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Veterans Affairs
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The House and Senate have both passed bills to shore up the Veterans Affairs Department. Now they are in conference to reconcile. The final bill would give veterans more opportunities to seek care outside of VA hospitals, while beefing up the VA's own medical staff. The Congressional Budget Office has scored the VA bill and estimates the expense of the additional care would be about $50 billion. Yevgeniy Feyman, fellow at the Manhattan Institute, joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to discuss whether all the money will help.
June 13, 2014 -
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The Veterans Affairs Department will try to address one major aspect of its patient scheduling scandal by looking to industry for help. VA is planning two major acquisitions in the coming months. Federal News Radio's Executive Editor Jason Miller joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to discuss what VA is trying to do. Read Jason's related article.
June 11, 2014 -
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The first solicitation will address near-term fixes for the current application. The second one will look to commercial technology for a wholesale replacement of the scheduling application. VA says it will build off the contest it ran in 2013 where it awarded $3 million to competitors to develop VISTA-friendly scheduling software.
June 11, 2014 -
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Leaders of both the House and Senate pledge to move quickly on legislation to help the Veterans Affairs Department treat the more than 100,000 vets who are either waiting months for medical appointments or have been unable to see a doctor. At a House hearing late last night, a top VA official apologized for the delays, calling them indefensible. Martin Matishak, staff writer at The Hill, joined Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to discuss prospects for legislation and VA's future.
June 10, 2014 -
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The Veterans Affairs Department now says more than 57,000 veterans have waited at least 90 days for their first medical appointments. An additional 64,000 appear to have never gotten appointments at all. One solution Congress is considering entails giving the VA more money to close the gap. Robert Levinson is a senior defense analyst with Bloomberg Government. He joined Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to take a closer look at VA spending.
June 10, 2014 -
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Eighteen more people are dead after they were left off the official waiting list for health care at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs hospital. The VA Inspector General will investigate to see if long wait times caused the deaths. Phil Carter, senior fellow, counsel and director of the Military, Veterans and Society Program at the Center for a New American Security, writes about six ways to reform the VA healthcare system and restore public trust in Slate.
June 06, 2014 -
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What implications will the VA scandal have on other federal agencies? Many feds and management groups are asking that question as Congress considers legislation that would allow the VA to fire poor-performing employees. Federal News Radio's Web Manager Julia Ziegler joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to discuss why the Senate might not pass its version of the bill today.
June 06, 2014 -
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The House has approved a bill to give the Veterans Affairs secretary the right to fire senior executives almost at will. It's understandable — members of Congress are outraged over long waiting times and falsification of records at VA hospitals, compounded by the fact that VA managers have received millions of dollars in bonuses. But it's not clear whether the proposal is legal. In our weekly legal loop segment, federal employment attorney John Mahoney spoke with Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive. He explained exactly what the House approved and who the bill affects.
June 05, 2014 -
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Investigators have yet to get to the bottom of care delays and falsified records at Veterans Affairs. Yet at least four reform bills are percolating in Congress. Anthony Principi has some ideas for how Congress and the department might proceed for the long term. He is a former Veterans Affairs secretary and now a consultant with a long career in the public and private sectors, and spoke with Tom Temin on Federal Drive.
June 05, 2014 -
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Amid the scandal over patient delays and falsified records at Veterans Affairs health facilities, numerous bills are circulating in Congress. But former VA Secretary Anthony Principi says strong leadership and modernization offer the best long-term solution for the agency.
June 04, 2014 -
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The problems at Veterans Affairs, and the unsuccessful rollout of healthcare.gov could be evidence of something systemic. Some call it a 'civil service crisis'. Whatever it is, it's claimed jobs at both the career and political appointee levels. John Palguta is the Vice President for Policy at the Partnership. He spoke with Tom and Emily on the Federal Drive.
June 03, 2014 -
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The fight is on between the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees. They're fighting about legislation to allow the VA Secretary to fire senior executives, how to respond to the health care scandal and more. But the Veterans Affairs Committees are missing something that might help them better understand the problems Veterans face. David Hawkings, senior editor at Roll Call, writes the Hawkings Here blog.
June 02, 2014 -
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The 2013 FISMA report to Congress shows the Veterans Affairs Department continues to struggle with cybersecurity and has more than 6,000 items on its plans of actions and milestones and continued weaknesses in access and configuration management controls. VA CIO Stephen Warren details several initiatives to address many of the 35 recommendations.
May 30, 2014 -
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Washington seems enveloped in a tong war over happenings at Veterans Affairs' hospitals. A lesser known but highly critical VA program expires this fall unless Congress acts. It's the Assisted Living Pilot Program for Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injury. Several bills introduced to keep the popular program alive have become lost in the swirl of politics over more visible issues. At a time when the VA is under harsh scrutiny, one of its more successful programs is about to die. Alex Bolton is a staff writer at The Hill Newspaper. He discussed the program and some of the benefits it has accrued so far on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Emily Kopp.
May 22, 2014
