I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3087 
To amend title 38, United States Code, to establish a deadline for decisions 
with respect to claims for benefits under laws administered by the Sec-
retary of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 26, 2009 
Mr. BUTTERFIELD introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 
A BILL 
To amend title 38, United States Code, to establish a dead-
line for decisions with respect to claims for benefits 
under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans 
Affairs, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) As of May 18, 2009, the pending workload 
for pension and compensation claims was 725,051, 
and of this total, 146,565 or 20.2 percent of such 
claims had been pending for more than 180 days 
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(the criteria used by the Department of Veterans Af-
fairs for backlog). 
(2) The claims backlog of the Department of 
Veterans Affairs was 803,000 on January 5, 2009, 
and the backlog hit 915,000 on May 4, 2009, a 
staggering 14 percent increase in four months. 
(3) The issue of backlogs has become so dire 
that veterans now wait an average of six months to 
receive disability benefits and as long as four years 
for their appeals to be heard in cases where their 
benefits were denied. 
(4) The importance of receiving timely benefit 
decisions is evidenced by the fact that the suicide 
rates among veterans in January and February of 
2009 were higher than the number of combat deaths 
in war zones during that same time period. 
(5) The four step process for a veteran to get 
a ‘‘local determination’’ with respect to the veteran’s 
claim for benefits currently does not have a time pe-
riod in which the determination is required to be 
made. 
(6) Section 5108 of title 38, United States 
Code, provides, ‘‘When there is an approximate bal-
ance of positive and negative evidence regarding any 
issue material to the determination of a matter, the 
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Secretary shall give the benefit of the doubt to the 
claimant.’’. 
SEC. 2. DEADLINE FOR DECISIONS WITH RESPECT TO 
CLAIMS FOR BENEFITS UNDER LAWS ADMIN-
ISTERED BY THE SECRETARY OF VETERANS 
AFFAIRS. 
(a) DEADLINE
FOR DECISIONS.—Section 5104 of 
title 38, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 
end the following new subsection: 
‘‘(c) The Secretary shall make a decision with respect 
to each claim for benefits under the laws administered by 
the Secretary, and notify the claimant of such decision, 
by not later than 18 months after the date on which the 
claim is submitted to the Secretary. Any claim for which 
the Secretary has not made a decision by the deadline 
under the preceding sentence shall be automatically ap-
proved.’’. 
(b) APPLICABILITY.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—Subsection (c) of section 
5104 of title 38, United States Code, shall apply 
with respect to a claim submitted on or after the 
date of the enactment of this Act. 
(2) CLAIMS SUBMITTED BEFORE DATE OF EN-
ACTMENT.— 
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(A) DEADLINE.—By not later than 18 
months after the date of the enactment of this 
Act, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall— 
(i) make a decision with respect to 
each claim for benefits under the laws ad-
ministered by the Secretary that is sub-
mitted before the date of the enactment of 
this Act; and 
(ii) provide notice of such decision to 
the claimant who submitted the claim. 
(B) AUTOMATIC
APPROVAL
OF
DELAYED 
CLAIMS.—Any claim covered by subparagraph 
(A) for which the Secretary does not make a 
decision by the deadline under that subpara-
graph shall be automatically approved. 
SEC. 3. TASKFORCE ON CLAIMS PROCESS. 
The Inspector General of the Department of Veterans 
Affairs shall establish a taskforce to monitor the process 
by which claims for benefits under the laws administered 
by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs are decided. Such 
taskforce shall be responsible for ensuring that such 
claims— 
(1) are not denied arbitrarily so as to avoid re-
sponsibility for the cost of the claim; and 
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(2) are decided in an appropriate manner. 
Æ 
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