In an open letter to veterans, VA Secretary Bob McDonald announced the beginning of a phased implementation of the Veterans Choice Program. This program, which is part of the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 signed by President Obama on [...]
Ann M. Spungen, Ph.D, & William A. Bauman, M.D., Awarded ‘Sammies’ - Photo Credit: VA The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), recently awarded the prestigious Samuel J. Heyman Science and Environment Medal to William A. Bauman, [...]
President Obama signs VA reform legislation at Fort Belvoir. President Obama has signed into law sweeping legislation to reform VA. VetsFirst attended the historic bill signing on August 7 at Fort Belvoir, along with members of leading national [...]
LIFE magazine cover from May 22, 1970, about the maltreatment of veterans at the Bronx VA Medical Center Delays in accessing health care from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that resulted in veterans’ deaths have sickened [...]
Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller (R-FL) announce compromise. The Chairs of the House and Senate Veterans' Affairs Committees have announced that they have reached an agreement [...]
Terry Moakley on Capitol Hill. Terry serves as the chair of the VetsFirst committee. I recently returned from a day of meetings with Congressional representatives in Washington, DC who have the power and the opportunity to pass [...]
Starting today, a conference committee begins hammering out a final agreement on a VA health care reform bill. Over the last few weeks, both the House and Senate have passed bills that seek to make improvements to the troubled agency. Several Members of both [...]
June 17, 2014 Chairman Sanders, Chairman Miller, Ranking Member Burr, Ranking Member Michaud: As leaders of the veterans community and on behalf of our memberships, we write to offer some common views regarding legislation recently passed in the Senate [...]
With preliminary findings confirming initial reports of wrong doing by VA employees and a rising chorus calling for his resignation, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki submitted his resignation to President Obama on Friday. Although VetsFirst had not called for his resignation, we believe [...]
VetsFirst was on Capitol Hill last week when VA Secretary Eric Shinseki faced tough questions from the Senate VA Committee about mounting allegations of delayed health care for veterans. The next day, the Secretary accepted the resignation of Health Under Secretary Robert [...]