Five of the 10 bills introduced Tuesday offered plans for expanding coverage for veterans seeking private-sector care. Some of the proposals would waive requirements for veterans to qualify for non-VA care and others offered alternatives for covering veterans care in the private sector.
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Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman, said a six-month investigation has confirmed at least two managers leveraged sexual favors from subordinates at the VA Mountain Home health care facility in exchange for job promotions.
The Battle of the Bulge ceremonies in Belgium and Luxembourg capped a series of major 80th anniversary remembrances in Europe this year. 17 American veterans met with world leaders and many other admirers and were honored along with their fallen comrades.
While the electronic health records system and several other major projects sound good in theory, they have been over budget by billions of dollars and fail to function properly, Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., said during a House Veterans’ Affairs Committee subpanel hearing.
The veterans served in the Army, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard and will see their convictions wiped out alongside 24 others who were pardoned by President Joe Biden. “America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,” Biden said.
Robert Fernandez, who died Wednesday at age 100 in Lodi, Calif., was among the hundreds of service members who survived the Pearl Harbor attack. His death leaves barely more than a dozen survivors of the attack still living.
More than 192,000 disabled veterans applied to the Veterans Readiness and Employment Program in 2024, up from 131,000 in 2023. In 2025, officials project another 15% increase in applicants.
Several veterans organizations are lining up to support the Complete the Mission Act, which directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to disclose expected wait times for appointments, reasons for cancellations and options to reschedule at a VA facility or with a private, non-VA clinician.
The annual ceremony was once attended by scores of surviving Dec. 7 veterans. Fewer than two dozen remain living and only two attended Saturday’s commemoration. The pair were joined by only six other World War II veterans.
Signed into law Nov. 24, the Mark Our Place Act overturned restrictions that kept the VA from providing the Medal of Honor recognition at older gravesites out of concern for preserving their historic value.