Secretary McDonough

I know there are challenges associated with the steady rise of Veteran disability comp and pen claims over the last several years, and challenges associated with the growing complexities of those claims. Let me tell you, VBA people are doing great work tackling those challenges, head-on.

Today’s events have been simply incredible for me—talking to amazing Veterans as they participated in many events, attending the awesome medal ceremony, and visiting with the magnificent staff and volunteers from VA and DAV who make this Winter Sports Clinic possible.

Just to briefly recap how we got here, these recommendations are a critical step in a long process set off by the MISSION Act in 2018.

We’ve announced our intent to propose a new rule that would add presumption of service connection for nine rare respiratory cancers; and we’re fundamentally changing, improving, and expediting how these presumptions are established moving forward.

We’ve lost so many of the Vets we serve, the colleagues we work with, and the family and friends we love. And we’re still not out of the woods after two long years of the pandemic. But the reality is that—because times have been hard—this is the moment when Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors need us most. I know DAV has risen to that challenge—driving hundreds of thousands of Vets to VA hospitals for free during the pandemic and helping Vets and their families file 150,000 new claims last year alone.

President Biden and I want to improve and expand VA support to better meet caregivers’ needs. It is a priority for me. And it’s a priority for President Biden. That’s why he called on a very special person to serve as my Senior Advisor for Families, Caregivers, and Survivors.

Today, I’m announcing ten steps that we’re taking to invest in you: our incredible workforce.

We need to listen to Vets and employees, particularly Black Vets and employees, about where we’re falling short and what we need to do better. We need to follow through on the recommendations of the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access—or IDEA—Task Force, which were released earlier this week. And, most of all, we need to serve Black Vets, Vets of Color, LGBTQ+ Vets, Women Vets—all Vets—every bit as well as they have served our country.

Our mission at VA is very simple—and it goes back to what I said when I first testified before you back in January: we must serve Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors as well as they’ve served us. That’s the promise we make at VA—and between the pandemic and everything else that’s happened this year, keeping that promise to Vets has never been more important than it is right now. 

Native Vets will get the care, benefits, services, and honor they deserve—on Veterans Day, and every day. There are so many ways in which we’re working to keep that promise.

Each year, America pauses on November 11 to remember and recognize those men and women who fought our nation’s wars and defended us during periods of restless peace. On this day, we must not only appreciate those great blessings, and the Vets who delivered them—we must also remember the terrible cost at which they came.

From the beginning of our fight for independence to the end of the longest war in Afghanistan, millions of Veterans have risked their lives to preserve the democratic ideals of this great nation. All of us are beneficiaries of the blessings and opportunities their service and sacrifice have provided, that you all have provided, for our nation.