A few days ago, I reported that the Department of Veterans Affairs was considering a “vastly expanded” staff of VA staffers, potentially bringing the total number of employees on the agency’s payroll to more than 20,000, with many of them being full-time and staffed solely with contractors.
The move would make the VA a highly visible employer of veterans and their families.
However, that was just the tip of the iceberg.
A couple of weeks later, the Department’s Inspector General released a report that revealed that more than $2 million had been improperly spent on a variety of federal contractors, and that veterans were not being given timely information on when their care would be delivered.
As the IG’s report makes clear, the VA’s inability to effectively manage the thousands of contractors who are currently working on the job is a national security issue that should not be tolerated.
And the VA has not responded to our requests for comment.
But a new report released by the American Legion, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and the Veterans of Foreign Wars shows that the VA is far from the only organization where VA workers are struggling to get timely care.
The Veterans Benefits Administration, the largest VA program, is also facing an unprecedented surge in staff, as is the VA Hospital for Veterans in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
These issues are not unique to VA.
In May, the inspector general for the Department said that the department’s contracting process was broken, with employees unable to complete contracts.
“VA has been caught with its pants down,” the inspector found.
“Vasectomy clinics are often closed, while surgical clinics are closed.
Veterans are not getting timely and appropriate care.
VA is failing to meet its statutory obligations to provide veterans with timely, accurate, and timely information.”
These reports, from the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), the American Medical Association (AMA), and others, are just the latest evidence of the VA workers being forced to do the work of contractors, rather than the job that the government was supposed to be doing.
AIG says the VA does not track the number of veterans who need medical care, nor do they have a system in place to monitor the quality of care.
This is not to say that veterans cannot access care.
Rather, this report highlights a lack of accountability for VA workers.
The report also highlights the VA worker shortage that the Trump Administration is trying to address, which is exacerbated by the fact that many of these VA workers have been forced to work for little or no pay.
A recent report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that VA employees earn a median salary of just $34,700 per year, a drop from the year before, but still well above the national average of $21,400.
The CBO found that the average VA worker has just a 10 percent chance of receiving a VA benefit in their lifetime, which has been projected to rise to 25 percent by 2027.
And, despite the government’s efforts to fix the problem, many VA workers say that they are working too long hours to earn enough to get by.
And as this report shows, there are some VA workers who simply cannot afford to leave their jobs.
One of the veterans that AIG contacted had spent nearly two years on the waiting list for a VA hospital in Alabama.
She says that she’s been on the list for nearly a year, and has been waiting nearly a month to see a doctor.
“I’ve been waiting over six months to see someone.
The wait is not worth it,” she said.
VA officials have not responded directly to AIG’s questions. “
If I had just waited six months I would have been there before I had to wait for someone to pick me up.”
VA officials have not responded directly to AIG’s questions.
However at a Senate hearing earlier this year, the Trump Justice Department said there were approximately 15,000 veterans on the VA waiting list, and “the wait is almost non-existent.”
Yet, according to a recent survey by the Associated Press, only a small fraction of veterans that were on the waitlist had been given timely care, and only 6 percent of them were getting the care they needed.
This report is the latest in a series of reports from the AIG and others that paint a stark picture of the lack of access VA workers need to timely care that is in direct conflict with the government contract that they have been required to sign.
Veterans Benefits and Benefits Administration Director of Health and Human Services Linda Stoddard told the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that the current VA payroll system was not designed to handle this number of workers.
“We have a large number of new, veteran-focused health care providers that are not currently eligible to enroll in the VA system,” she stated. “Some
