Department of Veterans Affairs
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A new Government Accountability Office report suggests the Veterans Affairs Department is being too generous with some of its benefits. More vets are claiming unemployability benefits because of service-related injuries, and a greater proportion of them are past retirement age. That raises the question of what unemployability benefits are supposed to do in the first place. Daniel Bertoni is GAO's Director of Education, Workforce and Income Security. He joined Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to answer that question.
July 13, 2015 -
Veterans Affairs wants to make its MyHealtheVet web portal easier to use. Appointment scheduling is a key priority as the design improves vets' ability to schedule appointments on their desktop, mobile device or at in-facility kiosks. Kim Nazi is a senior program and management analyst in the Veterans and Consumer Health Informatics Office of the Veterans Health Administration. She joined Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive with more of the MyHealtheVet redesign specifics.
July 10, 2015 -
Thirty-nine out of 41 of the Veterans Affairs Department's outpatient leasing projects -- worth about $2.5 billion -- are running behind schedule. Delays range anywhere between six months to 13 years. Most of the delays happened before the VA began the lease agreement because the Veterans Health Administration didn't detail the project's requirements on time. Dave Wise is a director of physical infrastructure issues at the Government Accountability Office. He testified recently before the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose the reason behind most of the delays and where in the leasing process things started to slow down.
July 06, 2015 Steph Warren, VA’s chief information officer, is cautiously optimistic about the trajectory of cyber attacks against his agency. After hitting a peak of one billion attempted malware intrusions in the month of March, the figure fell to half that in May. As Federal News Radio’s Jared Serbu reports, VA is crediting better perimeter defenses and tighter controls on employees’ access to suspicious websites.
July 06, 2015-
Statistics from the Department of Veterans Affairs show a significant decline in malware making its way into the department’s networks over the past two months. VA officials credit the government’s approach to “collective” cybersecurity.
July 03, 2015 -
The Supreme Court only hears a few dozen cases a year. But one on the docket will answer big questions around contracting practices by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The question for the court is does the VA have to give preference to veteran-owned small businesses in all instances? Steve Koprince, managing partner of Koprince Law, tells In Depth with Francis Rose about the case's potential impact.
July 02, 2015 -
The Office of Management and Budget gives agencies a summer deadline to implement smart ID cards for network and computer access. The White House wants system administrators and other privileged users to use two-factor authentication by mid-July and all employees by the end of August.
July 02, 2015 Veterans Affairs faces a budget shortfall of more than $2.5 billion this year, mainly because of increased demand by veterans for health care. The problem is, three months still remain in the fiscal year. How do you deal with a situation like that? Simon Szykman is the chief technology officer in the Federal Services Division at Attain, and a former federal CIO. He joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with some advice for how senior leaders in a department can deal with a problem that affects them all.
July 01, 2015-
The Senate packed a lot into its version of the 2016 Defense authorization bill before final passage Thursday afternoon, and in a notable break from recent history, the full package passed well before the start of the new fiscal year.
June 22, 2015 -
The Department of Veterans Affairs says it has made significant gains over the past several months in paying its health care vendors on time. Providers tell a different story, and say the department routinely fails to comply with the Prompt Payment Act.
June 05, 2015 -
The Veterans Affairs secretary has picked a White House veteran to be his new chief of staff, replacing Joe Riojas. Riojas has been with VA since 2009 and is leaving government.
April 01, 2015 -
When the Government Accountability Office rules in favor of a contract protest, it doesn't automatically mean the protester wins the contract. That happened in a recent case involving the Department of Veterans Affairs. Bill Welch, a partner at McMahon, Welch and Learned, tells In Depth with Francis Rose that's one of two important lessons federal agencies and contractors need to learn from this case.
March 26, 2015 -
Veterans accounted for one of every three federal civilian new hires last year, according to the President's Council on Veterans Employment.
March 23, 2015 -
The Veterans Affairs Department says it is spending $24 million per year to maintain facility space it can't use. Some of the restrictions on closing them are political, some are local, so VA thinks it needs a BRAC of its own.
March 06, 2015 -
Jennifer Mattingley, director of government affairs with Shaw Bransford and Roth, will discuss the federal pay raise, changes to the retirees cost of living program and other issues affected feds, and Federal Times Senior Writer Andy Medici will talk about phased retirement and possible changes in defense per diem rates. March 4, 2015
March 04, 2015