00:00The subcommittee will come to order.
00:02I want to thank everyone for being here today to discuss the Veterans Righteousness and
00:05Employment Program, or VR&E.
00:09The purpose of this program is to assist veterans and service members who have service-connected
00:14disabilities with on-the-job training, education, and skills they need in order to obtain meaningful
00:20employment to live full, independent lives.
00:24When this program is appropriately administered, VR&E is more than just a benefits program.
00:28It's also a vital first step for disabled veterans to become more financially independent
00:32and give back to their community and achieve their own American dream.
00:38I used VR&E to go to law school at the age of 50, and it led me to Congress, so maybe we
00:46should cancel this program.
00:49That's a joke.
00:50I'm seriously at this job, right?
00:53He got it.
00:54He's the only guy that got it.
00:57So unfortunately, VR&E has been at a crossroads for several years, and unfortunately, it's
01:03been abused by a lot of folks.
01:05And I'm very thankful that over this last year, our team has been able to investigate
01:09some of these potential fraud, waste, and abuse cases.
01:12And it includes site visits to Detroit, Muscogee, Buffalo, Baltimore, and just last week the folks
01:18got back from San Diego.
01:20And what they found is truly disturbing.
01:24We're now seeing an unprecedented increase in wait times and an increased burden on counselors
01:29with higher caseloads.
01:31There's got to be a better balance of priorities in the program to make sure that veterans get
01:34what they need, while also ensuring that the VA is a responsible steward of the taxpayer's
01:39investment.
01:40I've found that this is a responsibility that the VA has a profound and constant inability
01:46to perform the oversight function.
01:49But I'm also going to point the finger this way.
01:51We have an oversight responsibility.
01:54You have an oversight responsibility, and I think both sides of this fence have not been
01:58meeting that.
01:59Finally, my staff has also seen some data that veterans have been in this program for over
02:0320 years, and many veterans are using more than $250,000 in benefit payments.
02:09One veteran in Boston spent over $350,000 in 18 months.
02:15Another veteran in Los Angeles has spent $895,000 in six years and is still in rehab-to-employment
02:22phase of the program.
02:23If anyone's concerned about funding for veterans, they need to be concerned about what's going
02:27on in this program also.
02:29Faces like this are a direct result of VA granting entitlement extensions past the 48-month limit
02:34mandated by law for VR&E recipients, while over 99% of the time are not doing their due diligence
02:41on the program.
02:42In fact, the VA committee last month found out that since fiscal year 2024, 62,355 extensions
02:53were approved, while just 59 requests for extensions were denied.
02:59And that's statistically impossible for that to be a functioning number.
03:05It's just absurd.
03:07I'm looking forward to hearing from the VA about the real-life examples that constitute
03:11granting a waiver.
03:12On paper, bureaucrats may just be completing a check-in-the-box exercise instead of completing
03:17a thorough review.
03:18Additionally, we've heard numerous concerns about long wait times.
03:22The current wait time for a veteran to be seen by a counselor in San Diego, Oakland,
03:25and Albuquerque is over 100 days.
03:27And 40% of regional offices take over 60 days for a veteran to meet a counselor for an initial
03:31evaluation above the VA goals of a 60-day maximum wait time.
03:37A month is too long, but making a veteran put their lives on hold for nearly a year before
03:41even being seen by a counselor is ridiculous and has a negative impact on not only their lives
03:46but their entire families.
03:47And finally, we found that 45% of participants within the VR&E program have successfully completed
03:52the program and subsequently re-entered it.
03:55That means that nearly half of the VR&E participants complete a program successfully only to return
04:00to the program.
04:01I understand the need for the veteran whose disability worsens or re-enters the program
04:06with the goal of becoming gainfully employed again.
04:08However, 45% of individuals using a jobs program more than once is a failure.
04:15And this will not stand on my watch any longer.
04:18We've also heard from VR&E Executive Director himself that many veterans are retiring from
04:22their jobs and applying for VR&E to receive a substance allowance to supplement their income
04:26until they're able to receive retirement benefits and Social Security.
04:30So in essence, some people are retiring from a job and then entering this program for a period
04:38of time to carry them into the age when they're eligible for Social Security.
04:44That's not what this program was designed for.
04:46VA knows that there's abuse in this program, yet again, until I hear otherwise, VA is not
04:51working to fix the holes in the system, period.
04:53And we can't ignore this because we can't let this program fail.
04:57Finally, I recognize VR&E's latest IT project of readiness employment system, or RES, was launched
05:03as a pilot in 2024 and early reports showed that the program has been received very well.
05:07I know that VA states they're finally on the right path with the new case management system.
05:12However, I'm skeptical, as this undertaking will now span a term of four administrations.
05:18We all know how good the VA is at wasting taxpayers' dollars for IT failures.
05:22As a matter of fact, they have a zero percent rate of getting IT projects right.
05:26Ms. Devlin, I've got to tell you, I know you just got here.
05:30We met the other day in our office, and as discussed, this is how I want this hearing to go.
05:36This is going to be a post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission, meaning, you know,
05:44we're not going to hold you to account.
05:45I know you just got here a month ago.
05:48And I want to make sure that this is an open kimono discussion so that we can clearly identify,
05:54articulate, and brainstorm about how to fix these problems.
05:59Is that clear?
06:00Okay.
06:01With that, I'd like to now you.
