By Will Stevenson/Illinois Radio Network

SPRINGFIELD – U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Taylorville) says a bi-partisan effort led by him and another Congressman is underway to provide more transparency at the Veterans Administration, and hopefully get veterans’ problems addressed a lot faster.

Davis used the backdrop of a State Capitol veterans resource fair to talk about it, and says he and Rep. Mike Bost (R-Murphysboro) will introduce legislation requiring the VA to set up a system that will allow veterans to track claims and other issues they have with the office.

“Sometimes, the federal bureaucracy isn’t as responsive as we would like,” Davis said. “This is an area where we can make the VA more responsive, especially at a time where we continue to see the VA’s leadership failing miserably at serving our heroes.”

Davis says right now, his office is handling 85-plus claims for the constituents of his district. He says the way he sees it, that’s 84 too many.

“I would expect the VA, basically, to release information on what they have internally to our caseworkers, so our caseworkers aren’t spending time trying to get feedback from them, when they could just go online in a secure manner and do the same,” Davis said.