Mitch Perry
U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor has become just the latest member of Congress to blast the persistent problems with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Listing three major problems that have surfaced in the news recently, the lawmaker has penned a letter to VA Secretary Robert McDonald. She writes that “the VA has not met its responsibility to our veterans on a number of fronts. Veterans’ personal information has not been safeguarded with requisite care, our veterans have been forced into excessive and damaging backlog wait times for far too long, and retaliations have been made by the VA against whistleblowers for highlighting inappropriate behavior. I respectfully request that the problems and concerns be addressed immediately.”
A new Department of Veterans Affairs report said that veterans waited longer in 2014 at the St. Petersburg Regional Office because claims materials weren’t prepared properly. It also found that personal information was inadequately stored at a contractor scanning center, posing a risk of identity theft.
“This is unacceptable and must be addressed immediately,” Castor writes.
The congresswoman also cited a recent ProPublica report that found that employees and contractors at VA medical centers, clinics, pharmacies and benefit centers commit thousands of privacy violations each year and have racked up more than 10,000 such incidents since 2011.
She also noted that VA investigators have found that two senior managers retaliated against whistleblowers who reported dangers to patient care and financial mismanagement at the Phoenix, Arizona, hospital where the nationwide scandal over falsified waiting lists broke in 2014. She’s asking for an update on that situation.
Criticism of what’s been happening at the Veterans Administration the past few years has been bipartisan, with Republicans often being less reserved in expressing their anger.
Castor’s Republican colleague from across the bay, David Jolly, has been a constant critic of what’s been happening at the VA since he was elected nearly two years ago.
It was reported this week that McDonald intends to visit the Tampa Bay area soon to meet with USF President Judy Genshaft regarding how to accommodate veterans with mental health issues and criminal records. Castor signs off on her note saying that she’d like to meet with VA Secretary McDonald when he’s in town. She notes that a recent report indicated he will be in the Tampa Bay area in the near future.
