There are some 851,000 veterans awaiting answers on compensation claims for illnesses or injuries incurred during their service. Two-thirds of the claims have been waiting more than 125 days for an answer. The Department of Veterans Affairs says that number finally has begun to decline. There has been “significant progress” and VA is “at a tipping point” in reducing a massive backlog of claims, Thomas Murphy, the VA’s director of compensation services, told Chairman Bernie Sanders during testimony Wednesday before the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs. Murphy said the backlog is shrinking and on track to meet VA Secretary Eric Shinseki’s goal of processing all claims within 125 days with 98 percent accuracy by the end of 2015. “I honestly believe we’re going to hit that number,” Murphy said. While the caseload decline is encouraging, Sanders said there is still much to be done so that VA can meet its goal of eliminating the claims backlog. “The current backlog is unacceptable and this committee will do everything possible to make sure the VA achieves its goal. We will continue to monitor the situation very closely,” Sanders said.

In the nine weeks since the end of March, VA’s disability claims backlog has experienced a steady decrease. The turnaround is thanks in large part to an initiative by Shinseki to transform the VA’s records from cumbersome paperwork process to digital documents that speed the claims handling process. Sanders congratulated Shinseki for undertaking the transition to digital records that his predecessors had neglected.

While the caseload decline is encouraging, Sanders said there is still much to be done so that VA can meet its goal of eliminating the claims backlog.

Sanders has introduced legislation that would provide long-term reforms that would improve VA’s claims process from start to finish – from the regional offices to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals and Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

The bill also would enable Congress to conduct more comprehensive oversight of VA’s progress and transformation by requiring VA to publicly report, on a quarterly basis, information on both VA’s quarterly goals and actual production.