“Thursday’s congressional hearing on the Veterans Affairs budget plan for fiscal 2021 quickly turned into a referendum on President Donald Trump’s first term in office, with supporters extolling changes in the department in the last three years and critics attacking a lack of progress.”
“For his part, VA Secretary Robert Wilkie portrayed the agency as dramatically transformed from the tumultuous bureaucracy before his confirmation in summer 2018…”
“He pointed to improvements in the department’s information technology infrastructure, new accountability rules which have prompted the firing of more than 8,000 employees, shorter wait times inside VA hospitals and easier rules for health appointments outside the VA system…”
“Administration officials have asked for a budget of more than $243 billion for next fiscal year, an increase of more than 10 percent at a time when most federal agencies are seeing small boosts or significant cuts.”
“Wilkie said the money is needed to continue progress on suicide prevention initiatives, improved care for women veterans, the ongoing overhaul of department electronic medical records and support programs for homeless veterans.”
“But House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Mark Takano, D-Calif., said he is ‘deeply concerned’ with the department’s follow-through on those initiatives and the overall federal spending plan…”
“Much of Wilkie’s two-plus hours of questioning by lawmakers alternated between those political poles, with Democrats warning that veterans will suffer under the funding proposal and Republicans praising it as another step in providing needed support to veterans…” Read the full article here.
Source: VA spending plan turns into election year political fight – By Leo Shane III, February 27, 2020. Military Times.
