The House Veterans Affairs Committee
has booked a hearing at the Cannon
Office Building on January 29, 2008
to review the issue of Artificial
Intelligence used in the processing
of Comp and Pen claims.

This was a finding feature of the
VDBC Commission, and on behalf of
Vets For Justice, we entered a
full Endorsement on the
issue in person at the public
hearings.

The Artificial Intelligence scheme
they are contemplating, would largely
eliminate the VA Rater system as
we know it. A smaller pool of human
intervention people would be on
hand for "flagged" claims which
need further or more complicated
assistance and discussions larger
than what the automation system
can offer.

They are doing a shift and a pull,
first in one place, then another,
then another to rotate this entire
Comp system around to not only fix
the backlogs, but to prevent future
backlogs especially during a war
period. This is exactly what so many
of us have advocated for, and the
fact we are now seeing it come up
on the congressional calendar is
not a minute too soon, Here! Here!

Most new cases coming in, beyond
the Vietnam Era, are or will be
automated directly from the field
and ready to move around between
agencies as the Seamless Transition
project grows into full implementation.

This makes the case ready for
an Artificial Intelligence module
to kick for automated "adjudication".

Vets For Justice has renewed their
submission just as of last week,
to restate the need for a "points
system" to be developed on Veterans
evidence papers and to eliminate the
ongoing "narratives" that VA Raters
are required to do right now. I refer
to this feature in our advocacy
talks as Transcript Processing.

These "narratives" are the doom
of all Veterans and legitimate
cases everywhere.

The Artificial Intelligence project
is an idea whose time has come,
and we welcome this new and novel
approach with hugs and kisses.

All Activists are asked to get behind
this issue and help make it happen
because it's the future of our
young people we are working for
here.