Veterans hit by huge pandemic-related records backlog

WASHINGTON — After Navy veteran Jack Ray Hoaglan died from the coronavirus in December, his family tried to arrange a military funeral for the 73-year-old. They needed paper records from the National Personnel Records Center to prove the Ohio native’s service aboard the USS Enterprise decades ago.

The phones at the St. Louis center, however, went unanswered.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the NPRC has sat empty, with employees working remotely. And records requests, most of which require someone to physically search for documents within the building, have been piling up.

Now, the backlog has grown to over 499,000 requests, according to a spokesperson for the National Archives, which oversees the NPRC. The National Archives estimates that it will take 18 to 24 months to clear the backlog once the center is staffed at full capacity.

The records are key to unlocking many kinds of veteran benefits, including health care, burial benefits, home loans and COVID-19 vaccinations.

“Overall the situation at the center is pretty disappointing. Their plan to take 18 to 24 months to clear the backlog is unacceptable and means we’re not keeping the promises we made to our veterans,” Rep. Warren Davidson, ROhio, who visited the records center this month, said in an interview.

“This backlog is preventing veterans from gaining access to essential services, including education benefits, health care services, and COVID-19 vaccinations. Our veterans and their families deserve better. I urge the administration to use every available resource at its disposal to ensure all veterans have access to the services they have earned,” said Rep. Deborah K. Ross, D-N.C., in an email.

In an April 5 letter sent to President Joe Biden, Davidson, Ross, and House Veterans’ Affairs ranking member Mike Bost, R-Ill., along with 182 other lawmakers, requested a high-level intervention by the administration to address the backlog.

Lawmakers took issue with the lack of progress from the NPRC in addressing its backlog despite having received $15 million in emergency appropriations from Congress in December 2020.

“The NPRC received $15 million to reduce the records request backlog, deploy resources for staff working remotely, and hire temporary employees ... yet the backlog has only grown. Additionally, the NPRC is not operating its call center. Attempts to call the emergency contact number have resulted in a busy signal, and the NPRC’s customer service line is simply unstaffed,” the lawmakers wrote.