VBA’s disability compensation and pension claims processing is done in its 57 regional offices. Each state, except Wyoming, has at least 1 regional office; California has 3, and New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas have 2 each. VBA also has regional offices in Washington, D.C.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Manila, the Philippines. Also, VBA has 142 Benefits Delivery at Discharge sites, where VBA staff process claims from newly separated service members. In fiscal year 2004, VBA spent about $926 million to administer its disability compensation and pension programs. This included support for about 9,100 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees. In fiscal year 2004, VBA received about 771,000 rating-related claims from veterans and their families for disability benefits. This included about 195,000 original claims for compensation of service-connected disabilities (injuries or diseases incurred or aggravated while on active military duty), and about 438,000 reopened compensation claims. In addition, about 87,000 original and reopened claims were filed for pensions for wartime veterans who have low incomes and are permanently and totally disabled for reasons not service-connected, and their survivors. In addition, VBA received about 29,000 original claims for dependency and indemnity compensation from deceased veterans’ spouses, children, and parents and to survivors of service members who died on active duty. When a veteran or other claimant submits a claim for disability compensation, pension, or dependency and indemnity compensation to a VBA regional office, veterans service center staff process the claim in accordance with VBA regulations, policies, procedures, and guidance. A veterans service representative (VSR) in a predetermination team develops the claim, that is, assists the claimant in obtaining sufficient evidence to decide the claim. For rating-related claims, a decision is made in a rating team by rating veterans service representatives (also known as rating specialists). VSRs also perform a number of other duties, including establishing claims files, authorizing payments to beneficiaries and generating notification letters to claimants, conducting in-person and telephone contacts with veterans and other claimants, and assisting in the processing of appeals of claims decisions. For a number of years, VBA’s regional offices have experienced problems processing veterans’ disability compensation and pension claims. As we reported in May 2000, VBA’s regional offices still experience problems such as large backlogs of pending claims, lengthy processing times, and questions about the consistency of its regional office decisions. VBA has acknowledged the need to improve the timeliness and accuracy of claims processing. Since 2001, VBA has made a number of changes to its field structure and staff deployment in an effort to provide veterans with faster decisions and reduce its rating-related claims inventory. In October 2001, VBA established a Tiger Team, including experienced rating specialists, to complete very old claims and claims from elderly veterans. Also, to supplement regional offices’ claims processing capacity, VBA established nine resource centers, where teams of rating specialists decided claims developed at the regional offices of jurisdiction. Further, VBA has consolidated specific types of work, including pension maintenance work (such as annual means testing for VA pension beneficiaries) at three regional offices, in an effort to free up staff at other offices to concentrate on rating-related claims. VBA also consolidated in-service dependency and indemnity compensation claims at its Philadelphia regional office; created an Appeals Management Center in Washington, D.C., to process appeals remanded from VA’s Board of Veterans Appeals; and is consolidating the rating of Benefits Delivery at Discharge claims at the Salt Lake City and Winston-Salem, North Carolina, regional offices. Further, VBA reduced the jurisdictions of two regional offices with inadequate performance— Washington, D.C., and Newark—to reduce their claims workloads. In fiscal year 2002, VBA established special units to supplement regional offices’ claims processing capacity, as part of its effort to achieve rating- related decision timeliness improvement and reduce its pending claims inventory. The Tiger Team at the Cleveland, Ohio, regional office was tasked to process very old claims (pending 1 year or more), and claims by elderly veterans (aged 70 and older). The Tiger Team was staffed with experienced rating specialists and with veterans service representatives, primarily from the Cleveland office’s staff, to perform whatever additional development work was needed on the claims they receive and to make rating decisions on these claims. To help expedite development work, VBA obtained priority access for the Tiger Team to obtain evidence from VA and other federal agencies. For example, VA and the National Archives and Records Administration completed a memorandum of understanding in October 2001 to expedite Tiger Team requests for service records at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missouri. Also, VBA established procedures and time frames for expediting Tiger Team requests for medical evidence and examinations from the Veterans Health Administration. In fiscal year 2004, the Tiger Team completed over 14,000 decisions. Since its creation in fiscal year 2002, the average age of VBA’s inventory of rating-related