Editor’s Note: After publication of this piece, the Military Affairs, Public Safety and Border Security Committee of the Arizona State Senate passed an amended version of SB1308 that includes many of the protections recommended by the author who now supports the amended legislation.
As a former Arizona State Senator, I can attest that one of the first and foremost responsibilities of our elected officials is to provide and care for our veterans. Given their service and sacrifice in protecting the United States, often at great personal risk, my colleagues and I felt a moral and ethical obligation to watch over these individuals who had served our country in such a profound way.
However, despite the best of intentions, sometimes misguided efforts can unintentionally harm the very heroes that society aims to protect. Such is the case with a bill that was recently introduced into the Arizona State Senate, SB 1308, that in an attempt to safeguard our veterans may actually make it more difficult for them to access the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) disability benefits to which they are entitled.
As things stand now, the 454,000-strong veteran community in Arizona is facing difficulties in securing VA disability benefits. According to the most recent survey from the VA, veterans in Arizona trail the national average when receiving disability compensation by nearly 10 percent, and we must avoid taking measures that could make the issue worse.
The fact is, many veterans find navigating the maze of bureaucratic red tape surrounding the claims system overwhelming and an impediment to receiving VA disability benefits. As such they have turned to a number of third-party partners, such as veterans service organizations (VSOs) and VA accredited attorneys for assistance.
But while these entities can provide some important help, VSOs are staffed predominately by volunteers who also handle a variety of other tasks raging from death certificates to job placement services and as such lack the manpower and expertise to assist all of Arizona’s veterans with their claims. In fact, a quick scan of the VA website indicates that only a little over half of the VSO representatives in Arizona even have a phone number listed, leaving approximately 1 reachable VSO officer for 7,900 veterans in the state. Attorneys, meanwhile, only step in upon appeal of a claims decision, which can result in further delays in the process.
As Arizona legislators consider ways to help improve this process for our veterans, it is important that they do not cut off their nose to spite their face. That is unfortunately what appears to be happening with SB 1308, which would prevent veterans from engaging private sector assistance in navigating the VA disability claims process, in effect limiting their choices in and making it harder to secure benefits.
As the VA backlog has grown in recent years – as of February 10 it stood at over 387,000 claims – private consulting agents have emerged in response as another outside partner to help streamline the process. These companies, which can leverage professional expertise and the power of the free market to more efficiently process claims, work on a contingency basis. This means that they do not get paid unless they secure an increase in the benefit payment for a veteran and they have broadly been successful in this mission. Unfortunately, SB 1308 would criminalize this business model.
Proponents of the bill may argue that they want to put guardrails in place to ensure veterans are not charged unlawful or unapproved fees from private actors. But while this is understandable and laudable, a better path forward exists. Instead of pursuing such misguided legislation that would result in an outright ban and deprive many veterans of the private sector assistance they need, members of the state legislature would be better off working with our federal delegation to promote better fixes for the issue in Congress.
As things stand now, the current VA accreditation process does not provide a pathway for private sector actors to gain formal recognition. This has allowed a small number of unscrupulous actors to cast a shadow over the entire industry. A bill currently under consideration in Congress and co-sponsored by Representative Eli Crane (AZ-2) known as the Preserving Lawful Utilization of Services (PLUS) for the Veterans Act of 2023 would fix this oversight by reforming the accreditation regime to include private consultants while increasing the VA’s capability to enforce laws against exploitation of veterans by bad actors. This legislation would empower veterans to decide their best course of action for themselves and offer a much broader pool of VA accredited firms to choose from.
At the end of the day, our veterans deserve nothing less than a VA disability claims system that is accessible, easy to navigate and provides options that allow them to achieve the best possible outcome. As the debate surrounding SB 1308 proceeds, I can only hope that the supporters of this legislation will take these concerns into account and reconsider their approach.
Lori Klein, former AZ State Senator, Appropriations Committee & Government Reform Committee