mr. brent arronte, director of san diego benefit inspections division. e appreciate your attendance today. complete amid statements will be in the hearing record. mr. murphy, you're now recognized for five minutes. >> chairman runyan, ranking member tightness, thank you for providing me the opportunity to discuss va policies and procedures for adjudicating complex disability claims. the company today by ms. edna macdonald of the regional office. the vba continues to express an increasing number complexity number complexity of regional issues you between 2011 and 2013, the average number of issues and claims increased by 31% from 5.52 mike 72. in response, bba implement the new operating model. epa has noticed increase in complexity from the newer generations of veterans who participated in operations during iraqi freedom and udon. you can hear a greater chance of surviving are his injuries and often return home with multiple serious conditions. in addition, vba continues to receive credit for veterans of the vietnam era. many become complicated because th

mr. brent arronte, director of san diego benefit inspections division. e appreciate your attendance today. complete amid statements will be in the hearing record. mr. murphy, you're now recognized for five minutes. >> chairman runyan, ranking member tightness, thank you for providing me the opportunity to discuss va policies and procedures for adjudicating complex disability claims. the company today by ms. edna macdonald of the regional office. the vba continues to express an increasing number complexity number complexity of regional issues you between 2011 and 2013, the average number of issues and claims increased by 31% from 5.52 mike 72. in response, bba implement the new operating model. epa has noticed increase in complexity from the newer generations of veterans who participated in operations during iraqi freedom and udon. you can hear a greater chance of surviving are his injuries and often return home with multiple serious conditions. in addition, vba continues to receive credit for veterans of the vietnam era. many become complicated because th

mr. brent arronte, director of san diego benefits inspections division. additionally the hearing record will include written statements from disabled american veterans. the tragedy assistance program for survivors than ms. schaffer's wife of the veterans with instructions complete, thank you for being here today. i now yield to the ranking member for her opening statement. >> well, thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you wrote in this important hearing. i also like to thank the witnesses here today for their time and trouble to come and share information with us. first, i want to applaud the va for reducing the benefit by 34% in march of 2014. we know the va can maintain this momentum and we are optimistic. we want to end this decade-long backlog and we are moving in that direction. our numbers indeed show the va is on track to reach the secretary's goal by 2015. i would ask you to relay a message to the people who work for the va and tell them thank you for their efforts and to please keep up the good work. as the vba continues to work through this transf