[Gimpy]

Thanks for bringing this out for everyone to see.

I had specifically identified and called for the removal of Daniel Cooper, VA’s Under Secretary for Benefits, as the top person responsible for VA’s claims fiasco since late 2003 when I saw where he (and the VA in general) were NOT even attempting to keep George Bush's 2000 presidential campaign "promise" of reducing the amount of VA disability claims being processed and the waiting times for those claims. Why G. Bush didn't (or wouldn't) see this is nothing short of criminal!

Not only is a massive reform of this "system" vital, so, too, is a history lesson in how the wheels came off at VBA.


Below is a chronology showing how Daniel Cooper was fully aware of VBA’s claims crisis well before he became Under Secretary. However, Cooper failed to use this knowledge and deliver for veterans, even after years as the top VA official responsible for disability compensation claims:

• In early 2001, then-Secretary Anthony Principi recognized challenges at VBA, and he created the “Claims Processing Task Force,” naming Cooper to lead it, even though he had no experience with VA. Cooper was a retired Navy Vice Admiral who served on the board of directors for Exelon, a nuclear power company, and USAA, an insurance and banking company.

• In October 2001, Cooper issued his Task Force report, which made dozens of thoughtful incremental recommendations, including holding VBA employees accountable. In November 2001, the full House Veterans’ Affairs Committee held a hearing to discuss the work of the Task Force. After 9/11 and after the invasion of Afghanistan, Cooper told the full Committee, “In my opinion, today, there are enough resources in VBA to do the job that has to be done,” a disturbing comment that was repeated until the Walter Reed scandal blew the cover the shabby way the Bush Administration treats our veterans.

• In December 2001, with more troops pouring into Afghanistan and with plans on the table to invade Iraq, Cooper provided additional written answers to the questions from Congress about VA staffing resources. Cooper wrote, “At the hearing, I specifically stated that new resources (i.e., FTE) should not be provided.” Given that there were hundreds of thousands of claims from half of the Gulf War veterans, everyone wanted to know why did Cooper not plan for nor act on the needs of a new generation of war veterans when he became Under Secretary in 2002?

This disgraceful pattern of under staffing and under funding VA continued from 2001 through 2008.


• In February 2007, former VA Secretary Jim Nicholson told Congress, “The President’s 2008 budget request provides the resources necessary to ensure that service members’ transition from active duty military status to civilian life continues to be as smooth and seamless as possible.” Nicholson, who relied on Cooper to run VA's benefits programs, told Congress, “We expect to improve the timeliness of processing these claims to 145 days in 2008.... In addition, we anticipate that our pending inventory of disability claims will fall to about 330,000 by the end of 2008...” It DID NOT happen!


Any "accountability"? Nope, not from Bush or anyone else.


• In VA’s press release dated February 4, 2008, VA once again promised to cut the backlog to 300,000 claims and process claims in an average of 145 days. However, VA's most recent reports confirm the claims backlog of unfinished work stands at more than 600,000, and veterans wait an average of 189 days. Cooper and Nicholson were repeatedly and catastrophically wrong, and these veterans and their families have paid a very steep price.


Thanks Bush..........


Under Secretary Daniel Cooper’s departure this past Feb, was long overdue, just as Jim Nicholson's was. Cooper’s tenure was identical to the now disgraced former VA Secretary Jim Nicholson: both were incompetent and forced out of office because they failed to provide timely and quality assistance to this nation’s veterans. Their failures reflect on the string of poor choices made by President George W. Bush, who appointed unqualified VA leaders and who chronically under funded VA for years.


In 2006, as the VA claims crisis worsened, Cooper and Nicholson quietly handed out millions of dollars in cash bonuses, up to $33,000 in some cases, to top VA executives - during a time when more and more veterans waited longer and longer for VA benefits. That's right, while veterans couldn't feed their families and pay their bills due to disabilities, top VA executives got huge cash rewards. A reasonble person would conclude VA leaders were rewarded for failure. The bonuses should have gone to hard-working and over-burdened claims processors and other VA staff. Or the bonus cash could have been used to hire more employees. But nope, not from this bunch!


The lessons from the Nicholson and Cooper resignations are stark reminders of how tragic and irresponsible the Bush Administration has been by its' failure to monitor and then to plan for the massive tidal wave of hundreds of thousands of unexpected patients and disability claims as a result of the Iraq War fiasco. The end result of Cooper’s and Nicholson’s catastrophic failure is that now more than 600,000 veterans wait an average of more than six months for a VA disability claim decision.


No veteran should ever have to wait more than 30 days for a VA decision. This country must put veterans first. As World War II General Omar Bradley said while leading VA, “We are dealing with veterans, not procedures – with their problems, not ours.”


There were 11 months remaining in Bush’s lame duck term when Under Secretary Daniel Cooper announced his departure this past Feb, it would have been the right time for VA reform of disability claims processijng and a great opportunity for George W. Bush to make a last ditch effort to keep that "promise" he had made eight long years ago to REDUCE disability claims "backlogs". What did he do.............Once again....NOTHING"!


Let’s hope and pray that Obama and the Democrats take up the fight and will take care of this long standing problem that has been virtually ignored by the current administration.


Gimp