We'll move ahead to our last point, which is important to us, with respect to the Veterans Review and Appeal Board.
We have been made aware that the quasi-judicial proceedings of the Veterans Review and Appeal Board have produced marked criticisms for the board's superficial decisions. The board's less-than-professional decisions continue to support the conviction held by many veterans that the board's main function is to deny claims and for the flimsiest reasons. Members of the Veterans Review and Appeal Board are political appointees. Changing the board's makeup to include more veterans would not reduce the number of claims denied because the board does not function as a democratic body.
The current board seats no doctors or doctor specialists who would be peers of the doctors and doctor specialists providing medical evidence at veterans' first-level review hearings, and again at the veterans' second-level appeal hearings. If the board decides that the evidence of a doctor or a doctor specialist is not credible, then the board should be required to provide the reasons for its decision at the same medical expertise levels specified in the board's medical rules of evidence. Simply put, the board's rules of evidence apply also to the board's decisions.
Thank you taking for taking the time.