House lawmakers gathered to discuss more than a dozen bills meant to improve services for veterans and their survivors.

Rep. Morgan Luttrell, a Texas Republican who chairs the Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs, said the bills would help veterans and their survivors navigate the claims and appeals process and improve access to VA benefits.

Luttrell introduced two bipartisan bills this month.

One would prevent the VA from denying a veteran’s benefit claim just because of a missed claims exam.

“Many of these veterans have pursued their VA claims for years and appeared for multiple exams,” he said at ahearing on Wednesday. “Veterans should not be forced to start their claims over because they miss one exam.”

Luttrell’s other bill addresses cost-of-living adjustments.

“This bill would adjust certain VA benefits with inflation rates to help veterans and their families pay their bills and put food on the table,” he said.

Ranking member Morgan McGarvey, a Kentucky Democrat, said the committee is focused on “veteran-centered policy” that’s “not right or left” but concerned with what’s “right and wrong.”

Jim Whaley, a 20-year Army veteran and CEO of advocacy group Mission Roll Call, applauded the lawmakers’ efforts to improve VA services.

“This has been something veterans, veteran support organizations, have been looking for and asking for for some time,” Whaley said. “And that is a more modern, more efficient, more effective VA.”

Whaley said he joined other veteran advocacy organizations recently in Washington, where they met with VA Secretary Doug Collins. He said he believes Collins wants the same things from VA. Echoing McGarvey’s sentiment from the hearing, Whaley said veterans’ issues are largely bipartisan.

“I think both sides of the aisle want to do right by veterans,” he said. “They may approach it from different angles, but I think in their heart they want to do what’s best for veterans and their families.”

Whaley said he wants to see more progress toward stopping veteran suicide and homelessness. He praised a piece of pending legislation, the Veterans’ ACCESS Act, that is intended to boost community health care for veterans.

“Clearly, there has to be a way to allow veterans to get the health care that they need, when they need it, and where they need it,” Whaley said. “And I think that’s where the rubber hits the road.”

The health care side of VA has nine million enrolled veterans. The benefits side of the department, meanwhile, serves more than 5.5 million veterans who receive pensions, survivors’ benefits, education assistance, home loan guaranties and more.

Whaley said they hear of two common pain points for veterans. One is around health care access.

Most veterans want community care, he said, adding that veterans shouldn’t have to wait months for an appointment.

The second pain point is with disability claims, which he said often take too long to adjudicate.

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