Let veterans choose the help they need

OPINION:

My youngest son is only 21. He came home from serving this country with injuries that will stay with him the rest of his life. My father, who served in an earlier era, spent years after his discharge trying to claim the benefits he had earned. He didn’t live to see them.

This isn’t just my family’s burden; it’s one shared in homes across this country. People who answered the call to serve find themselves caught in a system that makes it painfully difficult to get the help they were promised. These aren’t just headlines. They are lived experiences by real American veterans and their families.

The military parade may be over, but the challenges facing our veterans remain. In moments like these, when the nation is reminded of the strength and sacrifice of our armed forces, we must ensure that patriotism means more than pageantry. The best way to honor veterans is to fix the system they come home to, and right now, that system is failing.

The system meant to care for veterans is breaking down. It’s slow and outdated and often leaves people stranded. Congress now has a chance to act. The CHOICE Act (H.R. 3132), which recently passed out of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, offers a clear path forward. It introduces oversight while protecting access to one of the few lifelines veterans have left: private consultants who help them file claims when the traditional routes fall short.

Right now, more than 201,000 benefits claims are stuck in the Department of Veterans Affairs backlog, with more than 877,000 claims pending. That number keeps growing. Every delay or call left unanswered by the VA or a veterans service officer has a cost. Veterans reliant on those benefits are left in limbo, waiting on a system that wasn’t built to meet today’s demand.

I’ve seen it firsthand. I sat beside my father as he struggled to make sense of the paperwork and process, only to be met with silence. I’ve watched him fight battles he never expected against a system that should have been by his side.

That’s why I support the CHOICE Act. Although some lawmakers have chosen a different route with a competing bill, the GUARD Act, Congress quickly acted in the best interests of veterans by rejecting that bill in its entirety for going too far and limiting veterans’ options by placing blanket bans on private claims consultants.

The reality is that the VA system alone can’t meet the need. Since the passage of the PACT Act, the flood of new claims has stretched the system to its limits. For rural veterans without access to a veterans service officer or broadband, private consultants have been the difference between benefits secured and opportunities lost.

Banning those services outright doesn’t solve the backlog. It makes it worse. It sends thousands of veterans back into a system that is already at capacity, where delays aren’t measured in days or weeks but in months and sometimes years.

We shouldn’t eliminate access. We should expand it. This should include stronger oversight to ensure ethical standards while protecting veterans’ freedom to choose the support that best suits their needs.

Veterans need more access points, not fewer. We need a system that meets them where they are, whether in person, online or with trusted, private help. We should be clearing the backlog, not making it harder to get through.

As the bill moves through the House and heads to the Senate, I urge lawmakers to do right by veterans and pass this bill. The CHOICE Act is a smart, necessary step that brings accountability without sacrificing access.

I’m not speaking as an outsider looking in. I’ve lived this, and I know we can do better. Veterans deserve choices. They deserve a system that works. The CHOICE Act is a step in the right direction, and the Senate should make sure it gets across the finish line.

• Donyale Hall is president of the Frederick Douglass Freedom Alliance. She is also a U.S. Air Force Gulf War-era disabled veteran and a military mother.