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Also see: David Shulkin; Robert Wilkie; Ike Perlmutter; Tim Walz;
Jump to: 2016; 2017; 2018; 2019; 2020;
Undated: The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a federal Cabinet-level agency that provides near-comprehensive healthcare services to eligible military veterans at VA medical centers and outpatient clinics located throughout the country; several non-healthcare benefits including disability compensation, vocational rehabilitation, education assistance, home loans, and life insurance; and provides burial and memorial benefits to eligible veterans and family members at 135 national cemeteries.
While veterans benefits have been provided since the American Revolutionary War, an exclusively veteran-focused federal agency, the Veterans Administration, was not established until 1930, and became the cabinet-level Department of Veterans Affairs in 1989.
The VA employs 377,805 people[1] at hundreds of Veterans Affairs medical facilities, clinics, benefits offices, and cemeteries. In Fiscal Year 2016 (1 Oct 2015 – 30 Sep 2016), net program costs for the department were $273 billion, which includes VBA Actuarial Cost of $106.5 billion for compensation benefits.[2][3] The long-term actuarial accrued liability (total estimated future payments for veterans and their family members) is $2.491 trillion for compensation benefits; $59.6 billion for education benefits; and $4.6 billion for burial benefits.[4]
The agency is led by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, who—being a cabinet member—is appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate.[5][6]
In May 2014, it was revealed that veterans died while waiting for their appointments during extended delays in getting care at the Veterans Health Administration. An investigation found that VA personnel falsified scheduling data to make it seem as if they had met scheduling targets.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Veterans_Affairs
-- 2016 --
July 25: Does Donald Trump want to privatize the VA?
What Trump proposed
Trump’s VA plans include some elements of privatization, but it isn’t an outright overhaul of the existing system.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jul/25/tim-kaine/does-donald-trump-want-privatize-va/
-- 2017 --
March 16: What is the Obama's Veterans Healthcare Bill?
In August of 2014, then-President Barack Obama signed into law a $16 billion VA Healthcare Bill. The bill was an attempt to make sweeping improvements to the Veteran's Affairs System and allow more veterans to use private healthcare facilities. The overall objective was to create a significantly shorter wait time for veterans looking to receive healthcare, something most veterans could tell you that, prior to 2014, was nothing short of nightmarish.
In order to understand what the Veterans Healthcare Bill is and what it promises, it is important to know why this bill came about in the first place. The grim history of the issues leading to the bill lead us to where veterans' healthcare stands today.
http://www.vahealth.org/what-is-the-obamas-veterans-healthcare-bill/
April 19: U.S. Rep. Phil Roe was among congressional members present for President Donald Trump’s signing of The Veterans Choice Program Improvement Act — the Senate companion to his House bill to eliminate the sunset date of the Veterans Administration Choice Program — into law on Wednesday.
The program allows veterans enrolled in VA health care to receive care outside the VA if they have been waiting more than 30 days for VA care or face excessive travel burdens. Using this program is not supposed to impact existing VA health care or other benefits. The new law will allow the program to continue until its original funding has been expended.
http://www.timesnews.net/Politics/2017/04/19/Trump-signs-VA-Choice-Program-extension-into-law
July 10: You’re Fired: Trump’s VA Terminates 548, Suspends 200 for Misconduct
Another 200 VA workers were suspended and 33 demoted, according to newly published data by the department as part of VA Secretary David Shulkin’s commitment to greater transparency. Those disciplined include 22 senior leaders, more than 70 nurses, 14 police officers, and 25 physicians.
August 3: Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin joined President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday to launch an expansion of the VA’s telehealth program.
“The VA already has the largest telehealth program in the country,” Shulkin told the gathered crowd, and the agency is doubling down further. Working with the Department of Justice and Trump’s Office of American Innovation, Shulkin said, “we’re going to be issuing a regulation that allows our VA providers to provide telehealth services from anywhere in the country to veterans anywhere in the country.”
https://www.fedscoop.com/veterans-affairs-telehealth-anywhere-to-anywhere/
-- 2018 --
January 5: In bountiful tweets and self-praise, President Donald Trump plays up “tremendous progress” in improving care for veterans in his first year. His claims fall short of reality.
Trump’s initiatives have yet to show meaningful impact, and his campaign promises of expanding access to doctors and adding mental health specialists are unfulfilled.
https://apnews.com/57d30516d02c40e19607b52670a05a9e/AP-FACT-CHECK:-Trump's-claimed-VA-success-somewhat-illusory?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP_Politics
January 9: President Donald J. Trump signs Executive Order to Improve Mental Health Resources for Veterans Transitioning from Active Duty to Civilian Life
The Secretaries of Defense, Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security will develop a plan to ensure Veterans’ mental health care for the year after separating from service
https://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=3995
February 16: The Trump Administration Goes to War — With Itself — Over the VA
Even before a searing report put the job of Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin at risk, some White House staffers were pushing a health care agenda at odds with his. The infighting has left vets frustrated, Congress confused — and a key piece of legislation stalemated.
