WASHINGTON -- Ahead of Congress returning from summer recess, Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Bob McDonald is urging lawmakers to fulfill the VA’s fiscal 2017 budget request and pass legislation reforming an “archaic” benefits appeals process.

In a letter sent Tuesday to leaders of the House and Senate committees on veterans affairs – and again while addressing the American Legion national convention on Wednesday – McDonald said the VA is at a “critical” point in its transformation plan, which can’t progress without acts of Congress.

“We have an opportunity to look back at 2016 as the year that turned the corner for veterans,” McDonald told a crowd at the American Legion convention in Cincinnati. “There are some things we can’t do without the help of Congress.”

President Barack Obama’s budget includes $182.3 billion for the department in fiscal 2017. Senate appropriators have pushed a budget bill meeting the full request, but McDonald was critical Wednesday of House appropriators’ proposal to trim $1.5 billion from it.

Both spending bills have been stalled for months, and lawmakers will be faced with passing a stop-gap budget measure before a new fiscal year starts in October. McDonald warned that type of temporary funding “shortchanges veterans.”

“We can’t afford to impede critical initiatives to transform VA into a high-performing organization by uncertainty and funding delays,” he said in his letter.

McDonald also asked for urgency on several other measures, including reform of the benefits appeals process. The VA has heard from thousands of veterans that the process to claim disability benefits and appeal rejections is complicated and lengthy.

According to VA data, it took an average of three years to process claims resolved in fiscal 2015. The appeals process took an average of five years for the Board of Veterans’ Appeals.

With changes outlined in the VA Appeals Modernization Act of 2016, McDonald promised that in five years’ time, a system could be in place to resolve appeals within one year after they’re filed. The measure was introduced in May and hasn’t moved forward.

McDonald also called on lawmakers to advance several other pieces of legislation, one of which would allow the VA to enter into agreements with private long-term care facilities to treat veterans when the department is unable to provide care.

Another measure would allow VA medical professionals an exemption to the federal 80-hour pay period requirement, which McDonald said was “not appropriate” for most medical professions and limited recruitment. The VA is also seeking special authority to decide pay for directors of VA medical centers and veterans integrated service networks. Without the authority, it’s “not possible” to employ the best people, McDonald said.

Other measures would further the VA’s goals regarding telehealth and housing homeless veterans.

“We need action from Congress now,” McDonald’s letter states. “… Without action from Congress, the problems and difficulties we are facing in areas that require legislative change are only going to worsen over time, and it will be veterans and their families and survivors who will suffer the negative impact.”

McDonald pleaded to those at the convention of the Legion – the largest veterans service group in the U.S. with more than 13,000 posts -- to ask their lawmakers to support the legislation. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was set to speak later Wednesday, and Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for president, is scheduled to address the convention Thursday morning.

Wentling.nikki@stripes.com

@nikkiwentling

