VA under scrutiny even when Congress is out

http://www.navytimes.com/article/20141003/NEWS05/310030046/VA-under-scrutiny-even-when-Congress-out

VA under scrutiny even when Congress is out
Oct. 3, 2014 - 09:30AM
By Leo Shane III
Staff writer

Congress is out of town in preparation for the November elections, but that hasn’t stopped lawmakers’ scrutiny of the Veterans Affairs operations in Washington, D.C.

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Earlier this week, House Veterans Affairs oversight subcommittee chairman Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., demanded immediate action from top VA officials after reports that the department’s deputy chief procurement officer gave unfair financial advantages to an outside federal contractor with whom she was having an affair. In a letter to VA Secretary Bob McDonald, Coffman said the incident is just the latest example of “the morally bankrupt and ethically impaired culture that exists within the department.”

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Nearly all of the most senior VA officials have left since former VA Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned from his post in May. But Miller and others have complained that those resignations may not have gone far enough to root out problem employees at the agency.

Also this week, officials from Concerned Veterans of America launched their newest oversight effort, a “Fixing Veterans Health Care” task force designed to scrutinize not just current care problems but also examine alternative plans to overhaul the VA’s operations. The effort will be led by former Republican Senate Majority Leader William Frist, former Georgia Democratic congressman Jim Marshall, and former Undersecretary of Veterans Affairs for Health Mike Kussman. In a statement, Frist said VA’s “current inefficiencies and lack of transparency” are stopping veterans from getting the care they deserve.
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