By: Suzanne Gordon and Russell Lemle for Military.com   VHPI Senior Policy Analysts Suzanne Gordon and Russell Lemle trace a behind-the-scenes negotiation over federal legislation that could drastically damage the VA.   In recent weeks, members of the House and Senate Committees of Veterans’ Affairs have been in intense negotiations hammering out a compromise between […]

By: Suzanne Gordon and Steve Early for The American Prospect VHPI Senior Policy Analyst Suzanne Gordon and Steve Early investigate a new plan from the conservative Heritage Foundation, authored by Trump VA alumni, which seeks to tear the VA apart. Read full article

Last week, a bill in the Florida legislature aimed at reeling in unaccredited claims companies passed unanimously in a key committee.

By Suzanne Gordon and Steve Early in The American Prospect The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been suffering from continuing staffing shortages at the nation’s largest public health care system, which has hampered the ability to directly care for veterans.

By Russell Lemle, The Washington Monthly For four decades, the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Veterans Affairs has played an indispensable watchdog role, helping to ensure that veterans receive high-quality healthcare. Its investigators have repeatedly identified deficiencies in VA patient care and recommended corrections. The Inspector General’s office’s diligence is one reason that the quality of VA’s healthcare consistently outperforms the private sector’s. However, the Insp

Multiorganizational Statement for the Record, SVAC July 12, 2023

The Making Community Care Work for Veterans Act of 2023 has several sections that contain some useful improvements but does not go far enough in addressing problems with the Veterans Community Care Program.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has long administered the most successful healthcare system in the country. As a recent summary of research yet again confirms, the quality of care delivered by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is as good as or better than the care veterans receive from VA-paid community care or the general public obtains through private care. Quite distressingly, however, the VHA is straining to maintain its workforce and programs.

By Russell Lemle and Megan McCarthy, originally in the Federal Practitioner The VA MISSION Act of 2018 expanded options for veterans to receive government-paid health care from private sector community health care practitioners.

By: Brad Dress, The Hill • The Hill spoke with Suzanne Gordon about the potentially devastating cuts to veterans' benefits.

Earlier this month, the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Health Subcommittee held an important hearing that could potentially lead to the erosion of the veterans’ healthcare system.

By Suzanne Gordon + Steve Early, for The Progressive When President Joe Biden braved Republican jeers and boos to deliver his State of the Union address in February, one of the few lines that received bipartisan applause recalled Congressional action last year on what he hailed then as the “most significant law our nation has ever passed to help millions of veterans.” Called the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act, this legislation allocates $280 billion over the next decade for

Late last month, the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute, in association with the American Federation of Government Employees, released a comprehensive report on the urgent struggles of thousands of VA employees, and how they threaten to impede the future of America’s best healthcare and benefits systems.

In mid-July, the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs (SVAC) held a hearing to discuss two pending bills that would drastically reshape the provision of private healthcare services through the Veterans Community Care Program (VCCP).

On March 7th, The Federal Practitioner published an article co-authored by VHPI Senior Policy Analyst Russell Lemle and Katherine B. McGuire, Chief Advocacy Officer for the American Psychological Association Services. It’s entitled “The SHOW UP Act Threatens VA Telehealth” and we encourage all VHPI supporters to read it!

Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives hurriedly passed the Stopping Home Office Work’s Unproductive Problems (SHOW UP) Act (H.R. 139), a bill that calls into question the contributions of federal employees allowed to work from home and resets telework policies to those in place in 2019.

In recent years, many Republicans have railed against overreach by the “administrative state”—which, in their breathless telling, takes the form of rulemaking by federal agencies that goes far beyond their statutory authority.

VHPI Senior Policy Analyst Dr. Russell Lemle organized a multi-organizational effort to provide written testimony on how to stem the veterans suicide crisis.

VHPI Burn Pits

The July 14th House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on the private care program established through the VA MISSION Act was an occasion for more shots across the bow aimed at dismantling the VA.

By: Suzanne Gordon, in The Washington Monthly • VHPI Policy Analyst Suzanne Gordon writes a postmortem on the AIR commission, and sketches out the next steps for keeping the VA's infrastructure protected for generations to come.

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Those concerned about the merit of VA Secretary Denis McDonough’s recently released recommendations for facility closures, renovations, and realignments should give a close reading to an overlooked Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released in February.

On March 14, VA Secretary Denis McDonough released recommendations mandated by the VA MISSION Act Asset and Infrastructure Review (AIR) process. Weeks earlier, VHPI had obtained the internal market assessments that informed McDonough’s decisions.

By: Suzanne Gordon, in The American Prospect • VHPI Policy Analyst Suzanne Gordon reports on drastic new recommendations to shutter VA medical centers in rural and urban areas and eliminate much inpatient care elsewhere, including needed inpatient psychiatric beds.

