Media contact: Jeff Schrade (202)224-9093

(Washington, DC) U.S. Senator Larry Craig said today that he is very pleased that the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims is continuing on a record setting pace of decision making, according to information provided by Chief Judge William Greene, Jr.

"The court is on track to issue at least 3,800 decisions this year, and perhaps even more. Since its creation in 1988, the most decisions the court had ever issued in one year was 3,336. So exceeding 4,000 would be a phenomenal achievement," said Craig, the Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

Although the court has taken a huge step in the right direction, the court is continuing to experience record levels of incoming cases.

"I know Chief Judge Greene has been examining ways to increase productivity even more to deal with this astounding caseload. I support and applaud his efforts and will continue to focus on what else we can do to help move veterans' cases through the system faster," Craig said.

The Idaho Republican conducted two oversight hearings on the backlog issue last year while serving as chairman of the committee. In July he called the then-growing backlog situation at the court "unacceptable" and urged the chief judge of the court to take immediate action, such as recalling the retired judges.

After that hearing the court, for the first time ever, recalled two retired judges to help speed more cases through the system. Now that those judges have completed their recall term, two more retired judges have recently been called back to work and a third will be recalled in March.

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