FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com may 23, 2013 • THE QUEENS COURIER 17 memorial day LEGISLATION TO SPEED BENEFITS FOR VETS Congressmember Grace Meng has introduced legislation to eliminate the massive backlog of disability claims that forces veterans in Queens to wait an average of nearly 500 days for their benefits, one of the longest wait times in the entire country. “Forcing disabled veterans to wait such long periods of time to receive the vital benefits they require is disgraceful and unconscionable,” said Meng. “Our veterans and returning troops who valiantly served our country must not continue be subjected to these shameful and inexcusable delays. They deserve better. That’s why I’ve introduced this critical legislation to help fix the problem. We can never thank our veterans enough for the sacrifices they made to our nation, and now we must do all we can to help them receive the benefits they rightly deserve.” More than 878,000 veterans have disability claims waiting to be processed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) at present. Nearly 593,000 of them have gone past the department’s processing goal of 125 days. Nationwide, the average time for the VA to process claims is 310 days. However, in Queens, the average wait time is 499 days, according to Meng. Further, nearly 14 percent of the claims processed by the VA’s New York City office contain errors. That is significantly higher than the VA’s target error rate of two percent. Disability benefits include critical care for everything from major combat injuries to post-traumatic stress disorder to Agent Orange exposure. Meng’s legislation, entitled the VA Regional Office Accountability Act, would require annual reports on VA regional offices that fail to meet the VA’s target of processing claims within 125 days with 98 percent accuracy. The reports are intended to speed up benefits by allowing Congress and the VA to better understand the challenges that prevent regional offices from reaching their goals. The reports would also propose solutions on how to rectify the problem. They would be required to explain why the office did not meet the goal, what resources it needs to meet it and how the failure affected the performance evaluation of the office director. The VA office in downtown Manhattan is one of 58 regional VA offices across the country that provide benefits and services to veterans and their dependents. The New York facility serves about 608,000 veterans throughout Queens and New York City, Long Island and the rest of the state. The backlog in claims has been attributed to several factors. These include an increase in veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, extending additional benefits to Vietnam-era veterans, a lack of adequate staffing and an antiquated claim system that is not computerized. ▶ PROFILE IN COURAGE BY LUKE TABET [email protected] EDITOR’S NOTE: This Memorial Day, as we pay tribute to all who have laid down their lives in service, The Courier would also like to thank all those active and retired service members. Jed Rubin joined the Marines in 2008 at age 19. “I’ve always wanted to join since I was a kid,” he said, though his parents had other plans. “My mom said I should try going to college first before I joined, so I went for a year.” Rubin, of Bayside, served four years of active duty in the Marines from 2008 until 2012. He went on two deployments, including a combat mission in Afghanistan. Rubin went to boot camp at Parris Island in South Carolina. After that, he continued his training with the 1st Battalion 9th Marines, nicknamed “The Walking Dead” for the unit’s high casualty rate in the Vietnam War. In 2010, Rubin was deployed with the 24th Expeditionary Unit. “I was on a ship,” he said. “We were a quick reaction force sent around the world to be on call in case of crisis.” Then the earthquake struck in Haiti. “They sent us over there to aid, and after that I went to 15 other countries,” said Rubin. During his first deployment, Rubin spent time in Greece, Croatia, Spain, Bahrain, Djibouti, and the United Arab Emirates, among other countries. After seven months with the 24th Expeditionary Unit, Rubin returned to the U.S. He was ready for his second deployment, to Afghanistan’s Helmand Province. “Our main mission was to push the Taliban forces from the area, and in the beginning we were getting into a lot of firefights,” he recalled. “They sent my platoon — we were dropped off by helicopter — to go in and find a compound and fortify it.” Rubin called the compound a “mudhole.” He and his fellow Marines spent five months of their tour there. We “fortified it and spent the first three weeks sleeping on the ground,” Rubin said. “It was tough.” Once his term was complete, Rubin returned to his family and old life in Bayside. The transition back to civilian life was a complicated process. “I was doing it for four years, so of course I was a little nervous,” he said. “It took some time adjusting.” Rubin is now pursuing a degree in homeland and corporate security at St. John’s University. He said he is proud of his service. “This country took my parents in as immigrants,” Rubin explained, “so I felt like it was my duty to protect the country that cared for my family.”
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