𝐕𝐀 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐋𝐎𝐆 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐏𝐒𝐄𝐒 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝟐𝟔𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐓𝐎 𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑 𝟕𝟓,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐀𝐒 𝐖𝐀𝐈𝐓 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒 𝐍𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐘 𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐕𝐄
Vice President JD Vance and VA Secretary Doug Collins stood together this week with a number most federal agencies would never dare publish: the backlog of veterans waiting on VA disability and benefits claims has fallen by 𝟕𝟐 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭 since the administration took office — from 260,000 pending claims down to under 75,000.
“𝘖𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘸𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘱 𝘢𝘥𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦’𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘷𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘝𝘈 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦,” Vance said, turning to Collins to lay out how it happened.
The wait times tell the same story. The average time to decide a veteran’s claim has dropped from 𝟏𝟒𝟏.𝟓 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 at the start of the administration to under 𝟕𝟗 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 now — a 43 percent cut — while accuracy on those decisions climbed to its highest rate in two years. The VA also says it opened 𝟐 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐬 nationwide that didn’t exist a year ago.
For a veteran, that gap isn’t an abstraction — it’s the difference between waiting nearly five months for a disability decision and waiting closer to eleven weeks, with a real appointment on the other end instead of a phone tree.
𝐓𝐰𝐨 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐞𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐯𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐮𝐞.