Thank you, Mr. Brassard.
There are a number of suggestions throughout the brief, based on the survey we conducted with members across the country. As Virginia noted, we need a simplification of the process. People find that there are many new benefits, but there are many different avenues that people go down. We need to find ways to streamline the process so that when people access it, they have an easy pass to get in and then can move smoothly along.
There's a real backlog at the beginning as people are trying to get into the process, and additional resources need to be put in at the front end. Then, the resources need to follow the people along.
The idea of having a guide or guides to help people through it is a great suggestion. There used to be more people doing this inside the department, but now what we found from the survey is that there are fewer people doing it, because they are developing processes and reporting on the processes, and we have ourselves all tied up in knots when we really just want to try to help the veterans.