Veterans Affairs
-
Transgender veteran advocates are calling on a federal court to expedite the Department of Veterans Affairs’ plans to cover gender-confirmation surgery.
January 25, 2024 -
DoD will update its policy for coverage of infertility treatments, giving access to active-duty members who are either unmarried or in same-sex marriages.
January 24, 2024 -
The Veterans Health Administration is looking to raise workforce productivity, after a record year of hiring, and increase the number of health care appointments available to patients.
January 22, 2024 -
In today's Federal Newscast: National Cyber Director Harry Coker calls for more diversity when hiring for federal cyber jobs. The Space Development Agency has made $2.5 billion worth of awards to build its tracking layer. And the VA is looking to reduce the child-birth mortality rate for women veterans.
January 17, 2024 -
In today's Federal Newscast: The Senate VA committee continues its pointed scrutiny of sexual harassment claims against the VA DEI office. The government’s top and first DEI official is headed to "the happiest place on Earth." And speaking of happiness, feds in the DMV got a snow day today.
January 16, 2024 -
House lawmakers are calling on the Department of Veterans Affairs to shed more light on an internal investigation of alleged sexual harassment.
January 11, 2024 -
Veterans with disabilities often benefit from service dogs. Service dogs just don't happen. They require careful training. The PenFed Foundation has information on what it takes to raise and train a service dog from a puppy. To learn more, Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke with James Schenck, CEO of the PenFed Foundation and Andrea McCarren, the president of the PenFed Foundation.
December 21, 2023 -
The last thing the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) needs is new employees who have a substance use disorder or or felons with access to VA pharmacies. But the agency lacks a consistent procedure for finding out about such people from the Drug Enforcement Administration. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the VHA, in fact, hired thousands of people who might have drug-related convictions.
December 20, 2023 -
Tis the season to be jolly. But military service members and veterans often experience a spike in depression or post traumatic stress disorder -- even suicide -- this time of year. For some of the warning signs and how you can help, we turn to the Director of Admissions at Warriors Heart, Michael O'Dell.
December 12, 2023 -
In today's Federal Newscast: GAO looks to improve agency adoption of agile and iterative software development. The U.S. Space Force has officially activated its component for Europe and Africa. And GAO is projecting money for DoD's Armed Forces Retirement Homes is running out.
December 11, 2023 -
In today's Federal Newscast: The National Park Service offers the best customer experience in the government, according to research firm Forrester. The chief management officer is not coming back to the Defense Department. And blindsided by pay problems, certain VA medical employees might be allowed union help.
December 08, 2023 -
Federal watchdogs have found several gaps in how VA screens candidates for healthcare jobs — including identifying when it hires employees with a drug felony.
December 06, 2023 -
The Department of Veterans Affairs is outlining plans to conduct a full review of its website, after discovering technical problems that may have delayed disability claims for more than 100,000 veterans.
December 04, 2023 -
Starting with a journey map based on an HCD methodology is crucial. This approach can enable the data to be used for insights beyond individual medical treatment, including how a researcher may use this data to inform how it’s stored or what groups can access it.
December 04, 2023 -
The VA’s Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection (OAWP) – set up in the aftermath of the department’s secret wait-list scandal – got off to a very rocky start. It had scandals of its own. According to the government watchdog Project on Government Oversight (POGO), VA has reformed OAWP in ways that have made real progress toward building whistleblower confidence. But there is still a whole lot of work to do. Joe Spielberger is policy counsel at POGO. A few weeks ago, he testified before the House Veterans Affairs Committee about what is needed at OAWP. He speaks here with Federal News Network Deputy Editor Jared Serbu.
December 01, 2023