News & Opinion

Congressional negotiators have taken a big leap in expanding veterans’ health care by proposing Veterans Affairs Department treatment for veterans and dependents exposed to contaminated well water at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Up to 750,000 people — Navy and Marine Corps members and their families — may have been exposed to water found to be contaminated by carcinogens from the 1950s into the 1980s. Read more »

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs opposes many of the fixes proposed by Congress members to address flaws in the national fiduciary program, which serves more than 130,000 disabled veterans and oversees $3.3 billion in assets nationwide. Read more »

If ever a topic called for the bipartisan support that seems to be developing, it is the shameful situation involving the fleecing of vulnerable veterans by fiduciary agents appointed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to watch out for them. Read more »

With just 10 days before a new education benefits is launched to help unemployed veterans learn a new skill, the VA has rushed to fix a problem that could have left community colleges in 18 states and Puerto Rico ineligible for participation. Read more »

Efforts are underway to strengthen oversight of the fiduciaries appointed to handle the affairs of mentally incapable veterans — without making the rules so strict that family members are discouraged or prevented from taking on that role. Read more »

According to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, there are nearly 900,000 unemployed veterans in the United States. The unemployment rate is highest among those returning from Iraq, who are experiencing 12.1% unemployment, much higher than the national average. In fact, the unemployment rate of veterans has generally remained 3 points higher than that of equivalent age groups of civilians. Read more »

Here's some sobering news straight from the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs: A backlog of nearly 900,000 disability claims -- with more than 65 percent of those claims pending for more than 125 days -- has amassed at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Read more »

The answers to the following GI Bill Frequently Asked Questions are provided by staff members of the U.S. House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. The questions originated from a live blog event held on the Military Advantage blog website. Read more »

Lawmakers are keeping the Veterans Affairs Department on the hot seat over "unauthorized purchases" of pharmaceuticals in violation of federal acquisition regulations, even as VA officials insist they've slashed the number of improper buys from more than 70,000 last September to 434 in March — a 99 percent drop. Read more »

First elected as representative of Florida's 1st Congressional District in 2001, Jeff Miller became chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee in 2011. The committee oversees the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and veterans' hospitals, it reviews programs, examines current laws, reports bills and amendments to strengthen existing laws concerning veterans, reviews legislation, and it recommends new bills concerning veterans. Within the committee's jurisdiction are retirement and disability pensions, life insurance, education, the GI Bill, home loan guarantees, medical care and a nationwide system of veterans' cemeteries. A 53-year-old Republican, Congressman Miller recently spoke with Vietnam editors from his Capitol Hill office. Read more »