{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://comer.house.gov/2022/7/comer-applauds-house-passage-of-bipartisan-bill-to-address-backlog-of-requests-for-veterans-records", "Comer Applauds House Passage of Bipartisan Bill to Address Backlog of Requests for Veterans\u2019 Records", "2022-07-15", "2022", "2022-07", "Republican", "House", "KY", "James Comer", "C001108", "comer.house.gov", "comer", "https://comer.house.gov/media", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\nContact: Austin Hacker\n\nWASHINGTON \u2014 Congressman James Comer (R-Ky.) issued the following statement after the House of Representatives passed the bipartisan Access for Veterans to Records Act:\n\n\u201cOur nation\u2019s veterans and their families have faced inexcusable wait times for records that are necessary to obtain critical services because federal bureaucrats didn\u2019t show up to work in-person. The Access for Veterans to Records Act makes necessary reforms to modernize the process for obtaining veterans records and requires federal workers to work in-person to eliminate the backlog. I thank Representative Keller for his tireless work on behalf of our nation\u2019s brave veterans and urge the Senate to take up this bill immediately to provide relief to those who served and defended the United States,\u201dsaid Congressman Comer.\n\nThe Access for Veterans to Records Act will help provide resources to address the veterans\u2019 records requests backlog at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC). NPRC\u2014which operates within the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)\u2014houses records that are essential for veterans to receive service-related benefits, including medical treatment, unemployment assistance, and emergency housing services. A reduced workforce at the NPRC due to the pandemic, combined with the fact that most of these records are not digitized, exacerbated the backlog of veterans\u2019 records requests. Although NPRC has reduced the backlog to 515,000 veterans\u2019 records requests from a peak of 603,000 in March 2022, it is still significant.\n\nThis legislation requires NARA to submit a detailed plan for eliminating the backlog and authorizes $60 million for NARA to directly address the NPRC backlog by improving response times to veterans\u2019 requests for military records, improving cybersecurity, and improving the digitization and preservation of records.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T02:49:02Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://comer.house.gov/2022/7/comer-applauds-house-passage-of-bipartisan-bill-to-address-backlog-of-requests-for-veterans-records"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7447490934282541, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}