News & Opinion

On Dec. 28, 2002, Army 1st Sgt. Colin Rich volunteered to lead a patrol along the eastern Afghanistan border with Pakistan. The events of that day would change his life forever. Read more »

A key lawmaker discounted President Obama’s June 1 call for quick passage of Veterans Jobs Corps legislation and said a less expensive alternative is already in place if the administration would only do a better job of promoting it. Read more »

U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns is taking aim at the big shots within the Department of Veterans Affairs. The House on Thursday approved a measure offered by the Ocala Republican that would do away with salary bonuses to senior administrators within the VA. Read more »

“The Editor’s Desk” sits down once again with Congressman Jeff Miller, R-FL, the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee to talk about the state of the VA, veteran hiring, the war in Afghanistan, and the upcoming presidential election. Read more »

The U.S. government is a month away from offering retraining funds for older military veterans who can’t find jobs, and unless federal bureaucrats step up their game, veterans won’t find the money, lawmakers said. Read more »

The Labor Department has identified 210 occupations in which unemployed veterans could find work after as little as one year of education and training through the new Veterans Retraining Assistance Program. Read more »

A congressional subcommittee on Wednesday gave fair warning to the Veterans Health Administration to make sure its purchasing agents are not splitting up hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of acquisitions in order to avoid federal contracting rules. Read more »

Veterans Affairs officials said they’re on pace to fill all 45,000 spots in the new Veterans Retraining Assistance Program in the coming weeks. Read more »

In a reversal, the Veterans Health Administration will now apply federal acquisition rules when buying “biologics” -- medicines made from human tissue and bone that it had classified as “prosthetics” and exempted from such rules, officials said Wednesday. Read more »

House appropriators think they’ve found a way to balance the federal checkbook, honor the government’s commitment to 22 million military veterans and family members, and still boost spending on them in 2013. Read more »