah. 

Ms. FINN. Yes. We’re looking at brokering from a number of aspects. One of them is to try to determine how much the brokering 

process improves the timeliness of claims processing. We would 

also—I’m not sure whether we’ve been planning to look at error 

rates or appeal rates, so I’ve been making notes on that to possibly 

add. 

Senator BEGICH. Yeah. Why I wanted to ask this question is because what I hear from a lot of folks, at least so far in this process 

we’ve been going through in the last few days, is timeliness is not 

as significant coming from the broker, and it’s less timely if they 

get it and then there’s an error on it, which is like they’re repeating the workload. 

To me, the great measurement will be—I’ll use the example I 

was given that San Diego sends ratings back and yet of those 53 

to 60 percent, I forget the exact number, are being turned right 

over into being approved, yet 9 out of 10 are being appealed. And 

then you compare that to Salt Lake and Seattle where that’s not 

occurring. Why is that? 

You know, that’s an interesting question. Is that worthwhile to 

look—I mean I’m not into the appeal process, I don’t understand 

all the details, but it sure seems on the surface that would be 

worth looking at. 

Ms. FINN. I would agree, it does sound like it’s worthwhile. I will 

mention, about a year ago we looked at the National Quality Assurance Program in VBA and one of the things we noted was that 

brokered claims were not included in the quality reviews and not 

included in the national quality rates. 

Senator BEGICH. Really? 

Ms. FINN. Yes. And so we recommended that VBA establish a 

process to review those brokered claims for accuracy and include 

that in the rate. They agreed with that recommendation, but I 

don’t know right this second what action they have taken to make 

that happen. 

Senator BEGICH. Could you—and maybe someone else might 

have a comment on that—but could you at least at a minimum, if 

we don’t hear the answer to that when I move through the panel 

here, get us an answer? See what has happened from that recommendation from a year ago. 

Ms. FINN. Yes, sir. I will do that. 

[The information requested during the hearing follows:] 

120 

Senator BEGICH. I think that would be very interesting. The second question is in regards to, you said, the challenges in the network. Is that the communication network? I’m trying to think of 

how you described that, and I’m now reverting back to the Anchorage regional office. You talked about the challenges in the network. 

Can you—— 

Ms. FINN. Yes, sir. It’s the challenges in the network access to— 

I’m not sure whether it’s over the Internet or just the VA network. 

Senator BEGICH. OK. 

Ms. FINN. But the VBA applications that are needed to process 

claims, many of these are run obviously not out of Anchorage, but 

in other locations. And if the folks working in Anchorage couldn’t 

access the applications, it’s very hard to do the job. 

Senator BEGICH. So it may not be as computerized, in essence, 

is what you’re saying? 

Ms. FINN. I believe it was problems with the network bandwidth 

in Anchorage. 

Senator BEGICH. Right. And, C.W., he’s kind of like Radar 

O’Riley on M.A.S.H. C.W. hands me the word ‘‘bandwidth.’’ 

Ms. FINN. Yes. 

Senator BEGICH. So I have a feeling that may be the issue. Is 

that part of it? 

Mr. ARRONTE. Yes, that—when we were on site, correct, it’s 

bandwidth. 

Senator BEGICH. OK. 

Mr. ARRONTE. It was a T1 line and I think the director had indicated that there were going to be three or four additional T1 lines 

brought in. It should help that connectivity problem. 

Senator BEGICH. Has that occurred, Mark? 

Mr. BILOSZ. Yes, I think there were three T1 lines that were 

added and it has improved things dramatically. And we’re also expecting when we move into the new building in May it will even 

be better. So it has improved. 

Senator BEGICH. Great. I know in the simple world I live in, my 

mother-in-law just went from dial-up, if you can believe this, to 

cable and you can only imagine what that’s like. You know, she can 

actually get a photo in seconds rather than hours. That’s interesting. 


216q2VBA3.eps
121 

That’s what I was trying to understand. I wasn’t real clear on 

that, but now it makes a lot of sense. 

And the last question is you mentioned accessing computer 

issues. Is that the same thing? You had mentioned accessing computer issues. Is that similar to—— 

Ms. FINN. Yes, accessing the applications. 

Senator BEGICH. It’s all the same. 

Ms. FINN. It requires bandwidth. 

Senator BEGICH. OK. Same thing. The bandwidth isn’t strong 

enough, so therefore the applications weren’t as robust as they 

could have been. Is that a fair—— 

Ms. FINN. Yes, they couldn’t access them. 

