b'Our missionmy missionrevolves around three tenets: being fair to the claimants, faithful to the statute, and defensible to the taxpayers. While that is fairly straightforward, there are many moving parts involved in making sure those expectations are continually being met.Rupa Bhattacharyyaprovide an opportunity for claimants to tell us their story,relationships with key stakeholders. By taking a proactive and we have a dedicated staff of pro bono hearing officersapproach to our communications with external stakeholders (who operate under a special appointment from the attorney(reaching out to them before they contact us) and generously general) who generously lend their expertise and gravitas tosharing information, we have maintained extremely positive the VCFs administrative appeals process. The law providesand constructive relationships with all of our external that the ultimate decisions of the special master on eligibilityconstituencies. We are on good terms with the congressional and compensation are final and unreviewable by any judicialoffices of the New York delegations with representatives from authority, which is an extraordinary grant of discretion that INew York districts often present at events also featuring the take extremely seriously. VCF. Under my leadership, the VCF has also continued its practice of meeting regularly with the law firms representing On the Importance of Collaboration andVCF claimants to update them on claim progress and new Partnershipsor revised policies. We routinely blast emails to law The VCF is a program that is subject to substantial publicfirms for every website update and the publication of other scrutiny, including from members of Congress andkey information. We also continued our practice, as we representatives of various 9/11 advocacy groups who wereconsidered policy changes over the course of the year and instrumental in the successful passage of the legislationfollowing publication of the Notice of Inquiry, of attempting reopening the VCF in 2011, the additional $4.6 billion into socialize the more significant changes with law firms to funding added in 2015, and the permanent reauthorizationget feedback and, more importantly, begin to build support with all necessary funding passed earlier this year. The VCFfor the changes. More generally, we have appointed three has been extremely dedicated to forming positive, productiveclaim reviewers who serve as law firm liaisons; they have weekly or biweekly calls with the law firms that handle a substantial volume of VCF claims to explain policies, solicit feedback, and update claim statuses. The lawyerswho represent over 80 percent of VCF claimantshave been very appreciative of the VCFs level of information dissemination and have repeatedly praised the clarity of the guidance and outreach they have received.The 9/11 community continued to push this year for increased VCF outreach and we have made a special effort to revamp our outreach plan and activitiesso much so that we have established an Outreach Team to handle the numerous requests for VCF information. As part of our outreach activities, we participate in numerous meetings and information sessions with external entities, establishing a positive dialogue and presenting information about the VCF to their members and constituents. These included multiple training sessions for WTC Health Program and Clinical Centers of Excellence (CCE) employees, including benefits counselors and social workers who are in a position to pass accurate information to potential claimants; and 12 www.businessofgovernment.org The Business of Government'