claims has declined from 182 days at the end of September 2001 to about 118 days at the end of September 2004. In addition, VBA supplemented regional offices’ capacity to make claims decisions by establishing resource centers at nine regional offices. The resource centers, staffed with rating specialists who were less experienced than the Tiger Team’s, were to decide “ready to rate” claims. These are claims where veterans service representatives at the regional offices of jurisdiction had developed the evidence needed to support decisions on the claims. In fiscal year 2004, the nine resource centers completed about 69,000 decisions. Since their creation, the inventory of rating-related claims has declined from about 421,000 to about 321,000 claims at the end of fiscal year 2004. VBA has also consolidated some specific types of compensation and pension work into specialized units. In January 2002, VBA consolidated pension maintenance work at three regional offices—St. Paul, Minnesota; Philadelphia; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This work involves, for VBA’s means-tested pension programs, conducting periodic income and eligibility verifications for beneficiaries. In fiscal year 2004, the Pension Maintenance Centers completed over 200,000 pension maintenance actions. In addition to consolidating pension maintenance, VBA plans to consolidate all pension claims processing at the three Pension Maintenance Centers. VBA also consolidated in-service dependency and indemnity compensation claims at the Philadelphia regional office. These claims are filed by survivors of service members who die while in military service. VBA consolidated these claims as part of its efforts to provide expedited service to these survivors, including service members who died in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. VBA has also consolidated the processing of decisions remanded on appeal by VA’s Board of Veterans Appeals. Effective February 2002, VA issued a new regulation to streamline and expedite the appeals process. The new regulation allowed the board to process remanded decisions without having to send them back to VBA regional offices. To implement this regulation, the board established a unit to process remanded appeals. However, in May 2003, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that the board could not, except in certain statutorily authorized exceptions, decide appeals in cases in which the board had developed evidence. As a result, VBA regained responsibility for evidence development and adjudication work on remands, and chose to establish a centralized Appeals Management Center at its Washington regional office. According to VBA officials, remand processing was consolidated because a consolidated unit, focusing only on remands, could process them faster and more consistently, and with better accountability, than the individual regional offices. VBA’s Washington regional office was chosen because of its proximity to the board’s headquarters. The Appeals Management Center was established in July 2003, and was, according to VBA officials, fully operational by February 2004. According to a VBA official, it was staffed largely through transfers from regional offices and with staff from the board’s former remand processing unit. VBA continues to consolidate specific types of claims processing work. VBA is in the process of consolidating decision making on Benefits Delivery at Discharge claims, which are generally original claims for disability compensation, at the Salt Lake City and Winston-Salem regional offices. VBA established this program to expedite decisions on disability compensation claims from newly separated service members. A service member can file a BDD claim up to 180 days before separation; VBA staff performs some development work on the claim before separation. VBA actually decides the claim after the service member is separated, and the official discharge form (DD Form 214) is received. Under the consolidation, regional offices and BDD sites will accept and develop claims, but will send the developed claims to Salt Lake City or Winston- Salem for decision. VBA expects this consolidation to help improve decision efficiency and consistency. Consolidation began in December 2004 and is expected to be completed by March 2006. According to VBA officials, claims processing performance was one reason for selecting these two regional offices. In the case of Salt Lake City, the availability of space and the ability to recruit new claims processing staff were also factors. The Salt Lake City office is in a relatively new building on the campus of the Salt Lake City VA Medical Center. VBA has also made changes in the jurisdictions of some regional offices. The Washington regional office has lost most of its jurisdiction. Claims from veterans residing in Washington’s Maryland and Virginia suburbs were transferred to the Baltimore, Maryland, and Roanoke, Virginia, regional offices, respectively. The Washington regional office’s staff declined by about 37 percent between fiscal year 2001 and 2004. Also, jurisdiction over claims from veterans residing outside the United States was transferred from Washington to the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, regional office. Meanwhile, the Newark regional office lost jurisdiction over claims from veterans in seven southern New Jersey counties to the Philadelphia regional office. The Newark regional office lost about 16 percent of its staff between fiscal year 2001 and 2004.