Senator BEGICH. Very good. Well, again, on the national 

brokering, it is exciting that you’re doing that and I think this 

hearing, hopefully, brought some ideas to the table that we can incorporate. And please let us know, is that progressive? It sounds 

like, you know, several months from now you might be down the 

path on it, but let us know how that progresses. I think the Committee would be very interested. As you know, appeals have been 

an issue that percolates at the Committee level on a regular basis. 

Ms. FINN. Yes, sir. We will. As a matter of fact, I’m just going 

to take a second to say—— 

Senator BEGICH. Sure. 

Ms. FINN [continuing]. I really appreciate the opportunity to be 

here and out in the field and here with the issues from veterans. 

We work real hard to make sure that when we look at an issue, 

we answer the questions that are important, you know, and the 

issues that need to be fixed. So this has been a great opportunity 

for me and I’ve been taking a lot of notes. 

Senator BEGICH. Great. Thank you very much. Thanks to you 

and your team. Mark, again, thank you and your team that’s here 

with you. I want to ask you, and I know I asked you this in Anchorage, but I want to make sure the Fairbanks folks also hear 

this. And that is, the issues that were brought up in the report and 

the items of concern, there is no disagreement to fix those problems; you agreed with the recommendations. Is that a fair statement? 

Mr. BILOSZ. Yes. 

Senator BEGICH. And that you’re taking active steps to move forward to—as you identified in your written testimony in more detail 

than your verbal, but you basically are taking steps to get this 

process cleaned up and moving in the right direction. Is that a—— 

Mr. BILOSZ. Yes, we—— 

Senator BEGICH. I don’t want to put words in your mouth. I just 

want to make sure the Fairbanks folks hear exactly what we talked 

about in Anchorage also. 

Mr. BILOSZ. Yes. We implemented action items to address all of 

the issues and we’re monitoring those, and they are having a positive impact on our performance. 

Senator BEGICH. We agreed yesterday when I asked Belinda the 

question on, you know, when their next site review might be, she 

had indicated that since they have more resources, they can go 

from 5-year review cycles down to 3 years, which is great. And 

what I have asked is that you report back to me and the ComVerDate Nov 24 2008 20:49 Dec 09, 2010 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00125 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 H:\ACTIVE\021610AK.TXT SVETS PsN: PAULIN
122 

mittee by June the progress that you have had in all these metrics 

of measurement. That is still a commitment that you’re comfortable 

with making? 

Mr. BILOSZ. Yes, sir, I had a note. 

[The information requested during the hearing follows:] 

Senator BEGICH. OK. Good. Again, that was for the Fairbanks 

audience to know that, you know, sometimes we have these great 

reports and they’re not—you know, in a lot of ways they’re criticisms, but they’re also about how to improve the system because 

no matter what we do in life, there’s always room for improvement. 

And what happens sometimes is those reports kind of move on and 

then people will do their own work, and the next thing you know 

the report isn’t reviewed by the public and they then call us and 

say, well, what happened? And then we say, good question, and 


216q2VBA1.eps
123 

then we call and they say, well, geez, there’s—of those 13 items, 

seven of them got implemented, we don’t know why the other six 

didn’t. 

So this process of bringing it back in June will allow us a chance 

to publicly say here’s a success or here are areas that just aren’t 

working out as well as we thought. Is that fair? 

Mr. BILOSZ. Fair—very much so, yeah. 

Senator BEGICH. Very good. Again, I want to thank you for the 

willingness to kind of step up to it. Rating qualities is, I think, the 

phrase you used. How do you measure rating quality or rating 

qualities? I may not have written that down exactly the way you 

said it, but I remember that phrase. 

Mr. BILOSZ. Yeah. We have a National Quality Review program 

that’s located in Nashville and every month a series of rating decisions gets sent to that facility. 

Senator BEGICH. Is it a random selection of those? 

Mr. BILOSZ. It’s a random selection. Every regional office in the 

country sends files there. 

Senator BEGICH. So they send them off to this location? 

Mr. BILOSZ. Yes, and they have a group of folks there with experience review the files and determine if there are errors or if there 

aren’t errors. Some errors, just as the IG found in their inspection, 

some errors affect payment, others are just administrative type of 

errors. But they report that back on a monthly basis to the regional 

office and in my office, for example, we use that data to train people to make sure that those mistakes aren’t repeated. 

Senator BEGICH. I know you and I talked about this yesterday. 

In your office, and I didn’t see it, but you pointed it out to me, and 

that is you keep a wall chart basically to make sure people understand what the measurements are that we’re measuring for 

success. 

