Stacks of claim folders pile up at a VA office in Winston-Salem, N.C. VA Office of Inspector General
A QDR for the VA?
A bill before the House Veterans Affairs Committee would require the Veterans Affairs Department to conduct a four-year review, but is more paperwork what the agency needs? By Stephanie Gaskell
Some members of Congress think the beleaguered Veterans Affairs Department needs to conduct its own four-year strategic review, modeled after the Defense Department’s Quadrennial Defense Review.
A bill before the House Veterans Affairs Committee would require the VA to create “a national strategy for meeting the nation’s commitment to veterans,” reports Leo Shane at Stars & Stripes.
VA officials argue that they already conduct a similar internal review, but members of Congress are clearly looking to gain more oversight of their massive budget. The VA is not only the second largest government agency, it’s the only one that’s exempt from sequestration and President Barack Obama wants to increase the fiscal 2014 budget by more than 10 percent to $152.7 billion.
“The idea, pending before the House Veterans Affairs Committee, is one of several pieces of legislation under consideration designed to increase congressional oversight of VA operations, a sign of the increasing attention that veterans’ programs and benefits have received in recent years,” Shane writes.
Read the rest of his story here.