Writing Congress

[MrFreedomforAll]

Good Morning Folks,

I checked on the status of my case this morning and they lady told me that it is in the appeals process and that it can stay there for up to a year. WOW!

Will it be effect to write my congress man?

If so any ideas of what to say. other than the basics/ Or what not to say.

Thank you

[Jayg]

They will pull your file and send it to the "congressional department" where it will languish for however long it takes for them to send a form letter to the congressman (which he/she/other will forward to you). Then it will lay there until they send it back to wherever they pulled it from only you won't have the same place in line.

Here's the catch. Anything, anything you do to try and speed things up, will only slow it down. That's how I spent my second year of this so I know. B)

Now I do have to say that I was the focus of a local newspaper article detailing the woes of the VA system and the article got picked up by the AP and a response came very quickly after that. A 10% increase and denial on other issues. That was 4 years ago and I'm still getting stonewalled (had a DRO review in March and no decision yet). Any bets that my file has some nasty little flag attached due to that article??? <_<

Edited September 17, 2009 by Jayg

[Testvet]

my two cents- writing elected officials Congress or Senators is usually useless....it causes nothing but more problems, I have OCD and one of my problems is writing letters when I feel offended by people especially government employees any and all of them needless to say the VARO employees really knew how to punch my buttons, in one meeting the DRO told me (threatened me) that for each and every letter I write in the future the VA would pull my file and send it to the "congressional reply office" where they could hold it for 60 days, even if the reply was sent in 10 days my file would sit on a shelf there for the entire 60 days and then it would go back to the rating team and be put at the end of the stack, sure enough that night I went home and rifled off another letter about the mans attitude and treatment. My wife then figure out how to mess my computer up the days we had appointments at the VARO and it would take her a few days to "fix it" and give me time to cool off before I caused us more trouble....then the VA made the mistake of putting one of their lies in a letter to myself and then Chairman of the Senate VA Committee Larry Craig, they claimed I was never used in any human experiments and wassent back to Fort Lewis on 10 July 1974, I had already sent Senator Craigs office copies of my inprocessing paperwork dated 25 June 1974 and my outprocessing paperwork dated 22 August 1974.

They were caught red handed lying, I was awarded my PTSD claim at 100% rate and told to go away, I didn't I filed another NOD because of my heart problems ended up finally getting it to the BVA and the BVA slapped them down again because my wife had found the doctors specialties the VA used for the C&P exams a Nurse Practioner, a regular MD and a X Ray doctor we had their state prinot outs from the medical board, we had 4 IMOs 3 from board certified cardioligists, and a retired Army Colonel a board certified psychiatrist also one of the Edgewood scientists, he is also a Professor at UCLA, they could hardly ignore the CV's the BVA awarded all the issues in my favor.

Evidence wins, learn what youcan about their C&P docs and how well they are credentialed or board certified in the specialty they are examining.

If you have to beg borrow steal the money you need for IMOs to prove your case anduse a board certified doctor in that field don;t waste your money on quacks just because they are cheap......

Berta is right EVIDENCE wins

[john999]

I guess if your claim was featured in an article in the New York Times you would get instant approval, but that in the only way. If you get medal of honor and die in the effort your spouse should get DIC pretty quick, maybe.

[Berta]

It made News in all the big NY newspapers(and on the veterans internet community electronic wires)

when Congressman John Hall up here in NY ( On H VAC committee too ) got a WWII vet $100,000 retro check.

He helped the vet I guess somehow- and the newspapers showed him handing a big phony check from VA to the vet for 100,000 bucks for the press shots.

At the time I viewed this as probably the VA owed this WWII vet plenty more than that-I couldnt find info on what the ratings or EED was.

[Testvet]

John, I had the privilege of helping a widow last year who's husband died from a brain tumor less than a year after returning from Balad AFB where one of the worst open burn pits in Iraq is located, I pointed out the VA rules that if it happens within a year of discharge it is automatically covered etc, she went to the VA with all the chapters and paragraphs, she was approved in less than 10 days. All CHAMPVA for her and the kids all of it. She was also on CNN complaining about the burn pits lol..... that didn't hurt her any either