A Man With Politial Power

[bigjim]

Would it help to have a congressman to inquiry about ones

claims or that just pi.. some one off, just asking

also who are these ROs i keep reading about, jim

[Berta]

RO means VA Regional Office.

I dont suggest getting a Congressional Inquery unless you have a very strong reason-

otherwise it will add months to the claim processing and the RO will send the Congressperson a letter that just states they are still working on the claim.

Congress does not award SC comp-only evidence does.

I say this to you but recently I myself got an immediate Senatorial Inquery-not from my personal congressional rep but from a Senator from the Committee on Veterans Affairs.

The letter I had sent regarded not only the way my claim had been handled but pointed out specific reasons why the backlog of claims at BVA and CAVC is occurring.I had become part of that backlog for the very reasons that many veterans are. I referred to an Inspector General's report and other statistics showing that I was an example of what many veterans are dealing with and do not even know it yet.

Five days after receipt the Senator asked the RO to reply to my statements.

They had just transferred my claim to the BVA. Then they sent his letter to the BVA.

It all came back a few weeks later to the VARO.

They were forced into beginning proper adjudication of my claim because they could not pass his letter off to the BVA and have to answer the charges I had made.

This was a good reason to use my claim as an example of an illegal VARO practice-and to tell a Senator about it.

But I did not and cannot expect this to speed up my claim or produce an award.

It is only solid evidence that can produce service connection.

My evidence had not been read for over 3 years when I wrote to the Senator.

I was quite specific in telling him that the ROs are not sending all claimants a legal VCAA Notice and denying these claims illegally as well as refusing to acknowledge the claimants evidence.

My RO started working on Saturday to get out these VCAA Notices. I still have not got any but if they read my evidence, I dont need one.

My long point is that I feel a veteran needs to have a very specific complaint when writing to anyone in Congress or the Senate.

My claim was 3 1/2 years old when I wrote this letter.None of my medical evidence,to include 2 IMOs, had been addressed at all and it was denied without proper VCAA letter.

I received a very nice letter from the Senator as this situation I related is right at the heart of much of the backlog problems and he is on the Backlog committee.

If you got a VCAA letter telling you the evidence you need to send them-and the election form- this evidence is the key to your proper SC award.

[Pete53]

In 1996 I sent an email to President Clinton asking for his help a couple of months before the election. Within 30 days I was called by VARO and asked if I could attend a Hearing on short notice less than a week and I agreed.

At the Hearing the RO said I should have been service connected a long time before and he would let me know his final answer on Wednesday of the next week. He called me on Tuesday and said I was granted 100%. I later found out the Effective Date was 2 years off but as Alex often has said once a 100% take up a hobby and forget the VA.

A few months later I got a copy of my C File and in it was a letter from an Assistant to the President asking the VA to look into my claim and report back to her with the disposition.

I don't think this would work with our current President.