Department of Veterans Affairs
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A new report details mixed progress on a law requiring agencies to write using plain language when dealing with the public. The Center for Plain Language awarded the Agriculture Department an "A" for its efforts, the highest score of 12 large agencies and departments it surveyed. The Veterans Affairs Department, however, earned an "F" for its mostly incomplete progress.
July 20, 2012 -
The Veterans Affairs Department is giving $100 million in grants to help community organizations support at-risk veterans so they have stable housing. Leaders of the homeless veteran initiative at the VA and Department of Housing and Urban Development are among the Service to America Medal finalists for their work on the problem.
July 17, 2012 -
Mary Santiago, director of VA's Veteran Employment Services Office, was nominated for her work with the VA for Vets program.
July 16, 2012 -
The agency will organize incoming claims into one of three categories based on the difficulty in solving them as part of an effort to increase efficiency. The Veterans Benefits Administration also is seeking other ways to reduce the number of backlogged cases such as new training for employees, said VA's Allison Hickey, the undersecretary for benefits.
July 11, 2012 -
After protesters marched to the White House, VA's Human Resources Management Office issued a letter calling for a "temporary stand down on changes to lower grade actions."
July 04, 2012 -
SBA released data today that showed the amount of total dollars going to small firms is down as are the overall percentage of contracts small businesses won in 2011. Agencies made only one governmentwide goal for SDBs last year.
July 03, 2012 -
Tom Johnson, publisher of Set-Aside Alert talks about the challenges facing contractors. July 2, 2012(Encore presentation August 20, 2012)
July 02, 2012 -
The development of a shared records system between the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs is making progress thanks to several pilots. VA-DoD is taking the lessons learned from the tests and applying them to future pilots.
July 02, 2012 -
The Veterans Affairs Department wants to change the frequency of reverifying veteran-owned businesses from once a year to once every two years, according to an interim final rule published in the Federal Register.
June 28, 2012 -
Under a settlement announced Wednesday by 20 states' attorneys general, the Department of Veterans Affairs will take control of a website that consumer fraud investigators say has been used to mislead military members into making poor use of their GI Bill benefits.
June 28, 2012 -
Employing veterans is good business for companies. A recent Center for a New American Security report examines why and offers recommendations on what agencies can do to help make the hiring process easier.
June 19, 2012 -
Agencies are working toward implementing an executive order designed to crack down on "fly- by-night" colleges that target military members' education benefits
June 18, 2012 -
The process to ensure veterans are receiving contracts from the VA is actually shutting out some veteran business owners. But the VA says it inherited a large responsibility quickly and has since made great strides in improving its verification program.
June 15, 2012 -
VA will offer teleconferencing at Fort Drum, N.Y., Fort Knox, Ky., Rock Island Arsenal, Ill., Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., and Fort Riley, Kans.
June 13, 2012 -
On the In Depth show blog, you can listen to the interviews, find more information about the guests on the show each day and links to additional resources.
June 06, 2012