"Next month, the Veterans Affairs Department will deploy an automated tool that will make a 'big difference' in the processing of claims for education benefits for veterans attending college under the Post-9/11 GI Bill, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki told Nextgov late last week," Nextgov reports. "Speaking at the dedication of a memorial at Duke University for graduates who have lost their lives on active duty since World War II, Shinseki said VA still has a 'a slight backlog' of claims for education benefits under the Post-9/11 GI bill, which led him to order emergency payments to veterans early this month. But Shinseki said he believed the surge of claims under the GI Bill waiting to be processed has passed. ... The tool VBA is slated to deploy in mid-November will provide increased functionality and additional automation for processing education claims ... VA also currently has 400,000 pending disability claims, with more than 140,000 of them backlogged for more than 125 days. Shinseki told Nextgov he has made solving information technology problems at VBA 'a top priority' to help eliminate the backlog."