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-trump-administration-goes-to-war-over-the-va
March 9: Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin is managing the government’s second-largest bureaucracy from a fortified bunker atop the agency’s Washington headquarters.
He has canceled the morning meetings once attended by several of President Trump’s political appointees — members of his senior management team — gathering instead with aides he trusts not to miscast his remarks. Access to Shulkin’s 10th-floor executive suite was recently revoked for several people he has accused of lobbying the White House to oust him. He and his public-affairs chief have not spoken in weeks.
And in a sign of how deeply the secretary’s trust in his senior staff has eroded, an armed guard now stands outside his office.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/its-killing-the-agency-ugly-power-struggle-paralyzes-trumps-plan-to-fix-veterans-care/2018/03/08/1c33d6fe-2085-11e8-badd-7c9f29a55815_story.html?utm_term=.0596171b5846
March 9:
A viral Facebook post exaggerated efforts to give military veterans affordable and accessible health care.
President Trump signed an executive order in March 2018 that grants veterans free health care at any hospital.
RATING
Mostly False
WHAT'S TRUE
In April 2017, President Donald Trump extended the Veterans Choice Act (a piece of legislation that was signed into law by President Obama in 2014) which gave veterans greater access to health care providers.
WHAT'S FALSE
This was not an executive order; this bill did not grant veterans free health care; this bill does not allow veterans to receive care at any hospital; Trump signed this extension in April 2017, not March 2018.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-veterans-free-health-care/
March 29: President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he had ousted his Veterans Affairs secretary, David Shulkin, and tapped the White House physician, Ronny Jackson, as his replacement.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-ousts-embattled-david-shulkin-as-va-secretary-2018-03-28
April 25: Trump urges VA nominee Ronny Jackson to keep fighting
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-urges-va-nominee-ronny-jackson-to-keep-fighting
April 26: Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson, the White House physician and President Trump's choice to be the next Veterans Affairs secretary, withdrew his nomination for the appointment on Thursday amid questions about his behavior.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ronny-jackson-withdraws-nomination-amid-misconduct-claims/
April 30: Trump Considering Kelly as Possible Candidate to Lead VA
Other candidates being discussed by administration include former GOP congressman Jeff Miller and the CEO of hospital giant Ascension
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-considering-kelly-as-possible-candidate-to-lead-va-1525134722
May 3: Exodus from Trump’s VA: When the mission of caring for veterans ‘is no longer a reason for people to stay’
Dozens of senior staff members have left the Department of Veterans Affairs since January, an exodus that predates President Trump’s firing of VA Secretary David Shulkin in March and appears to have accelerated in the chaotic weeks since.
The departures — some people resigned voluntarily, others say they were forced out — mark the latest sign of estrangement among VA’s career civil servants, the professional staff recruited by Shulkin, and a cadre of Trump loyalists pushing for changes within a sprawling bureaucracy for which change has never come easily. Trump’s failed nomination of Ronny L. Jackson to lead the agency has only heightened the sense of tension and disarray that took root in the months leading to Shulkin’s removal,according to 17 current and former VA officials and lawmakers on Capitol Hill, where the turmoil has caused alarm.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/who-wants-to-work-there-now-trumps-ronny-jackson-fiasco-may-be-the-least-of-vas-worries/2018/05/02/e1c64af0-44cf-11e8-8569-26fda6b404c7_story.html?utm_term=.533cbb711dd3
May 8: House panel OKs plan to grow VA private care, a Trump pledge
A House committee approved a wide-ranging plan Tuesday to give veterans more freedom to see doctors outside the Veterans Affairs health system and fix a budget crisis in its troubled Choice private-sector program, a major step toward fulfilling President Donald Trump's promise to expand private care options.
The $51 billion plan includes $5.2 billion to avert a catastrophic shutdown of Choice. The program is slated to run out of money as early as May 31, causing disruptions in medical care to tens of thousands of patients.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/house-panel-oks-plan-grow-va-private-care-55015714
May 17: Trump donates quarterly salary to Veterans Affairs
Acting Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie accepted the [$100,000] check at a White House press briefing and said the money will go toward mental health and peer support programs, financial aid, education training, and research.
