There are a lot of reasons why the Department of Veterans Affairs is facing a backlog of hundreds of thousands of disability claims. But one big one is that most claims that come through the door involve a lot of manual paperwork. Each one turns into a research project as claims raters hunt for documentation across federal agencies. VA is now formally partnering with two large veterans groups, the American Legion and Disabled American Veterans, to help vets send in their claims with all the documentation they need in the first place, eliminating a lot of the back and forth.

What happens when companies flout your agency’s regulations? You bring in the big guns. That’s true at the Food and Drug Administration. The in-house office of criminal investigations goes after those companies and individuals who break FDA rules and become public-health threats.

There’s a lot more to the office of the Architect of the Capitol than keeping an old pile of sandstone and marble in good shape. The architect is responsible for more than 17 million square feet of space. Less visible is how the office tracks its finances and shares them with the public. For that, the Architect has received a Certificate of Excellence in Accountability Reporting from the Chief Financial Officers Council and the Office of Management and Budget.

The Department of Health and Human Services has stepped into high gear to implement the Affordable Care Act, as several of the law’s deadlines approach. Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has been taking heat over the controversial law from both sides of the aisle.

Related Story: Sebelius on hot seat amid rising angst over ObamaCare rollout (The Hill)