VA estimates there are approximately 17.6 million living veterans, while about 6.34 million receive service-connected disability compensation. That leaves roughly 11.25 million veterans—about 64% of the veteran population—not currently receiving disability compensation.

The modern DoD-VA Integrated Disability Evaluation System, or IDES, did not begin until 2007 and was later expanded worldwide. IDES primarily serves service members referred for possible medical separation or retirement; it is not a universal disability evaluation for every service member leaving the military. Millions of veterans separated before this integrated system existed, and many others left service without ever entering IDES.

VA has also documented claims filed 10 to 20 years after discharge, and some veterans have waited roughly 30 years before ultimately receiving service-connected benefits. The evidence does not show that most veterans wait 30 years, but it clearly shows that long delays are real.

Meanwhile, VA has obligated approximately $13.84 billion toward electronic health record modernization, with an independent lifecycle estimate cited by GAO of approximately $49.8 billion. VA also continues to spend billions on construction and infrastructure.

Those investments have created vast amounts of electronic medical and service data. DoD and VA already possess service treatment records, deployment histories, occupational information, exposure records, diagnoses, surgeries, traumatic injuries, hearing loss, chronic illnesses, and VA medical histories.

The call to action is straightforward: use that data to identify veterans who may have been missed.

VA should systematically identify veterans who are not receiving disability compensation but whose existing records show strong indicators of potentially service-connected conditions. Those veterans should then be proactively contacted, offered an expedited evaluation, and assisted through the disability claims process.

Before additional billions are committed to technology overruns or unnecessary construction, Congress and VA should evaluate whether those dollars could produce greater value by directing resources toward eligible veterans and putting compensation directly into their households.

The question is no longer whether the government has the information.

It does. The question is whether VA will use it.

Of the 11.25 million veterans not currently receiving disability compensation, how many have documented service-related conditions that have never been fully evaluated?

Congress should require VA and DoD to answer that question—and act on the results.