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VA Secretary Eric Shinseki says the backlog for processing claims by veterans is too long.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Department of Veterans Affairs is still struggling with an enormous backlog in claims for medical and educational benefits that are piling up despite efforts to diminish the paperwork, the secretary of the department admitted Wednesday.

The VA has implemented an electronic records system, but faces a flood of medical claims each month. In July alone, the VA processed 92,000 claims, but another 91,200 came in. The department has 400,000 claims in the works, with more than a quarter of them left unprocessed for more than 125 days.

"Regardless of how we parse the numbers, there is a backlog. It is too big and veterans are waiting too long for decisions," said Eric Shinseki, secretary of veterans affairs, in his opening statement to the House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday.

Shinseki was pressed on the backlog by Rep. Debbie Halvorson, D-Illinois, who asked about the problem of many claims having to be resubmitted. The secretary said it was a problem of trust between veterans and the department that he was trying to change, making every employee an "advocate" for veterans.

"What I mean by advocacy is that when Shinseki walks in and says 'I want to put a claim in,' my intent is to put together the very best claim the first time with a very high probability of success," Shinseki responded. "Whatever is there right now is what we are addressing. It is a change in culture. It is a change in attitude."

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Gen. Stanley McChrystal is the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The intrigue surrounding Gen. Stanley McChrystal's plans for Afghanistan is making him a popular man on Capitol Hill. But for now, Congress is going to have to wait to talk to the top commander in Afghanistan.

McChrystal's plans for turning the tide in Afghanistan have been turned in to his bosses at the Pentagon and to President Barack Obama, but little has been shared yet with those on the Hill. So they want to talk to the man...now.

"What I support right now is getting Gen. McChrystal here to help us all understand what the situation on the ground is and what the strategy for success in Afghanistan is," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

The head of the House Armed Services Committee wrote a letter to the Defense secretary requesting McChrystal come talk.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Pentagon expressed disappointment that the Senate departed for a month-long August recess without finalizing the nomination of the Secretary of the Army.

On Tuesday, the Senate Armed Services committee approved the nomination for Rep. John McHugh to become the new Army Secretary and Joseph Westphal to be his undersecretary.

The nominations were sent to the full Senate for a vote which did not come to pass because Kansas senators Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts put a "hold" on the nominations. The two Republican senators made the parliamentary move on Thursday because they want the administration to give them information about reported plans to transfer Guantanamo detainees to jails in Kansas or Michigan.

"The Senators requested either assurance that Leavanworth, Kansas was not an option or answer" to questions about the reported plans, according to a statement put out by the senators' offices.

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Sen. McCain is fighting to discontinue funding for seven new F-22 fighters.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Barack Obama is getting the help of his former political rival in seeking to stop a defense program his administration no longer believes is necessary, but some in Congress want to continue.

Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, who ran against Obama in the 2008 presidential election, wants to remove funding for constructing seven more F-22 jets.

The program is included in the Senate's defense authorization bill even though Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he opposes building any more of the planes. The White House said it would veto a bill that funded more of the jets.

On Monday, McCain and Senate Armed Services committee chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-Michigan) introduced an amendment to strip the funds from the bill. The Armed Services committee, on which McCain serves, approved the amendment.

"Neither the president nor the Pentagon asked for F-22s or the alternate engine in the budget request," McCain said Monday on the Senate floor. "Secretary Gates has consistently opposed the need for additional F-22 aircraft and has indicated on a number of occasions that additional F-22 aircraft are not required to meet potential threats posed by near-term adversaries."

McCain even tweeted about his opposition to his followers on Twitter, saying he was "fighting the good fight."

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WASHINGTON (CNN) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday the United States could defend itself against a missile should the North Koreans launch one toward Hawaii.

Japanese media reported Thursday that the North Koreans are preparing to make such a launch.

Gates said U.S. officials are watching the situation carefully.

"We do have some concerns if they were to launch a missile" toward Hawaii, he told reporters.

But with missile interceptors and radar equipment in the region, "we are in a good position should it become necessary to protect the American territory," Gates said.

Gates said he realized the documents would inevitably be released.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Defense Secretary Robert Gates Thursday reluctantly supported the release of the government documents regarding interrogation techniques.

Gates, who used to be CIA director, said he realized that despite his and others' concerns about protecting the CIA agents involved, the documents would inevitably be released.

"The things that I was concerned about was first and foremost the protection of the CIA officers who were involved in the interrogations and who performed their duties in accordance with the legal guidance that they had been given by the Justice Department. I wanted to make sure, I felt strongly, the importance that they be protected," Gates told reporters during a tour of Camp Lejeune in North Carolina where he was watching Marines prepare for deployment to Afghanistan.

Gates said he was also concerned with the "potential backlash" in the Middle East and in the war zones. He said the release might have a negative impact on the troops.

But Gates said with all the congressional investigations being released and lawsuits, the release of the memos was going to happen.

