The backlog of Veteran Affairs<\/a> disability claims has risen by more than 2,000 percent during the past four years, while the agency’s budget has been increased by only 40 percent.<\/p>\n Now Congress is pushing for President Obama to “take direct action” to end the backlog. A bipartisan letter helmed by Reps. Patrick Murphy, D-Fla. and Mike Coffman, R-Colo. and cosigned by 164 House Republicans and Democrats, is urging the white House to run interference in order to help the more than 600,000 vets currently waiting for their overdue disability claims. The average time they wait to have a first-time filing processed is between 317 and 327 days, the letter states. Many vets are waiting as long as two years for their claim to be processed, and there are vets who waited as many as 1,000 days.<\/p>\n This letter is not the first of its kind \u2013 a similar one was sent a month (more…)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The backlog of Veteran Affairs disability claims has risen by more than 2,000 percent during the past four years, while the agency’s budget has been increased by only 40 percent. Now Congress is pushing for President Obama to “take direct…<\/span><\/p>\n