Trump has donated each of his quarterly salary checks to federal agencies since taking office.
https://www.upi.com/Trump-donates-quarterly-salary-to-Veterans-Affairs/4211526598834/
May 18: President Trump announced Friday that he will name Robert Wilkie, the acting head of the Department of Veterans Affairs, to fill the post full time.
Wilkie, who has led the VA since Trump fired David Shulkin by tweet in March, comes from the Pentagon, where he is undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. He previously served as assistant secretary of Defense during the George W. Bush administration.
Trump's last nominee to take the post, White House doctor Navy Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, withdrew after a Senate probe uncovered numerous allegations of misconduct.
Wilkie has already been confirmed to his current Pentagon post by the Senate so going through vetting to take over the VA could be smoother.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/18/trump-picks-robert-wilkie-next-secretary-veterans-affairs/623150002/
July 19: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced Thursday that the Senate will vote Monday on the confirmation of top Pentagon official Robert Wilkie as veterans affairs secretary after revelations of a politically motivated purge of employees by the interim leadership.
The rapidly scheduled vote was announced after Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, called Thursday for action on the confirmation “without delay.”
The move follows a report in The Washington Post on Wednesday that VA officials who are supportive of President Trump have been taking aggressive steps to sideline or reassign employees who are perceived to be disloyal.
“It is of utmost importance that any policy changes that impact the future of the department be made by a confirmed VA secretary who can be held accountable by Congress and the American people,” Isakson said in a statement.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senate-moves-to-install-va-nominee-following-reports-of-staff-targeting-by-acting-secretary/2018/07/19/3eec2864-8b82-11e8-8aea-86e88ae760d8_story.html?utm_term=.a012194d25e3
July 24: WILKIE OVER-WHELMINGLY CONFIRMED AS VA SECRETARY: The Senate voted Monday evening to confirm Robert Wilkie as VA secretary in an 86-9 vote, filling the vacancy left when David Shulkin was fired in March after a struggle with political appointees whom he accused of plotting to privatize the VA's health system.
Wilkie’s confirmation drew criticism from elsewhere on the Hill. House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Ranking Member Tim Walz said in a release that he was “deeply skeptical of Robert Wilkie’s leadership experience and ability to lead VA successfully.”
Walz called Wilkie the “chief architect of President Trump’s ban on transgender individuals serving in the military,” demonstrating “that he was capable of carrying out controversial and partisan policy directives. It is fair to say VA privatization is next on his list."
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-ehealth/2018/07/24/wilkie-overwhelmingly-confirmed-as-va-secretary-295130
October 12: Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie has refused to provide U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, the ranking Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, with copies of emails and other internal communications between Department of Veterans Affairs officials and three members of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago country club who allegedly influenced VA policies and executive hiring and firing decisions for at least a year.
Wilkie told Walz in a Sept. 14 letter that the documents the Minnesota congressman seeks are “the subject of ongoing litigation alleging violations of the Federal Advisory Committee Act and, therefore, not appropriate for release at this time.”
“It’s stonewalling, plain and simple,” Walz said in an interview last week, adding, “This just reeks of corruption. It’s cronyism.”
Hours later Walz’s office sent a second letter to Wilkie. This one set a new deadline of Oct. 31 for the VA to release all documents showing VA interactions with billionaire Ike Perlmutter, Palm Beach physician Bruce Moskowitz and lawyer Marc Sherman, all Mar-a-Lago members who teamed to influence personnel decisions and to shape policy at VA after Trump became president.
https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/military/article219858565.html
October 26: U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie doesn’t want any sunlight on his agency’s “shadow rulers.” By blowing off a recent congressional document request, Wilkie is blocking the public from determining whether a secretive trio of outsiders is calling the shots at the VA.
Wilkie was just confirmed by the Senate in late July. His handling of the data request from the House Veterans Affairs Committee raises serious questions about his judgment so early in his tenure. After the scandal involving clinic wait times, public faith in the VA is lagging.
Yet Wilkie’s stunning refusal last month to turn over the documents undermines trust even further, creating the perception that his priority isn’t veterans but protecting the three outsiders, all of whom belong to President Donald Trump’s glitzy Mar-a-Lago club.
https://www.wiscnews.com/portagedailyregister/opinion/editorial/in-denying-documents-va-protects-its-shadow-rulers-not-vets/article_6587a3c0-4e44-5b5a-81f2-ef8e4002d6f2.html
November 26: A closer look at Donald Trump’s record on military, veterans
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2018/nov/26/closer-look-donald-trumps-record-military-veterans/
-- 2019 --
January 22: Supreme Court lets military go ahead with transgender restrictions
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/01/22/supreme-courts-lets-military-go-ahead-with-transgender-restrictions/
-- 2020 --
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