ST. LOUIS — An update to last week’s I-Team investigation. Some members of congress are making another push to end the delay of military records to our nation's veterans.
U.S. Representative Mike Bost, who represents Illinois’ 12th District, is leading the charge. Bost Thursday sent a letter to the head of the National Archives.
The Archivist of the United States oversees the National Personnel Records Center located here in St. Louis. The agency provides military records to help veterans get things like medical treatment, burials and family benefits.
Records center employees were sent home last year due to the pandemic and only a small percentage of workers have returned. The lack of staffing has created a backlog of hundreds of thousands of requests from veterans and their families for military records.
Thursday's letter was a follow-up to a letter sent earlier this month. It requests a briefing on the situation so that members of congress can have an open dialogue with administrators at the NPRC, and get veterans and their families the records they so desperately need.
“Veterans need answers,” Bost said in a press release. “The NPRC serves a vital function. Congress has provided the resources the NPRC needs to safely resume normal operations. It is unacceptable that we continue to receive mixed messages about when veterans will have timely access to their records. I hope Archivist Ferriero will fix this as soon as possible,”