Press Releases

Today, Chairman Jeff Miller launched VA Accountability Watch, a new web component of Veterans.House.Gov designed to highlight the Department of Veterans Affairs’ growing pattern of rewarding failure. View the page here. VA Accountability Watch is dedicated to showing America’s veterans and American taxpayers how the department’s widespread and systemic lack of… Read more »

Ahead of President Obama’s speech tomorrow to the Disabled American Veterans National Convention in Orlando, Fla., Chairman Miller released the following statement. “I applaud President Obama for taking the time to address the Disabled American Veterans convention this weekend. I sincerely hope he uses this opportunity to make a personal commitment to solving two of the most… Read more »

On Monday, Sept. 9, 2013, at 9:00 a.m. ET at the Allegheny County Courthouse in Pittsburgh, the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs will hold a field hearing to examine the Department of Veterans Affairs’ approach to stopping preventable patient deaths and lapses in care at VA medical centers around the country. The Veterans Health Administration provides health care… Read more »

On May 21, 2013, Chairman Jeff Miller wrote President Obama to request his assistance in addressing a rash of suicides, deaths and other serious patient-care issues at Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers across the country. After nearly two months without a response from the president, Chairman Miller today released the letter (read it here) along with the following… Read more »

Today, Chairman Jeff Miller and Ranking Member Mike Michaud launched Trials in Transparency, a new web component of Veterans.House.Gov designed to highlight one of the committee’s top oversight challenges: getting timely information from Department of Veterans Affairs officials. View the page here. Trials in Transparency will keep a running record of outstanding information… Read more »

House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Jeff Miller made the following statement regarding the Department of Veterans Affairs two-year-old claims initiative:  “Any progress toward eliminating the backlog is welcome news. But we cannot forget that the department is still far short of its own backlog performance benchmarks for 2013. Additionally, one can’t help… Read more »

HVAC Announces New Efforts to Secure Vets’ Personal Info Click to Watch Participants: Chairman Jeff Miller (R-FL) Ranking Member Mike Michaud (D-ME) Representative Mike Coffman (R-CO) Representative Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) Chairman Jeff Miller: “Over the last week and a half, reports about the security of data maintained by the Department of Veterans Affairs… Read more »

Bill aims to spur reform of VA claims process for veteran sexual-assault victims   Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 671, the Ruth Moore Act, by a voice vote.  Introduced by Rep. Chellie Pingree (ME-01), the Ruth Moore Act aims to spur reform of the evidentiary standards for survivors of military sexual trauma (MST) who file claims for mental health conditions… Read more »

House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Jeff Miller made the following statement regarding today’s veterans-related mental health announcements from the White House and the Department of Veterans Affairs:  “What our veterans need now is more action, not more talk. Meeting hiring benchmarks and holding summits should not be held up as progress unless they lead… Read more »

Today, Chairman Jeff Miller (FL-01) and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (CA-23) introduced legislation that would establish an independent task force or commission to analyze VA’s disability benefits claims processing system. The task force would be charged with examining the root causes of VA’s backlog and providing solutions for ending it by 2015. After decades of… Read more »