Mr. BILOSZ. Yes. You know, it’s vital that we are providing quality service to veterans, timely service to veterans, and if our employees don’t know what that is, then they can’t perform to the 

level that they need to. So we update that daily with our performance measures and it allows our employees to know how what they 

do day in and day out affects the veterans in the State of Alaska. 

Senator BEGICH. Very good. Dr. Pendergrass, I’m going to move 

to you, if I can. I appreciate the shopping list of items you’re working on, and it is impressive. One thing I’d love to get if I could— 

again this is very parochial, obviously, it’s Alaska and I’m more interested in Alaska issues and what’s good for Alaska veterans—but 

I think this would be also important for many of my colleagues on 

the Committee who are from rural States. 

I’d be curious if you could give us, not right now, but later, more 

of a written report on the several demonstration projects we have 

with you, especially with the Tribal Health Consortium, with 

Maniilaq and other organizations we’re doing work with. Because 

one of the things that I am hopeful for is that we will be able to 

prove that a veteran in a small village can go to an Indian Health 

Services facility, get the services they need rather than having to 

fly or be transported all the way across to maybe Fairbanks or to 

Anchorage or to Seattle or wherever else they might have to be 

sent. There might be a facility right next door to their home that 

124 

is run by Indian Health Services, paid by the same taxpayers as 

the VA, and available. 

A good example of that is in Nome. The Indian Health Service 

will be building $170 million health care facility, brand new, starting this spring. It will be a state-of-the-art Indian Health Service 

provider. It would be a shame to have a veteran who lives literally 

right there to be forced to go to another place because we don’t 

have arrangements with IHS. And I know you are using Alaska as 

kind of a pilot. As Ray and I talked today, if you can do it in Alaska, you can do it anywhere. That’s our attitude here. 

So I’d be curious, if you’d give a report to the Committee on how 

these demonstration projects are working and how they’ve been implemented. Because one of the complaints I’ve heard is it’s taking 

a while to get through the bureaucracy which I know is because of 

the stovepiping that goes on, and we want to make sure these move 

forward if they are successful. Do you have any quick comment? 

Dr. PENDERGRASS. Well, in my—I have a briefing document from 

last week that we didn’t present, but—— 

Senator BEGICH. Because of a little snow—— 

Dr. PENDERGRASS [continuing]. I do have it. I do have an expanded version—— 

Senator BEGICH. Excellent. 

Dr. PENDERGRASS [continuing]. Of what the rural initiatives are. 

The challenge for us is both access and efficiency of the VA system 

and balancing that with VA’s—it’s similar to an HMO in that we 

have very specific internal services and capabilities that we need 

to use first. And sometimes that requires—and sometimes we are 

prohibited from providing services outside of our system. 

[The information requested during the hearing follows:] 

125 


217q2VA1.eps
126 


217q2VA2.eps
127 


217q2VA3.eps
128 

Senator BEGICH. That’s only a function of the laws that people 

like myself can pass. 

Dr. PENDERGRASS. Yes, that’s right. 

Senator BEGICH. And so, I guess, here’s why. I think you will 

find in Alaska, those who are familiar with our Indian Health 

Services here, it is a robust and very successful program. It’s run 

by Tribal Consortium. 

Dr. PENDERGRASS. Right. 

Senator BEGICH. It is very unique in its delivery system. There’s 

a program in our facility in Anchorage called Nuk which is a holistic medicine program. It has reduced emergency care injury by 68 

percent, a great statistical data. And because it provides such good 

quality service, they get incredible reviews across the country. So, 

it just seems that there’s an opportunity here. 

So, I would say to you don’t limit what the potential is if there’s 

a law that says you can’t cross the line because the real end product here is about service to the veteran. 

Dr. PENDERGRASS. Right. And I think the task force group will 

be able to—— 

Senator BEGICH. Help us. 

Dr. PENDERGRASS [continuing]. Sort that out because the pilot is 

a pilot, and it would require some legislative changes. 

[Update to the requested information, dated June 2010, follows:] 


217q2VA4.eps
129 

Senator BEGICH. Exactly. Well, I’ll look forward to that. One last 

thing, just a quick question on mental health service professionals. 

What are you finding in recruitment in a sense of trying to get 

folks to be in that service? Because what I hear, it’s a problem. 

Dr. PENDERGRASS. It’s—— 

Senator BEGICH. In all areas, not just—— 

Dr. PENDERGRASS. It is a major problem. We have not been able 

to entice the professionals up here full-time. We’re using opportunities for traveling up for short periods of time. We did that to do 

some of the mental health C&P exams. 

