May 20, 2014
By Michael D. Shear
WASHINGTON — Growing allegations of mismanagement (click here) at veterans hospitals across the country are threatening to engulf President Obama in another scandal that brings into question his ability to make government work.
By Michael D. Shear
WASHINGTON — Growing allegations of mismanagement (click here) at veterans hospitals across the country are threatening to engulf President Obama in another scandal that brings into question his ability to make government work.
As
a candidate, Mr. Obama denounced delays and poor care for veterans at
hospitals run by the Department of Veterans Affairs and vowed that his
administration would fix the backlogs and dramatically improve care for
those returning from the battlefield.
In
a speech in 2008, Mr. Obama pledged to build “a 21st century VA” and
promised to confront what he called “the broken bureaucracy of the VA -
the impossibly long lines, or the repeated calls for help that get you
nothing more than an answering machine.”
But
five-and-a-half years into his presidency, Mr. Obama has once again
found himself exposed to political danger by a bureaucracy that seems
out of his immediate control....
To begin the process to rehab the VA's overburdened bureaucracy has been in the works for several years already. The country has already made the investment.
July 5, 2011
By Alice Lipowic
...“T4 is a major tool in the transformation of VA (click here) into a 21st Century organization,” VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said in a statement at the time. “These contracts will enable VA to acquire services for information technology programs that will help ensure timely delivery of health care and benefits to our Veterans.”
The contract awardees were:
Secretary Shinseki was the one seeking to change the way veterans received services. He has been their advocate. These reforms were needed BEFORE soldiers were sent to war, not after they returned and succumbed to the effects of PTSD in record numbers.
If anyone wants to assign blame it can begin with the Bush administration. I mean those power brokers sent troops into battle without body armor and SUVs and Humvees rather than tanks, for god sake. Then the troops were exposed to road side bombs and war conditions unheard of before. And the media wants to blame whom exactly? The one man trying his level best to move a medical system that couldn't even provide decent rehab at Walter Reed without the place falling apart is at blame here? No he isn't.
It isn't Secretary Shinseki's fault the GOP needs a reason for re-election. He didn't go out and provide passes to those that violated his directives. He expected them to be followed.
May-June 2010
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki (click here) has announced that the department’s Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses Task Force has nearly completed a comprehensive report that will redefine how VA addresses the pain and suffering of ill veterans who deployed during the Gulf War in 1990 and 1991.
“At VA, we advocate for veterans – it is our overarching philosophy and, in time, it will become our culture,” Secretary Shinseki said. “Every day we must challenge our assumptions to serve our nation’s veterans.”...
The Gulf War? That is Bush 1. Get for real. Shinseki has been the strongest Secretary the VA has ever had and that is not about to change.
To begin the process to rehab the VA's overburdened bureaucracy has been in the works for several years already. The country has already made the investment.
July 5, 2011
By Alice Lipowic
...“T4 is a major tool in the transformation of VA (click here) into a 21st Century organization,” VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said in a statement at the time. “These contracts will enable VA to acquire services for information technology programs that will help ensure timely delivery of health care and benefits to our Veterans.”
The contract awardees were:
- Booz Allen Hamilton, Red Bank, N.J.
- CACI-ISS, Inc., Chantilly, Va.
- Harris Corporation, Melbourne, Fla.
- Systems Research and Applications Corporation, Fairfax, Va.
- Creative Computing Solutions, Inc. (CCSi), Rockville, Md.
- Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services, LLC, Herndon, Va.
- ASM Research Inc., Fairfax, Va.
- Systems Made Simple, Syracuse, N.Y.
- Firstview Federal TS, Rockville, Md.
- Information Innovators, Springfield, Va.
- 7 Delta, Fulton, Md.
- By Light, Arlington, Va.
- Technatomy, Fairfax, VA.
- Adams Communications & Engineering Technology, Waldorf, Md.
Secretary Shinseki was the one seeking to change the way veterans received services. He has been their advocate. These reforms were needed BEFORE soldiers were sent to war, not after they returned and succumbed to the effects of PTSD in record numbers.
If anyone wants to assign blame it can begin with the Bush administration. I mean those power brokers sent troops into battle without body armor and SUVs and Humvees rather than tanks, for god sake. Then the troops were exposed to road side bombs and war conditions unheard of before. And the media wants to blame whom exactly? The one man trying his level best to move a medical system that couldn't even provide decent rehab at Walter Reed without the place falling apart is at blame here? No he isn't.
It isn't Secretary Shinseki's fault the GOP needs a reason for re-election. He didn't go out and provide passes to those that violated his directives. He expected them to be followed.
May-June 2010
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki (click here) has announced that the department’s Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses Task Force has nearly completed a comprehensive report that will redefine how VA addresses the pain and suffering of ill veterans who deployed during the Gulf War in 1990 and 1991.
“At VA, we advocate for veterans – it is our overarching philosophy and, in time, it will become our culture,” Secretary Shinseki said. “Every day we must challenge our assumptions to serve our nation’s veterans.”...
The Gulf War? That is Bush 1. Get for real. Shinseki has been the strongest Secretary the VA has ever had and that is not about to change.
WASHINGTON, March 22, 2013
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — In the wake of calls from a few vocal
critics in the media and veterans’ community for Department of
Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki to resign, AMVETS National Executive Director Stewart Hickey today announced his organization’s support for the VA leader’s continuation in his post.
Hickey argued only Shinseki, a man with a
proven record as a transformational leader, with a clear and
well-articulated vision for improving the VA claims backlog, is
capable of successfully leading VA through the necessary planned
changes that will make services and benefits more readily available
to those veterans who have earned them.
“There is a reason
major veterans service organizations, including AMVETS, are
standing with Secretary Shinseki,” said Hickey. “It’s because we’re
working alongside VA to connect thousands of veterans with their
benefits each year, and we understand the organizational
challenges VA faces. We know the Secretary is on the right path,
prioritizing older and more complex claims, and instituting a new
electronic processing system.”...
Eric Shinseki is not going anywhere unless he feels moved to do so. He is encouraged to continue to stay and invoke the massive reforms he has instilled during his entire time in office. No one, from where I stand, regrets his leadership one day. Not one day.
