Veterans Affairs News

Some veterans organizations don’t think a bill President Donald Trump signed Wednesday expanding private care options for veterans goes far enough. “The veterans have poured out their sweat and blood and tears for this country for so long,” @POTUS says. Trump seemed to agree, which is why he said more announcements are coming next week…

Veterans groups are backing a Republican bill to make it easier to fire bad employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs, but the legislation faces an uphill battle in the Senate despite cases of employees who kept their jobs after misconduct, including a worker who committed armed robbery and a nurse who was intoxicated during a surgical…

Federal officials took six years to plan a new parking lot for a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in West Virginia that would cost $10 million for only 25 parking spaces, as their solution for a 600-spot shortage. Then when outside auditors pulled the plug on the fiasco, the hospital’s top official—who had previously served as…

Changes made to the House GOP’s health care bill would prevent veterans from qualifying for the tax credits the new plan creates, according to a health policy expert. House Republican leaders revealed technical changes to the legislation, called the American Health Care Act, on Monday. But a review of the changes shows that potentially millions…

Thousands of people gathered in the District of Columbia to watch the inauguration of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. Trump was sworn into office Friday at noon, where he marked the event as a time of change for the American people. “Today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to…

President-elect Donald Trump promised to fire incompetent and dishonest Department of Veterans Affairs employees, but he will have to fight the American Federation of Government Employees—the largest federal worker union—every step of the way. During the 115th Congress, Trump—along with Republican majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives—can enact sweeping reforms to improve every…

MADISON, Wis.—The headlines last month declared that most U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers saw improvement in fiscal year 2016. It seemed like a positive end to another rough year for the VA and the people the government-run health care system is supposed to put first. But a veterans advocate is advising news consumers to read the fine…

On 112 acres off Springhill Road in Belgrade, Montana, sits a six-bedroom, 10,000-square-foot home called Quiet Waters Ranch. The ranch belongs to the Warriors and Quiet Waters Foundation, a nonprofit located 10 miles south in Bozeman that teaches combat veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan how to fly fish in the place that’s considered the sport’s…

Veterans must be given preference in securing federal jobs, according to long-standing laws, but hiring hasn’t always worked out in their favor. A federal audit found that on numerous occasions, agencies placed Obama administration political appointees into career government jobs with civil service protections—bypassing veterans. Much of the federal bureaucracy has turned against men and…

A disabled veteran didn’t get a job he sought in a federal agency, although he was qualified for the position and was supposed to receive preference. The job went instead to a political appointee of the Obama administration. “Hiring decisions must be free from political interference, legitimate, and justified,” @jasoninthehouse says. This was just one instance in which a…

Veterans gathered in Times Square on a wet, rainy morning the day before Veterans Day to watch a video.   Producer Stephen Clouse was present as a video tribute played to a crowd of a couple dozen veterans, who turned out in New York City despite pouring rain. The video, featuring the poem “Just a…

When former Marine Corporal Cole Thomas Lyle returned from his 400-day deployment to Afghanistan in November of 2011, he had never given much thought to post-traumatic stress. Eager to return to normalcy, Lyle attended a Rangers baseball game with his closest friends, the tickets a gift from his relieved mother. Standing proud as the National…