AUGUSTA, Maine — A bipartisan effort to protect Maine veterans from “claim sharks” that charge fees for benefits has pitted advocates here against a prominent combat veteran and a group led by a former Veterans Affairs leader under former President Donald Trump.
The proposal from Sen. Brad Farrin, R-Norridgewock, who served nearly 30 years in the Maine Air National Guard, would ban entities from charging veterans excessive or unreasonable fees for services that help them access benefits under a plan that has been amended to exempt accredited agents and attorneys and staff of veterans’ homes here.
Veterans of Foreign Wars asked Farrin to introduce the bill that was cosponsored by top lawmakers in both parties. It is supported by Gov. Janet Mills’ administration and mimics federal legislation supported by Maine’s congressional delegation, but a national trade group for benefit consulting firms and well-known veteran Travis Mills are among its opponents.
The debate illustrates the high-stakes nature of the bureaucratic process in which veterans seek benefits for disabilities. Service organizations including the VFW, American Legion and Disabled American Veterans have long dominated the landscape, but private firms have increasingly stepped in after the 2022 passage of the PACT Act that expanded benefits for older and younger veterans exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam or burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“This simply takes away from Maine veterans their right to choose,” National Association for Veteran Rights President Peter O’Rourke, a Navy and Air Force veteran who was Trump’s acting VA secretary in 2018, said in an interview on Farrin’s proposal.
Farrin and VFW leaders in Maine disputed that. The senator said his “straightforward bill” is meant to ensure people and companies helping veterans are accredited. He was surprised to see lobbyists and O’Rourke travel to Augusta to oppose his bill during a March hearing.
“A veteran should never have to give away part of the benefit they earned,” he said.
The VFW has argued “claim sharks” are aggressively soliciting veterans and charging thousands of dollars to help obtain VA benefits that veterans service organizations and accredited attorneys can secure for them for free or at a much lower cost.
But the National Association for Veteran Rights, or NAVR, has lobbied against Farrin’s bill and the similar federal proposal by arguing they lump good actors in with bad and take away choices from veterans facing long waits amid a national backlog of roughly 333,000 claims.
Travis Mills, a retired U.S. Army staff sergeant from Manchester who is one of only five surviving quadruple amputees from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and is a best-selling author who runs a foundation to support wounded veterans, also spoke privately with lawmakers at the State House about his concerns with Farrin’s bill.
A foundation spokesperson said nobody asked Mills to lobby against it. In a Portland Press Herald Op-Ed published Wednesday, he said the measure “may inadvertently stifle the diversity of support services essential for addressing the multifaceted needs of Maine’s veteran community.”
NAVR began last year and has two member firms — Veterans Guardian VA Claim Consulting and Veteran Benefits Guide — that are based in North Carolina and Nevada. O’Rourke said his group helps veterans apply for disability, education, home and other assistance and has helped up to 600 veterans in Maine receive full benefits.
The standard rate his members charge is five times the increase in monthly compensation they help a veteran earn, O’Rourke explained. If a veteran goes from receiving $500 to $1,000 in benefits, the private firm will charge the veteran a total of $2,500.
“Our veterans are paying a one-time fee for assistance while receiving a lifetime of benefits,” Mark Christensen, chief of staff for Veterans Guardian VA Claim Consulting, told the Legislature’s veterans committee last month.
New Jersey and New York have similar laws, with Christensen’s firm filing litigation over New Jersey’s statute. He argued Maine only has 35 veterans service representatives for more than 105,000 veterans and added his firm takes an average of 85 days to complete claim work, while the VA reported needing an average of 158.4 days in February.
But Christensen is overstating how many veterans need claims assistance at one time, said Steven SanPedro, a member of the VFW’s National Legislative Committee and a past state commander of the Maine VFW. Around 4,000 Maine veterans in Maine had claims as of March 25, with a backlog of 1,576 claims.
The VFW backs a similar federal proposal, the GUARD VA Benefits Act, while O’Rourke and his national association support a competing House Republican-backed PLUS for Veterans Act that specifies the VA may not refuse to recognize agents or attorneys “solely” because they charge fees for services. Both bills are scheduled for committee hearings later in April.
Farrin views his proposal as a “stopgap” until Congress takes action against the people and firms he views as preying on veterans and their families.
“They’re also doing this with widowers, which to me is despicable,” Farrin said.