Senator BEGICH. Is it—— 

Dr. PENDERGRASS. We’re using locums. 

Senator BEGICH. Is it—and, you know, you can be very frank 

here. Is it because they have to go to Alaska or is it because of the 

cost, or that the income is not as great as they could get doing it 

elsewhere, or it’s a family—what’s the draw here? What’s the—— 

Dr. PENDERGRASS. Well, it’s a number of factors. First of all, the 

supply of professionals—— 

Senator BEGICH. Is already small? 

Dr. PENDERGRASS [continuing]. Is small. The compensation that 

working for a private or even a State facility—state salary is different than private sector, and so the salary is an issue. 

Senator BEGICH. Not competitive. 

Dr. PENDERGRASS. It’s not competitive. And then you’re in a very 

rural, highly rural, medically underserved area which is a problem—— 

Senator BEGICH. It’s tough. 


216q2VBA2.eps
130 

Dr. PENDERGRASS [continuing]. Across a number of States, but 

Alaska especially. 

Senator BEGICH. Brian Rogers just walked in. He’s our chancellor 

for the university here. Where did he go? Oh, there you are, over 

there. I point that out only because I think what we have to figure 

out is what we can do in the education arena to try to entice people, one, to enter the field at the front end because if we can create 

the supply then at least some who still don’t want to, you have a 

larger supply to work from. This is something that I know I’ll see 

the Board of Regents tonight at a reception and maybe it’s an idea 

which we can have more discussion. 

Dr. PENDERGRASS. The VA has an ability to help offset some of 

the student loans as part of the employment. It may be additional 

incentive to that, working in a rural area. 

Senator BEGICH. Very good. That’s a good point. I again apologize 

because of the timing. We’re real close, but Willie, did you have 

some additional comments? [Gesturing to the microphone.] That’s 

about as far as it will go; so you just speak and you’ll be OK. 

Mr. CLARK. OK. All right. Good. Thank you, sir, for allowing me 

the opportunity to speak. 

Senator BEGICH. Sure. 

Mr. CLARK. I am Willie Clark. I’m in charge of VA Benefits Operations for the Western U.S., which includes Mr. Bilosz’ office and 

now Mr. Kelley’s office here in Anchorage. 

Three things quickly I’d like to bring up. You talked about the— 

or asked a question about brokering quality. 

Senator BEGICH. Yes. 

Mr. CLARK. We started that last year. So as a result of the IG 

report, we are measuring quality on our brokered cases. 

Senator BEGICH. Excellent. Good. 

Mr. CLARK. The second thing is the San Diego office that Linda 

brought up—— 

Senator BEGICH. Yes. 

Mr. CLARK. The San Diego office, believe it or not, is one of our 

best performing stations in VBA. This is the first that I have heard 

of that. I asked Mr. Bilosz and Mr. Kelley. 

Senator BEGICH. Well—— 

Mr. CLARK. They had not heard anything from Linda. So what 

we’re going to do—— 

Senator BEGICH. You have today. 

Mr. CLARK. Well, we’re certainly going to talk to her about that 

and we will address any concerns that she has. 

Senator BEGICH. Will you share that with the Committee? 

Mr. CLARK. Yes, sir. We’ll certainly do that. Last, we talked 

about the call center in Phoenix. 

Senator BEGICH. Yes. 

Mr. CLARK. At all of our call centers we have State benefits 

books that speaks to tax exemption letters, a license, and the full 

gambit for each State. So I—that’s another one that surprises me. 

I will certainly get with the Phoenix office, that’s under my responsibility as well, and make sure that they are trained and providing 

those letters. 

Senator BEGICH. Let me ask you quickly, on the books that you 

provide to those trainers, are those—before the trainers utilize 

131 

them for those States like in Alaska, are people like Linda at that 

level reviewing them to give you—to make sure—because they— 

you know, sometimes what we do is—and I had this actually with 

the VA recently in a Committee hearing. They were saying, well, 

we notify veterans, we put the legal notice in the paper and so 

forth. And I said, well—— 

Mr. CLARK. Yes, sir. 

Senator BEGICH [continuing]. You know, no one pays attention—— 

Mr. CLARK. Yes, sir. 

Senator BEGICH. No offense. I mean, my father-in-law is a retired 

colonel. 

Mr. CLARK. I understand, I understand. 

Senator BEGICH. You know, he’s not looking in the want ads for 

classifieds by the VA, he’s looking, you know, elsewhere. 

