Veterans Affairs News

President Donald Trump’s choice to run the Department of Veterans Affairs, a military reservist with experience at the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill, faces a Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday that could center on a debate over “privatization” of care. The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee is slated to consider Trump’s nominee, Robert Wilkie, who for a…

President Donald Trump regaled a large crowd in Minnesota Wednesday with tales of his achievements, a major one being reforms of the Department of Veteran Affairs. The president signed the Veteran Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act into law in late June 2017, correcting long-standing accountability issues and ensuring that those incompetent individuals who failed to adequately…

More than 2,000 military veterans, spouses, and other family members have signed a letter in support of a bill creating federally funded education savings accounts for military families to provide more choices and flexibility in schooling the children of those in the armed forces. The signers “are writing to express our strong support for the…

President Donald Trump has decided to name his White House physician, Navy Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs as he ousts the scandal-plagued VA secretary, David Shulkin. The president announced the change at 5:31 p.m. Wednesday on Twitter. I am pleased to announce that I intend to nominate highly respected…

In an interview, Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin detailed new claims that his agency was hacked or spoofed, but the VA released a statement within the hour saying it could find no evidence of compromised emails. “It was a request to wire money out of the VA to somewhere else,” Shulkin said of one…

The NFL has rejected a Super Bowl magazine advertisement from AMVETS urging people to stand for the national anthem, but the veterans organization isn’t sitting still for that.  The veterans group’s advertisement prominently features the words #PleaseStand, a hashtag deemed “too political” by the National Football League for its game-day program. The NFL reportedly asked…

Five hundred and forty-eight Department of Veterans Affairs employees have been terminated since President Donald Trump took office, indicating that his campaign pledge to clean up “probably the most incompetently run agency in the United States” by relentlessly putting his TV catchphrase “you’re fired” into action was more than just empty rhetoric. Another 200 VA workers were suspended…

Veterans have waited months for medical appointments while the Department of Veterans Affairs union said that it needs more employees, but 1,606 employees—including many nurses—let veterans wait while they collected a taxpayer check to work on union business instead of what they were hired to do, according to VA data obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation….

Sgt. Mike Verardo’s military career ended seven years ago because of an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan, but he said the worst part of his injuries was dealing with a “broken VA” when he returned home. He had to go to the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital weekly, wait 57 days for a prosthetic leg, make…

The Department of Veterans Affairs and Defense Department soon will have the same medical data, ending a turf battle between the agencies to achieve what Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin said will be “seamless” information sharing on veterans’ health. Shulkin said having an electronic health record, or EHR, that follows a veteran from the time he…

Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin said Wednesday the civil service appeals process prevents the agency from firing “terrible managers,” and that the Senate must act to reduce the impact of the Merit Systems Protection Board and excessive government employee union-backed due process requirements. “Just last week we were forced to take back an…

With all the worry about Russian influence over U.S. elections it’s easy to overlook the many foreign interests working to impact U.S. policy every day–through paid lobbying. American lobbyists have made billions working for foreign entities. Who’s paying whom for what is subject to federal disclosure laws. But the system may not always work as…

The Department of Veterans Affairs is reaching out to whistleblowers for a meeting on the challenges they’ve faced when exposing wrongdoing at their facilities, following the establishment of an office to protect whistleblowers. Whistleblowers Kuauhtemoc Rodriguez from the Phoenix VA and Sean Higgins from the Memphis VA have been contacted by the Central Whistleblower Office for a conference…

Obama-era appointees remain in top posts at the Department of Veterans Affairs three months into Donald Trump’s presidency. This includes Allison Hickey, disgraced former undersecretary for benefits, who is now helping choose her successor, The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group has learned. Then-candidate Trump called the VA the “most corrupt” and “most incompetently run” agency and…