By: Suzanne Gordon, in The Washington Monthly • VHPI Policy Analyst Suzanne Gordon examines the work and writing of Daniel Gade, a powerful veterans' official with a deep disdain for the veterans' safety net.

By: Suzanne Gordon, Senior Policy Analyst, in The American Prospect • VHPI Policy Analyst Suzanne Gordon investigates a dysfunctional Trump-era reform that's making it impossible to hire key VA staff amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Senator Bernie Sanders recently introduced two pieces of overlapping legislation that would positively boost the federal safety net for American veterans in need of dental work.

By: Suzanne Gordon and Jasper Craven, Policy Analysts, in The Washington Monthly • VHPI Policy Analysts Suzanne Gordon and Jasper Craven offer a vigorous proposal on the best move to re-invigorate the VA: nominate a permanent Undersecretary of Health

Darin Selnick is at it again. Selnick, a VA privatizer with close ties to the Trump and Koch worlds, has recently helped launch a new anti-VA group called Veterans 4 American First Institute (V4AF).

By: Russell Lemle and Suzanne Gordon, Senior Policy Analysts, in The Hill • VHPI Senior Policy Analysts Russell Lemle and Suzanne Gordon report on the urgent need to pass EVEST Act, which would greatly open the door to veteran patients.

By: Suzanne Gordon, Senior Policy Analyst, in The American Prospect • VHPI Senior Policy Analyst Suzanne Gordon reports on the EVEST Act, which, if passed, would help veterans during their tough transition to civilian life.

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By: Suzanne Gordon, VHPI Senior Policy Analyst, in the American Prospect • Suzanne Gordon reported about the threats of the VA's impending Asset and Infrastructure Review Commission

By: Russell Lemle and Suzanne Gordon, Senior Policy Analysts, for The Hill • Russell Lemle and Suzanne Gordon, two of VHPI's Senior Policy Analysts, wrote an op-ed in The Hill analyzing how President Biden's infrastructure plans could bolster the VA in key ways.

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Last Wednesday, Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilke published an opinion piece “In Congress, Veteran Suicide Prevention Is a Bipartisan Topic.

Lewis “Skip” Delano deployed to Vietnam in 1968 after growing up farming in Virginia and Maryland.

Over the past week, the most influential veterans’ organizations (and even The New York Times) have called for the firing of Robert Wilkie, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

In May 2019, the Department of Veterans Affairs terminated a 10-year-old program that sent healthcare providers to fill temporary staffing needs at VA medical clinics throughout the country.

In part I of this conversation with Stephen Trynosky, VHPI discussed how the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs (HVAC) was traditionally viewed as a backwater in Congress.

Multiorganization Support for VA Clinical TEAM Act

S. 785 – Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act of 2019 May 4, 2020 Overview Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act of 2019 (S. 785) has many laudatory ambitions. It aims to more fully understand risk factors related to suicide, improve the transition of servicemembers leaving the […]

By: Suzanne Gordon & Jasper Craven • Trump’s VA Secretary insisted before Congress that hiring to fill 50,000 vacancies at the Department of Veterans Affairs shouldn’t be a priority. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

Is Trump’s Dept. of Veterans Affairs too Broken to Fight COVID-19? April 7, 2020 “HOW INACTION, INCOMPETENCE, AND POLITICAL AGGRESSION INFLICTED UPON THE VA AN UNPRECEDENTED VACANCY CRISIS AHEAD OF A GLOBAL HEALTH PANDEMIC” FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Oakland, California (4/7/2020) – Years of chronic understaffing, privatization, and attacks on employees by Trump administration officials have […]

Multiple Organizations Response to HR5697 Questions

By: Suzanne Gordon & Jasper Craven

S. 1906 – Improve Well-Being for Veterans Act August 29, 2019 Executive Summary S. 1906 Improve Well-Being for Veterans Act, and its companion H.R. 3495, is a bill intended to provide pilot funds to non-VA entities to offer suicide prevention services to veterans who either never use the VA for healthcare or live in geographic […]

AIR Acceleration HVAC Statement for Record 06 19 19

A Budget for America’s Veterans January 21, 2019 The plan, authored by DAV, PVA, and VFW, offers a realistic way forward for veterans’ health care. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Washington, D.C. | January 21, 2019 – The Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute supports ‘The Independent Budget: Veterans Agenda for the 116th Congress’ as a prudent blueprint to […]

By: Jasper Craven & Suzanne Gordon • The MISSION Act was supposed to fix the problems with an expensive program that outsourced veterans to the private sector. But did it make those mistakes permanent?

What are veterans going to experience when being referred out to the Community Care Network on June 6? Do you think you’ll notice a difference?

Comments on 12.19.2018 Joint Congressional Veterans’ Affairs Committee Hearing December 19, 2018 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute released the following statement on the VA MISSION Act Implementation Joint Congressional Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday, December 19: “There is little time between now and the rollout of the VA MISSION Act, and […]