News & Opinion

The VA must be held accountable. Here’s what Congress needs to do By Chairman Phil Roe, M.D. FoxNews.com A recent study completed by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that, on average, it takes six months to a year to remove a permanent civil servant in the federal government. Oftentimes, it takes even longer. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is not exempt… Read more »

The Department of Veterans Affairs has received a lot of negative attention lately for failing to adequately deliver the care and benefits America promised our veterans. In addition to the department’s massive disability-benefits backlog, a disturbing pattern of preventable veteran deaths and other patient-safety issues has emerged at VA hospitals around the country. Read more »

Veterans Affairs Department officials assured lawmakers during a hearing Wednesday that VA has taken measures to ensure it will not waste taxpayer dollars on lavish conferences such as two widely criticized human resources training events held in Orlando, Fla., in the summer of 2011. But the hearing turned contentious, with one Republican going as far as to say he “could care less about the bureaucrats” at VA. Read more »

The Department of Veterans Affairs spent nearly $87 million on training conferences last year. Maybe. Read more »

“The truce is off,” the House Veterans Affairs’ Committee chairman declared Wednesday in an abrupt and explosive end to a hearing looking at VA spending on conferences and travel. Read more »

The chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee blasted VA officials at the end of a contentious hearing Wednesday declaring the "truce is over" after the Congressional committee ripped VA leaders for more frivolous spending on VA "boondoogles." Read more »

Scott Gould pushed Jeff Miller's buttons one time too many today. "The truce is over. Expect much more oversight from this committee," said Miller, the Florida congressman who chairs the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. Read more »

On their face, the photos from an official Department of Veterans Affairs Facebook page displayed at a House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday looked suspiciously like a junket. Read more »

The truce is over and expect more aggressive oversight in the coming months, a House committee chairman angrily told leaders of the Department of Veterans Affairs on Wednesday. Read more »

Members of Congress angrily vowed Wednesday to crank its investigative floodlights far brighter on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, accusing agency leaders of dodging direct questions on travel and conference spending, failing to disclose a gathering in Las Vegas, and exhibiting “total incompetence” as veterans wait in record-long lines for medical help. Read more »