"There is a certain inevitability that much of this will eventually come out," Gates said. "Pretending that we could hold all this and keep it all a secret, even if we wanted to, I think was probably unrealistic."

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Defense Department will pay for families of fallen soldiers to travel to Dover Air Force Base to be present for the return of their deceased family member, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Wednesday.

The announcement comes as the Pentagon prepares to allow the media to record the return of fallen soldiers from overseas at Dover, if the families of the troops permit it.

The media has been prevented from doing so since 1989.

The military will use incentive programs to encourage extending service.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The military will phase out its "stop-loss" program - the controversial practice of holding troops beyond their enlistment dates - for all but extraordinary situations, Defense Secretary Roberts Gates announced on Wednesday.

The military will use incentive programs to encourage extending service. Soldiers who have been extended already will get a monthly payment of $500, retroactive to the date Congress passed the law to pay them.

The stop-loss program was put into place to ensure that units deployed fully. Those whose enlistment dates were to end in the middle of their unit's deployment could have their tour prolonged.

Currently, the Army is the only service that uses the stop-loss program. As of January 2009, 13,217 soldiers had tours extended under the policy.

The Army also used the stop-loss policy during Operation Desert Shield, and after September 11.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel met with veterans groups on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Leaders from 11 veterans groups were conferring Wednesday afternoon with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on the Obama administration's plan to charge private insurers fortreatment of veterans' service-connected ailments.

Veterans' representatives and members of Congress have angrily opposed the proposal, which White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said is not finalized.

On Monday, the groups met with President Obama, Emanuel, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki and Steven Kosiak, director in charge of defense spending for the Office of Management and Budget.

The administration sees the plan as a way of raising more than $500 million in revenues for the Department of Veterans Affairs. However, veterans groups see it is a violation of the government's moral obligation to treat veterans injured during service to their country.

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Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki confirmed Tuesday that the Obama administration is considering a controversial a plan to make veterans pay for treatment of service-related injuries with private insurance.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki confirmed Tuesday that the Obama administration is considering a controversial plan to make veterans pay for treatment of service-related injuries with private insurance, but was told by lawmakers that it would be "dead on arrival" if sent to Congress.

Washington Sen. Patty Murray used that blunt terminology, telling Shinseki that the idea would not be acceptable and would be rejected if formally proposed. She made the remarks during a Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs hearing about the 2010 budget.

No official proposal to create such a program has been announced publicly, but veterans groups wrote a pre-emptive letter last week to President Obama opposing the idea after hearing the plan was under consideration. The groups also noticed an increase in “third-party collections” estimated in the 2010 budget proposal—something they said could only be achieved if the VA started billing for service-related injuries.

Asked about the proposal, Shinseki said it was under "consideration."

"A final decision hasn't been made yet," he said.

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Veterans groups say it's wholly unacceptable to charge their private insurance for service injuries.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Veterans groups are warning President Barack Obama against going ahead with a possible administration move to charge veterans' private health care for service-related injuries.

In a letter sent by 11 of the most prominent veterans organizations, the groups warned that the idea "is wholly unacceptable and a total abrogation of our government's moral and legal responsibility to the men and women who have sacrificed so much."

CNN obtained a copy of the letter sent to the White House last Friday by groups including The American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

Read the letter

A White House spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the option is being considered.

"The details of specific proposals will be transmitted with the full submission in April. The president has made it clear that meeting the needs of veterans is one of his priorities, and as a result has requested an 11 percent increase in discretionary funding for 2010, and the administration is actively working with the veterans community to ensure we get the details of this budget right," said White House spokesman Nick Shapiro.

In the letter, the groups said they have been told by sources on Capitol Hill and at the VA that the idea under consideration would allow the Department of Veterans Affairs to bill health insurance for a treatment of a disability or injury that was a result of military service.

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The Senate Armed Services committee has approved four nominees - including William Lynn - to serve under Secretary Gates at the Pentagon.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday approved all four Pentagon officials nominated by the Obama administration, including a Raytheon lobbyist whose potential conflict of interest led to objections to the nomination.

The nominations still need to be voted on by the entire Senate.

Ratheon executive William Lynn was nominated to be deputy secretary of defense, the number two position under Secretary Robert Gates. Lynn was given
special waivers so that he could be appointed despite President Barack Obama's
ethics rules, which would have seemed to make him ineligible to operate in that
key position.

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Sen. Levin, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, commented Friday on the nomination of William Lynn.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Michigan Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), who had raised questions about deputy defense secretary nominee William Lynn’s lobbying activities, stressed today that he still supported the nomination. The deputy defense secretary is the second highest position in the Pentagon, under the Secretary of Defense.

“I haven’t seen anything that would cause me not to support it,” the Democrat said Friday.

The comments from the chairman of the Senate’s Armed Services Committee come a day after Arizona Sen. John McCain sent Lynn a stern letter charging that the nominee had not given the committee the right answers about his lobbying, and how he might recuse himself in relevant situations.

