U.S. Senator Mark Kirk says Illinois veterans are waiting twice as long as they should to get their claims processed. Kirk made his comments during a veterans’ jobs fair at Bradley University with Congressman Aaron Schock. Kirk says he’s co-sponsoring a Senate bill to cut down the waiting time:
“It should take less than a year to adjudicate a claim. The average time to adjudicate a claim for an Illinois veteran is over 550 days. We’re the fourth worst in the country,” Kirk says.
It was Kirk’s first visit to Peoria since his stroke in early last year. He says it was important to make the trip and advocate for veterans looking for work. More than 130 vendors and 70 employers attended the fair at Bradley’s Renaissance Coliseum.