Kaine Joins Colleagues in Bipartisan Letter to Help Veterans Receive their Military Records

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), joined Senators Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Mike Braun (R-IN), and 18 of their colleagues in a bipartisan letter to the National Archives of the United States (NARA) seeking answers on the backlog of veterans’ record requests. Veterans are often required to submit their service records to access critical government benefits and services, including health care, unemployment assistance, and emergency housing. Ensuring these requests are met with a timely response from NARA is essential for veterans to receive the services they need.

“We write to express our concern regarding reports of ongoing delays in constituents receiving their military service records from the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC). As part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (P.L. 117-263), Congress passed the Access for Veterans to Records Act. This authorized $60 million for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to address the records backlog and improve response times for requests from Veterans for their military service records,” wrote the senators.

“While we recognize and commend NARA for the significant strides it has made to address this backlog, we must ensure all incoming requests are still met with a timely response and that this does not occur again in the future. For the sake of our constituents, we kindly request NARA respond to the following questions by Monday, October 16, 2023,” the senators continued.

Joining Kaine, Ossoff, and Braun on the letter are Senators Jerry Moran (R-KS), Jon Tester (D-MT), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), John Thune (R-SD), John Cornyn (R-TX), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Todd Young (R-IN), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Ted Cruz (R-TX), John Boozman (R-AK), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Katie Britt (R-AL), and Rick Scott (R-FL).

Kaine has long supported efforts to help veterans and their families access the care and services they need. Kaine helped pass the PACT Act into law, which expanded health care services and benefits to veterans with conditions related to toxic exposure during their service. Kaine recently introduced legislation to expand access to home and community-based services (HCBS), including long term services and supports (LTSS), for aging veterans and improve the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)’s support for veterans and caregivers of all ages. Kaine has also introduced legislation to protect veterans and low-income families from housing discrimination.

Full text of the letter is available here and below.

Dear Ms. Shogan:

We write to express our concern regarding reports of ongoing delays in constituents receiving their military service records from the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC). As part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (P.L. 117-263), Congress passed the Access for Veterans to Records Act. This authorized $60 million for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to address the records backlog and improve response times for requests from Veterans for their military service records.

While we recognize and commend NARA for the significant strides it has made to address this backlog, we must ensure all incoming requests are still met with a timely response and that this does not occur again in the future. For the sake of our constituents, we kindly request NARA respond to the following questions by Monday, October 16, 2023.

1. What is the current total number of unanswered requests for military service records?
2. What is the current total number of overdue requests and how old is oldest request?
3. What is the makeup of the current overdue backlog? (i.e. DD214s, records other than DD214s, etc.)
4. What is the current average response time for a military service records request?
5. In February, NARA projected the backlog would be reduced to 84,500 cases by October 2023. Has NARA met this benchmark? Is NARA still on track to have fully eliminated the backlog by December 2, 2023?
6. How many military service records have been digitized since January 1, 2023? What percentage of records are left to be digitized?
7. What is the current expected timeline for completing the digitization of military service records?
8. What percentage of military service record requests have been received through eVetRecs since January 1, 2023? Of those, how many have been fully processed electronically?
9. How does the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solutions expedite responses to requests for separation documents? Is RPA currently being employed by NARA?
10. What is the status of the Case Management Reporting System (CMRS) modernization effort? Please provide the implementation timeline.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,

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