Board of Veterans' Appeals
The Board of Veterans' Appeals (BVA) is an administrative tribunal within the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), located in Washington, D.C. Established by Executive Order on July 28, 1933, it determines whether U.S. military veterans are entitled to claimed veterans' benefits and services. The Board's mission is to conduct hearings and decide appeals properly before the Board in a timely manner. The Board's jurisdiction extends to all questions in matters involving a decision by the Secretary under a law that affects a provision of benefits by the Secretary to Veterans, their dependents, or their Survivors. Final decision on such appeals are made by the Board based on the entire record in the proceedings and upon consideration of all evidence and applicable provisions of law and regulation. The Board's review is de novo. In Fiscal Year 2022, the Board issued 95,294 decisions. This was down from the record of 102,663 decisions set in 2020, which had previously surpassed the records set in FY 2018 and 2019. This is in part, due to the number of increased Board hearings in 2022 – 30,089 which is an increase from 15,669 in 2020 when hearings were severely curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the Board began to focus more on holding hearings than issuing decisions by increasing the number of judges who held hearings over the number who issued decisions. This, in turn, increased the wait times for Board decisions on average by 6 additional months across all Board dockets – with the hearing docket faring the worst, doubling from 377 days in 2020 to nearly 700 days by the end of 2022. Wait times are projected to get worse through 2023 and 2024, with the implementation of both the passage of the PACT Act, and of Board review of Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC) cases, pursuant to an order issued by the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims in Structure of the Board Board Executives The Board is led by a chairman, a vice chairman, a senior deputy vice chairman, four deputy vice chairmen, an executive director for appellate support, and chief counsel. The Chairman ranks equivalent to a department Assistant Secretary and is nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate for a term of six years. The Vice Chairman is a member of the Senior Executive Service, and is appointed by the Secretary, with the approval of the President, and serves at the pleasure of the Secretary and is the Chief Operating Officer of the Board. Deputy Vice Chairmen (or DVCs) are members of the Board and of the Senior Executive Service and are appointed by the Secretary, by and with the approval of the President to serve as a member of Board's executive leadership team. Their primary role is to provide oversight, guidance and management of the work product of the Veterans Law Judges, helping identify, consider, and resolve motions and appeals. Each DVC manages a team of a number