News & Opinion

The Department of Veterans Affairs wasted at least $762,000 in taxpayer money for two lavish conferences in Florida and a top department official has resigned in the wake of the disclosure, the VA inspector general reported Monday. Read more »

The Department of Veterans Affairs acknowledged "serious lapses in oversight" on Monday and a senior official resigned as an investigation detailed funds wasted on elaborate conferences and said employees got gifts like massages and helicopter rides. Read more »

The White House released a detailed breakdown of the sequestration cuts to defense and non-defense budgets Friday, giving the clearest picture to date of where the ax will fall if lawmakers fail to prevent the automatic spending cuts with new legislation. Read more »

This week the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill that would, among other things, ban schools from paying bonuses or commissions for recruiting military or veteran students. Read more »

Veterans’ disability and education benefits, health care and counseling are all exempt from sequestration, according to a Friday report from the White House that spells out the harm that awaits defense and non-defense programs if a way isn’t found to avoid the across-the-board budget cuts. Read more »

There’s frustration in the voice of Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman, as he describes what he sees as the glacial pace of change in veterans programs, and the disconnect he sees between Veterans Affairs Department workers and the problems facing the nation. Read more »

The Pentagon has announced a new program to better oversee human cadaver tissue used in Defense Department hospitals around the world and is investigating allegations that some tissue-based medical implants provided to service members may have been obtained improperly, military officials said Wednesday. Read more »

The House voted Tuesday to prevent schools that accept GI Bill benefits from paying bounties for recruiting students. Read more »

Army Specialist Daniel Hutchinson once sliced a man’s throat to keep him breathing. He knows how to slip a needle between a patient’s ribs to re-inflate a lung. He fastened tourniquets on dozens of shredded limbs during 12 months in Iraq. Read more »

Congress is using its relatively few working days before November's general election to send a message of support to the nation's 21 million-plus veterans. No legislative breakthroughs are expected, but lawmakers in both parties hope the late push will help them make their case to a critical voting bloc. Read more »