So do you kind of reverse it back and say, you know what, here’s 

the book, let’s go back to the people on the front line in Alaska. 

Have them look at this; how would you use it? Is there something 

missing here? Or even how it’s laid out to make sure it’s readily 

usable. Do you do that? 

Mr. CLARK. Well, we have certain people that we do it with. I 

don’t know at Linda’s level what happens. 

Senator BEGICH. OK. 

Mr. CLARK. But, certainly, in this case because, again, all States 

are different. 

Senator BEGICH. Absolutely, oh, yeah. 

Mr. CLARK. These call centers, they’re set up to get a call from 

any State, so they must know. And all they do is open the book to 

that particular index that speaks to that State—— 

Senator BEGICH. Right. 

Mr. CLARK [continuing]. And then they are to give out those letters. But I will check that to be sure that in all cases, but specifically Alaska, that we have the correct information. 

[The information requested during the hearing follows:] 


216q2VBA4.eps
132 

Senator BEGICH. Very good. And I’m just a big fan of encouraging 

because we have—it’s no criticism to the VA; it’s a criticism to kind 

of our bureaucracy of how we do business. Sometimes we get closed 

in and we forget that the person on the line may get that exact 

same index and say, you know what, you know, they’re never going 

to find it the way you have it listed here. Because they see it from 

a different perspective of the caller who is going to make that call. 

So I would just encourage, as I do with all agencies, you know, 

I do it through the Commerce and others that this is a technique 

I used when I was mayor and it made a big difference in usability 

of the documentation. 

Mr. CLARK. OK, sir. 

Senator BEGICH. Just a little thought there. 

Mr. CLARK. Yes, sir. We’ll do that. 

Senator BEGICH. The only thing I’ll say and end here, which, 

Verdie, I have two parts. One is to say thank you for the work I 

know you did along with C.W. on the ATG, making sure those individuals received the benefit that they justly deserve that was taken 

away for a short period of time. 

And I want to thank you for the hard work you did to kind of 

plow through it, find these folks, find the recipients, find their dependents. I know between you and the work you did out of your 

office, through our office wit C.W. and some others that were really 

helpful there. I just want to say thank you for doing that. 

Mr. BOWEN. Thank you, sir. 

Senator BEGICH. And you laid out some good thoughts here. So 

I’m going to not burn up time here, but I do want to have some 

follow-up on the voc rehab which we’ll do through our office and 

your office. 

Mr. BOWEN. Yes. As a matter of fact, sir, I wrote myself a note 

here that my voc rehab person will send a memo over to C.W. and 

compare the two programs. 

Senator BEGICH. That would be great, so we can kind of see what 

we need to do to improve on it. 

Mr. BOWEN. Yes. 

Senator BEGICH. Let me end there. Again, to the panel, thank 

you all very much. As we try to—as I attempted to do in the last 

2 days in these hearings is to bring out ideas and not—you know, 

we can spend a lot of time pounding on each other, which is not 

hard to do in the world we live in it seems today; but it’s better 

to find those ideas, see where we can improve, recognize criticism 

is not a negative, but it’s a positive to improve a system that’s delivering service to thousands, and in this case millions, around the 

country. 

And so I thank you all for your public service. Thank you for 

your willingness to step up and say here’s what we can do to make 

it better. 

Also I think an example that, Belinda, you laid out which I really 

appreciate that you like these field hearings because it gives you 

a little food for thought and that’s why I like them: to get out and 

hear what people have to say. So thank you all for being here. 

Thank you to the audience that is here. We are going to go next 

door? Right through that door. We’re going to do a press event in 

regards to the folks that are signing on to support our Guard and 

133 

their employment. It’s just another opportunity to highlight the 

great work that our business community is doing. 

So, again, thank you all very much. This meeting is adjourned. 

(135) 

A P P E N D I X 

STATEMENT SUBMITTED AT HEARING BY WILLIAM ‘‘LADD’’ MCBRIDE, 

SENIOR CHIEF PETTY OFFICER, USNR (RET.) 


217McBride1.eps
136 


217McBride2.eps
137 

STATEMENT SUBMITTED AT HEARING BY CHARLOTTE M. DAVIS, 

VIETNAM-ERA VETERAN


217Davis1.eps
138 


217Davis2.eps
139 

STATEMENT SUBMITTED AT HEARING BY WILLIAM MCDONALD, COLONEL, USAF (RET.) 


217McDon1.eps
140 


217McDon2.eps
141 

STATEMENT SUBMITTED AT HEARING BY HUGH TWIG TORDOFF

Æ 


217Tordoff.eps