Levin said that information could be sent to the committee soon, and that he was hoping to vote soon after it arrives. Lynn has been asked for information about what projects Lynn lobbied on for Raytheon, as well as the more complicated issue of what areas he may have to recuse himself from if he is confirmed.

Levin said the issues raised regarding Lynn are not new - they’ve been raised before about others – and the senator feels that there are appropriate provisions to deal with the nominee’s conflicts in the near term as he divests himself from his Raytheon stock holdings and gets his final bonus from the company.

President Obama's pick for undersecretary of defense has drawn questions about his business ties.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The head of the Senate Armed Services committee said Thursday that he needed more information on how the nominee for deputy secretary of defense would handle conflicts of interests in his Pentagon post.

President Obama has nominated William Lynn, an undersecretary of defense during President Clinton's second term, to be deputy to Secretary Robert Gates.

Lynn was a senior vice president at Raytheon, which has billions of dollars in Defense Department contracts. It is is the maker of the Army's Patriot missile system and the Navy's Tomahawk missile and is developing a global positioning satellite communication system for the Air Force.

As deputy secretary, Lynn would be involved in the process of budgeting and acquisitions, in addition to running the day-to-day operations of the Defense Department.

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Secretary of Defense Robert Gates informed the press he will be having surgery on Friday because of “tractor-related” accident.

(CNN) – In a somewhat sheepish statement at the open of his first press conference as Secretary of Defense for President Obama, Secretary Robert Gates informed the press he will be having surgery on Friday because of “tractor-related” accident.

Gates tore his bicep tendon while trying to attach his snow plow blade to his tractor.

Since he will be having surgery, and because the nominated deputy William Lynn has not been confirmed, outgoing Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England will be the acting Defense Secretary on Friday while Gates has surgery.

Earlier in his tenure, Gates wore a sling for some time after hurting his arm slipping on ice.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Hours before the parade started, the stands at the end of the route started filling up with an excited crowd.

The seats, right near where President Obama will sit to watch the parade were treated to an explanation of the day's events by the announcer.

Hours before Obama was scheduled to join them in the presidential reviewing stand, the announcer told them the newly sworn-in president would be eating lunch at the Capitol.

"So while you are freezing, they are having a wonderful time," the announcer joked over the parade route speakers.

Reed brought her daughters to see the inaugural parade.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - A few minutes after Obama spoke, Vanessa Reed reflected on the speech as she sat with her daughters across from the presidential reviewing stand at the end of the parade route.

"It was beautiful. It spoke to the issues of the moment," said Reed, who worked for the campaign. "I am proud this country saw what we saw in him."

Not as impressed: her youngest daughter Brooke.

"It was so boring," said Brooke, 4. Reed said her daughters, Brooke and older daughter Gabrielle, 6, understood the moment.

"They understand it is all a celebration," said Reed, who added that they were really excited about seeing Miley Cyrus at the inaugural concert this weekend.

ABOARD THE WASHINGTON METRO (CNN) – By a few stops in, it was standing room only on the second red line subway train in to Washington. A trained filled with bodies, with the added density of many layers.

Benica Tripleti and Cole Campbell were among 54 from Eastern Kentucky University who started the day with a 2 am bus ride from their Gettysburg, Pennsylvania hotel to the first subway stop in the Washington suburbs.

The group was planning to plant themselves on the Mall. They professed the temperature was colder than these Southerners were used to but were undaunted by the anticipated crowds.

"We are Southerners, so we don't say anything 'can't do'," said Tripleti.

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Ohio school teach Norm Huber sported a half dozen buttons as he walked along the inaugural parade route Saturday afternoon.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Visitors were showing off their Obama pride outside the White House Saturday as the reveled in the anticipation of the President-elect’s impending inauguration.

School teachers Pat Hargis from Bucyrus, Ohio and Norm Huber from Crestline, Ohio showed off their best Barack Obama buttons as they perused the inaugural parade route on Pennsylvania Avenue. The teachers were in town with their colleague Carolyn Helbert to see as many of the events as they could. As for their students, they'll have to wait until February to come to Washington. Right now, "it's too crazy," said Hargis.

The inauguration won’t be the first time the three friends have crossed paths with the President-elect and the Vice President-elect. The three previously met Barack Obama and Joe Biden on the campaign trail when the two men courted voters at rally in Dublin, Ohio last year.

Helbert told Biden he had a cute smile and Biden said she had a cute smile too.

"That's Carolyn's claim to fame," Hargis said Saturday.

Not far from the three friends, a group of dancers from Washington calling themselves "Dancers for Change" was also staging what they called a "happy protest.”

President-elect Obama will be greeted by people concerned about several U.S. policies when his train arrives in Washington Saturday evening. (Photo Credit: Adam Levine/CNN)

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President-elect Barack Obama isn't back in Washington yet but the protestors have lined up to greet and remind him of a host of issues that await him following the swearing in. With construction on the presidential reviewing stand continuing and tourists snapping photos, protestors in orange prison jumpsuits unfurled signs to raise their voice on Guantanamo, the Gaza situation and Iraq.