Veterans
Those who serve our nation in defense of freedom must never be forgotten when they return home. It is vital to fully fund the necessary services to our veterans and their families in the most cost effective manner possible.
More on Veterans
DENVER (AP) - The Justice Department is considering whether to investigate allegations that Veterans Affairs Department executives lied to Congress to conceal massive cost overruns at a $1.7 billion VA hospital under construction outside Denver.
The FBI’s Washington field office is reviewing the allegations, the Justice Department said in a letter to Congress. The letter was dated Dec. 9 and made public Tuesday.
The FBI is part of the Justice Department.
A KRDO Newschannel 13 investigation revealed that a large number of heroin addicts in America are veterans.
Not only has the VA health care system struggled to help them, but it may also be responsible for inadvertently creating the addictions in the first place.
Ross Armentor is recovering heroin addict who has been sober for three years this month.
Shortly after serving in Iraq in 2003, he was prescribed the powerful painkiller Percocet, which contains the opioid oxycontin.
He was suffering from a torm hamstring at the time.
The Pentagon’s announcement this week that enlistment bonuses would not be clawed back from California National Guard soldiers was met with applause from U.S. Reps. Mike Coffman (R-CO), Ryan Costello (R-PA) and Bruce Poliquin (R-ME).
The U.S. Defense Secretary ordered the Pentagon suspend the collection of improper enlistment bonuses paid to thousands of California National Guard soldiers at the height of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Outraged by a report of soldiers being forced to repay enlistment bonuses, U.S. Reps. Mike Coffman (R-CO), Jeff Denham (R-CA) and Michael McCaul (R-TX) called for action to avert the claw backs.
Thousands of soldiers who were paid bonuses of $15,000 or more to enlist or reenlist in the California National Guard at the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been ordered to repay their bonuses, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Reforms to the Veterans Choice Program led by U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) and U.S. Reps. Mike Coffman (R-CO) and Scott Tipton (R-CO) would modernize the program’s payment, authorization and referral systems.
In a letter to Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) Secretary Robert McDonald, Gardner, Coffman, and Tipton and other members of Colorado’s delegation wrote that they had received complaints about Health Net, the system used to reimburse non-VA providers, from around the state.
The Department of Veterans Affairs made its required report after the close of business on the deadline day in relation to its Aurora hospital project, though its status is unclear.
“As of now, we have not determined if this CD complies with [the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee] issued subpoena,” U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman’s congressional office said in an email.
What an odd battle the Department of Veterans Affairs continues to wage over releasing information meant to explain the massive cost overruns at its Aurora hospital still under construction.