News & Opinion

Military suicides are at their highest levels in more than a decade, with an average of one suicide occurring every day so far this year. The subject dominated the discussion at a joint House committee hearing with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta & Veterans Secretary Eric Shinseki. Lawmakers said the Defense & Veterans Affairs Departments are taking too long to combine their systems for tracking veterans returning to civilian life. Read more »

The U.S. military is experiencing a suicide “epidemic,” with as many as 206 service members having taken their own lives this year, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told lawmakers today. Read more »

Bureaucratic foot dragging and infighting is slowing urgently needed programs for America's veterans and wounded troops and officials have to get the problem fixed, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Congress on Wednesday. Read more »

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki acknowledged Wednesday that they have been frustrated by departmental bureaucracy in their attempts to streamline military health care for severely wounded service members. Read more »

The Veterans Affairs Department faces cuts in its administrative budget early next year if the Budget Control Act goes into effect and imposes automatic cuts on the department’s budget, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said Wednesday. Read more »

Layers of bureaucracy have bogged down efforts by the federal government to help troops transition to civilian life, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki told Congress on Wednesday. Read more »

The system designed to assist service members transitioning from active duty to civilian life is "overwhelmed," Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told legislators in a historic Congressional hearing on Wednesday. Read more »

A mix-up involving $100,000 intended for 50 veterans attending Temple College under the GI bill has been corrected, but it took a call to the chairman of a U.S. House committee to unsnarl the red tape. Read more »

Members of the House Armed Services and Veterans Affairs committees found their own oft-voiced opposition to possible sequestration cuts echoed in the testimony of the Obama administration's Defense Secretary today during a joint meeting of the committees. Read more »

Lawmakers frustrated at years of limited collaboration between defense and Veterans Affairs officials pressed the secretaries of those departments Wednesday to ensure that servicemembers’ lives aren’t lost to paperwork mistakes and red tape. Read more »