New Law to Streamline VA Claim Appeals Eases Some Protections

Every major veteran service organization except Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) supported legislation, signed into law last week, to reform a clogged process for deciding appeals of veterans' disability claims. Even VVA concedes the new "three-lane" option for appealing claims, when implemented via regulation a year or more from now, will produce speedier appeal decisions and begin to reverse what continues to be a steadily rising backlog of appeals, soon to surpass 500,000. For more details, see this Military Advantage blog post.