Editor\u2019s note: This story has been updated with comments from the Department of Veterans Affairs.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
A panel of judges denied a request from Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins to pause the work of the court that handles appeals for veterans seeking disability compensation while the federal government is shut down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Collins asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims on Oct. 24 to stop the proceedings of nearly all cases on appeal. He said the department is set to run out of funds for the work after Oct. 28, and attorneys handling the claims don\u2019t meet the criteria for working during the shutdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The court\u2019s nine-judge panel, led by Chief Judge Michael Allen, denied the request, calling it \u201csignificant and extreme.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Secretary has failed to demonstrate that such sweeping relief is appropriate at this time,\u201d the judges wrote in a decision issued Wednesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
VA officials said Friday that Collins made the request to the court to ensure that the department complied with the Anti Deficiency Act during the shutdown. The law prohibits federal agencies from spending federal funds beyond what has been appropriated by Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Press Secretary Peter Kasperowicz noted that former VA Secretary Eric Shinseki made the same request under the Obama administration during a shutdown in 2013, adding that the court ruled favorably for the VA at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cVA will comply with the ruling and make the necessary personnel work without pay during the Democrats\u2019 government shutdown to adjudicate all pending cases,\u201d Kasperowicz said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Approval of the motion would have further delayed claims decisions for veterans who already have waited years for answers, according to Carter Templeton, an attorney for the University of Michigan School of Law who handles veterans\u2019 claims cases through the Missouri Veterans Law Clinic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEssentially, every single case was going to be halted, and those cases were not going to be adjudicated, which means that veterans who have a case at the court and have benefits they\u2019re seeking at the court, were going to essentially be paused,\u201d Templeton said during an interview Thursday. \u201cIt was going to entirely delay their ability to receive a decision on their claims.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the department\u2019s request, filed by VA General Counsel James Baehr, the agency acknowledged that \u201cdelaying these Veterans cases due to a lack of resources is undesirable.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, Baehr wrote, the lapse of funding for the department\u2019s Office of General Counsel will preclude its staff from \u201cperforming the official functions necessary to satisfy the Court\u2019s filing deadlines in most of the cases currently pending.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the shutdown, which began Oct. 1, most federal workers were placed on furlough, while others who are considered \u201cessential employees\u201d are working without pay. Essential employees are those whose work has been designated as necessary to protect life and property, including national security, law enforcement, medical care, air traffic control and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Collins said employees who work in the Office of General Counsel\u2019s veterans claims litigation group would \u201cgenerally not be deemed \u2018excepted employees\u2019\u201d from furloughs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The judges disagreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe court has determined that its judicial review of veterans benefits is an excepted function that continues not withstanding a lapse in appropriations,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Templeton said the way the judges\u2019 ruling was written, the VA can reconsider whether its attorneys meet the criteria for employment during the shutdown, or it can file another motion using different justifications for requesting a stay on the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the request had been granted \u2014 or a future motion is filed and approved \u2014 it would \u201cgrind the entire appellate system at the court to a halt,\u201d Templeton said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019d be veterans who are currently on the docket who would not be getting decisions, who would not be litigating their case, and it would just essentially sit there, and they\u2019d be waiting even longer for a decision,\u201d Templeton said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims considers roughly 15,000 cases each year. According to the court, the median time for a claims appeal to be considered by the court was 222 days in fiscal 2024. That year, the court had 429 cases that lasted longer than 18 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul Sullivan, a veteran of the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War and national vice-chairman of the advocacy group Veterans for Common Sense, expressed relief that the judges ruled against the request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPresident [Donald] Trump and VA Secretary Collins tried to prevent veterans from obtaining our earned VA benefits and care by denying veterans their day in court,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cIf VA had prevailed with their despicable plan and stopped all court hearings for disability claim appeals, then as many as 15,000 veterans would have faced indefinite delays for their VA disability benefits, and in some cases their VA care for battlefield wounds, toxic exposures, and psychological trauma.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Secretary Collins asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims to stop its work during the government shutdown. Judges called the request “extreme.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":110839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,26,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3244],"class_list":["post-80800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"K6NXHLGEEBGH7D5WGLVZBW2MIU","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2025\/10\/24\/judges-reject-va-secretarys-request-to-pause-veterans-claims-appeals\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n