WASHINGTON – During a meeting today with the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, continued advocating reforms that will improve the standard of care for veterans in Mississippi and across the country.

Wicker’s meeting with VA Secretary Eric Shinseki took place the day after the senator met with members of the American Legion from Mississippi.  Wicker said the back-to-back meetings gave him the opportunity to take the concerns of Mississippi’s veterans directly to the VA’s top official.

“Today’s meeting allowed me to relay to Secretary Shinseki the concerns Mississippi’s veterans have on a number of topics, including the need to clear the backlog of VA claims.  This is an issue that is having a negative impact on the care of veterans across the country,” Wicker said.  “Fixing the backlog problem is a critical part of maintaining the standard of care our service members deserve as they transition from active duty to the VA.” 

To help alleviate the claims backlog, Wicker stressed to Secretary Shinseki the importance of implementing an interoperable electronic medical records system that would allow seamless records transition from the Department of Defense to the VA.  Shinseki acknowledged the importance of this reform and expressed his belief that the two departments are on the right track.  The secretary also highlighted the progress being made in modernizing the claims and benefits process through electronic records by outlining four pilot programs in place across the country.

Wicker also discussed the need to fix the problems the VA is having making timely tuition payments for many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who attended school last fall under the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which Congress passed in 2008.

“America’s new generation of veterans should not have to worry about their education being disrupted because the federal government is late processing GI Bill claims,” Wicker said.  “The secretary and I both agreed that correcting this problem must remain a top priority.”  

Wicker is the first senator from Mississippi to serve on the Veterans Affairs Committee.  He is also a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Foreign Relations Committee, the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, and the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee.

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