Shinseki

Opinion by Judge BYBEE; Dissent by Judge SCHROEDER.

OPINION

After a decade of war, many of our veterans are returning home with physical and psychological wounds that require competent care. Faced with the daunting task of providing that care, as well as adjudicating the claims of hundreds of thousands of veterans seeking disability benefits, the Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) 1 is struggling to provide the care and compensation that our veterans deserve. See, e.g., Review of Veterans’ Claims Processing: Are Current Efforts Working? Plearing Before the S. Comm, on Veterans’ Affairs, 111th Cong. 9 (2010) (statement of Michael Walcoff, Acting Under Secretary for Benefits, U.S. Dep’t of Veterans Affairs) (“Secretary Shinseki, the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), and the entire VA leadership fully share the concerns of this Committee, Congress as a whole, the Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs), the larger Veteran community, and the American public regarding the timeliness and accuracy of disability benefit claims processing.”).

Two nonprofit organizations, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United *1016 for Truth (collectively “VCS”), ask us to remedy delays in…

dissenting:

I agree with the majority’s holding that the district court had jurisdiction to consider the claim brought by the plaintiff-veterans organizations that the procedures used in the handling of the initial filing of benefits claims are inadequate. I further agree with affirming the denial of that claim on the merits, because what Plaintiffs seek is inconsistent with the congressional purpose of simplified, nonadversarial proceedings. See Walters v. Nat’l Assoc, of Radiation Survivors, 473 U.S. 305 , 105 S.Ct. 3180 , 87 L.Ed.2d 220 (1985).

Because I agree with the majority’s holding that there is jurisdiction to consider that claim of inadequate procedures, however, I am confounded by the majority’s holding that the district court lacked jurisdiction to consider claims that other procedural inadequacies are causing intolerable systemic delays in the VA’s processing of benefits claims and in providing mental health services. While review of substantive benefits decisions is, of course, limited to the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (the “Court of Veterans Ap *1038 peals”) and the Federal Circuit under 38 U.S.C. § 511 , the claims of systemic delay do not, in my view,…

Gordon P. Erspamer, Ryan G. Hassanein and Stacey M. Sprenkel, Morrison & Foerster LLP, San Francisco, CA; Deanne E. Maynard, Morrison & Foerster LLP, Washington, DC; and Sidney M. Wolinsky and Ronald Elsberry, Disability Rights Advocates, Berkeley, CA, for the plaintiffs-appellants.

Charles W. Scarborough, United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, Appellate Section, Washington, D.C., for the defendants-appellees.

Before: ALEX KOZINSKI, Chief Judge, MARY M. SCHROEDER, SIDNEY R. THOMAS, SUSAN P. GRABER, M. MARGARET McKEOWN, KIM McLANE WARDLAW, JOHNNIE B. RAWLINSON, JAY S. BYBEE, CONSUELO M. CALLAHAN, SANDRA S. IKUTA, and N. RANDY SMITH, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge BYBEE; Dissent by Judge SCHROEDER.

BYBEE, Circuit Judge:

After a decade of war, many of our veterans are returning home with physical and psychological wounds that require competent care. Faced with the daunting task of providing that care, as well as adjudicating the claims of hundreds of thousands of veterans seeking disability benefits, the Department of Veterans Affairs ("VA") [1] is struggling to provide the care and compensation that our veterans deserve. See, e.g., Review of Veterans' Claims…