Regional offices run by the Department of Veterans Affairs closed Tuesday as furloughs began for 7,000 employees of the agency’s Benefits Administration (VBA).
“All public access to VBA regional offices and facilities will be suspended ... due to a lack of funds,” Veterans Affairs Department spokeswoman Victoria Dillon said in a statement provided to The Hill.
The government shutdown, in its eighth day, has caused agencies to send government workers home who are deemed “nonessential.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, for example, called some of its furloughed employees back to work to track Tropical Storm Karen, but they were then refurloughed Monday.
No one would be answering phones at regional VA offices, which veterans call to check on the status of their disability benefits.
Consequently, many veterans’ benefits will be delayed. VA’s ability to reduce the claims backlog, Dillon says, is hampered without claims processors who work overtime. Overtime was eliminated when the shutdown began.
“Clear progress for Veterans and their families is at risk without immediate action by Congress to make fiscal year 2014 funding available by passing a clean continuing resolution to reopen the government,” her statement said.
House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) slammed Senate Democrats for not agreeing to piecemeal bills to fund the VA. The ball, Miller said, is now in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) court.
“Harry Reid could stop these furloughs and ensure veterans’ benefits immediately by acting on either of these bills, but instead he’s content to let them gather dust on his desk," he said in a statement. "It’s well past time for Harry Reid to stop the games and fund VA. If not, he owes America’s veterans an explanation for why he’s putting their benefits at risk.”
Via: The Hill
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