U.S. Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL) led 112 congressional members in requesting a report from the White House on its plan to remediate the backlog of record requests from the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), the central repository of personnel-related records for both the military and civil services of the United States government.
The members in a Jan. 24 letter sent to Archivist of the United States David Ferriero of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) asked that a report be submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives on his plan to reopen the NPRC to full capacity and to provide a briefing open to all House members on ending the requests backlog at the NPRC, which is one of the NARA’s largest operations.
“Repeatedly I have been calling for the White House to develop a plan to fully staff the NPRC to chip away at the backlog of veterans’ record requests,” Rep. Bost said on Monday in a statement. “While I am encouraged that the NPRC has made strides since this time last year for records requests originating from the VA, veterans are still waiting weeks to months on end for their own records requests. We owe them better service.”
“I thank my colleagues for joining me in sending this letter to the Archivist on behalf of the veterans and their families who are stuck in limbo,” the congressman added.
In their letter, the lawmakers pointed out that in an October 2021 letter from Ferriero to House leaders, he restated his commitment to eliminating the backlog, restoring the NPRC’s pre-pandemic response times, and reinstating on-site staffing that had been reduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Instead, on January 10, 2022, NARA officials communicated that the NPRC has reverted to a 25 percent in-person staff, leaving even more veterans in the same position they were almost two years ago,” the members wrote.
The NPRC is responsible for numerous veteran services, such as providing documents needed to obtain U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical care or disability compensation and processing requests for copies of DD-214 forms, which are essential for many critical services, according to the lawmakers’ letter.
“Despite a declaration on the NPRC’s website that emergency requests associated with medical treatments will be processed, hundreds of thousands of veterans report waiting for the records needed to access medical care for health issues,” they wrote, noting that “the most glaring discrepancy is the neglect of the NPRC” in providing the DD-214s.
More significantly, wrote Rep. Bost and his colleagues, is that veterans have been denied their appropriate retirement pay levels due to not being able to demonstrate their military service for federal retirement consideration. “While the NPRC employees have yet to miss a paycheck, the veterans they serve have been denied access to documents that have a significant impact on their financial livelihood,” they wrote.
“We ask that you immediately bring NPRC back to full capacity and inform members of Congress on your plans to operate in a timely manner,” according to their letter.