Our Survey Reached the Senate: Board Concerns Raised at the Lopez Confirmation Hearing
At the confirmation hearing for Maria Chapa Lopez, nominee to chair the Board of Veterans' Appeals, Sen. Angus King cited Local 17's survey of 311 Board attorneys. Here's what Senators asked, what Ms. Lopez committed to, and what comes next.
On September 23, the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs held a confirmation hearing for Maria Chapa Lopez, the nominee to serve a six-year term as Chair of the Board of Veterans’ Appeals.
Midway through, Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) read three numbers into the record. They came from Board attorneys. They came from you.
Who Maria Chapa Lopez is
Ms. Lopez brings decades of public service to the nomination. She served as an Army JAG officer, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. She was an Assistant U.S. Attorney, the Justice Department’s Deputy Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, and U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida.
If confirmed, she would lead the Board at a hard moment for the people who do its work.
Watch the hearing
We cut the hearing down to the parts that matter most for Board employees: Ms. Lopez’s opening statement and the questions from Senators King, Blumenthal, and Cassidy. It runs just under 11 minutes.
How our survey got to the hearing
Earlier this year, Local 17 surveyed 311 Board attorneys about the new performance standards: the higher quota, the loss of issue counting, the biweekly monitoring. We covered the full results in Board Attorney Quotas Go National.
Before the hearing, Local 17 prepared questions for Senators and met with staff from the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs to walk through what Board attorneys told us.
Then Sen. King raised it with the nominee.
He started with the workload. A Board report predicts “a 21% increase in appeals” this fiscal year, he said, while VA’s budget request “calls for a $12 million decrease in the Board’s funding” and “a 10 and a half percent decrease in staffing.” He told Ms. Lopez he didn’t understand the logic of that.
She answered that she would assess the Board’s staffing, budget, and financial situation in her first 90 to 100 days, and that if she found shortfalls she would raise them.
Sen. King asked her to pursue that actively. Then he cited the survey:
“There was a survey of BVA attorneys. 97% said current performance standards increase the likelihood of factual errors. 93% said there’s not enough time to review each case de novo. 92% said the standards sacrifice quality legal analysis. So I think you’ve got your work cut out for you.”
Ms. Lopez replied: “I welcome the challenge and I’m honored to be asked to serve our Veterans.”
To be precise about it: Sen. King didn’t name Local 17 on the record. He called it “a survey of BVA attorneys.” But those are our numbers, from our survey, and they reached the committee because Board attorneys took the time to answer it.
Other Senators raised the same concerns
Sen. King wasn’t the only one asking about the Board’s capacity.
Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told Ms. Lopez that, if confirmed, she “would be responsible for ensuring that the Board of Veterans’ Appeals makes accurate, timely decisions on Veterans’ appeals.” He noted that Congress had funded new judges, attorneys, and staff, and said: “But this administration has cut the Board’s budget, instituted a hiring freeze, and pushed out many of its employees and senior leaders.”
He asked her to “stand up for the interests and values that Congress has sought to implement here.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) asked about the backlog. “You don’t want to just wave people through, but you have to give due consideration,” he said. “How do you deal with that backlog?” Ms. Lopez said she would take 90 to 100 days to find out what is causing it, and added that “remands are also a concern.”
Neither Senator mentioned the survey. But budget cuts, lost staff, a growing backlog, and the pressure to move cases faster without getting them wrong are exactly what Board attorneys described in it.
What Ms. Lopez committed to
We were encouraged by what Ms. Lopez said in her opening statement. Three commitments stood out.
A professional, motivated workforce. “I also understand that supporting a professional, motivated workforce is essential to ensuring those decisions are timely, consistent, and grounded in law.”
High standards of legal review. She said she recognizes the importance of improving timeliness “while maintaining high standards of legal review” that Veterans deserve.
Support for the people who do the work. “If confirmed, my priority will be to support the dedicated Veterans Law Judges and the professional staff of the Board in carrying out this critical mission, ensuring fairness, efficiency in the process, consistency in the application of the law, and respect for due process.”
We agree with every one of those. They describe what Board attorneys have been asking for.
Keep the pressure on: ask Congress for a GAO review
A confirmation hearing is one of the few times Congress looks closely at the Board. We don’t want that attention to end when the hearing does.
Local 17 is running a letter campaign asking Congress to request a Government Accountability Office (GAO) review of the Board’s attorney production quotas. An independent review would put the questions Sen. King raised on the record: whether attorneys have enough time to review each case de novo, and what the quotas are doing to the quality of decisions Veterans receive.
It takes a couple of minutes. The letter is already written, and you can send it as-is or add your own experience.
Now comes the hard part
The environment for federal unions has changed, and Local 17 is changing with it. Representation, grievances, arbitration, and bargaining are still the core of what we do. But we have also expanded our congressional advocacy and built working relationships with both the House and Senate Committees on Veterans’ Affairs. This hearing is one result of that work.
If Ms. Lopez is confirmed, we look forward to working constructively with her. The commitments she made on September 23 were the right ones. Now comes the hard part: making those words a reality.
To every Board attorney who filled out the survey: thank you. Your answers made it to the Senate. If you aren’t a member yet, join AFGE Local 17 and help make sure the next survey is even louder.