Overview
- Over the past three weeks, the Justice Department approved 649 Elective Option offers worth $175 million, raising the program total to 2,531 approvals.
- Total approved settlements now stand at about $708 million, with more than $421 million paid out since Jan. 20, 2025.
- The Elective Option, created in 2023 with the Navy, offers $100,000 to $550,000 per qualifying claimant as a faster alternative to litigation.
- Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward assumed direct approval authority on Feb. 10 to accelerate processing of settlements.
- The department reports the face value of claims filed with the Navy exceeds $335 trillion, underscoring the scale of the backlog.