By Matthew Daly Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Department of Veterans Affairs is improperly spending at least $5 billion a year for medical care and supplies being purchased in violation of required practices for competitive bidding and written contracts, a senior VA official said Thursday. "Gross mismanagement" by senior agency leaders has wasted billions of dollars and made a "mockery" of federal laws regarding purchasing of goods and services, said Jan Frye, deputy assistant secretar...
Read more
It looks like nail salon workers everywhere have a champion in the U.S. Congress. Representative Kathleen Rice [D-4th Congressional District] is urging the Occupational Safety Administration [OSHA] to reform health standards for nail salon workers nationwide.
Read more
By Emma Dumain Roll Call Updated 12:52 p.m. | A growing number of Democrats and some moderate Republicans in the House are coming out against any short-term extension of the Highway Trust Fund. This week, they’re signing on to a letter pledging they’ll vote against another stopgap extension of the account funding transportation and infrastructure projects around the country. Rep. Peter Welch is leading the effort, and he currently has nine additional co-signers — seven Democrats and three Repub...
Read more
JP Updates Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with a bipartisan Congressional delegation led by Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX), where the group discussed Israeli counterterrorism efforts and the importance of the relationship between the United States and Israel. The U.S. delegation included Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-NY) Pete Sessions (R-TX), Vern Buchannan (R-FL), Bill Keating (D-MA), John Katko (R-NY), Will Hurd (R-TX), and Barry Loudermilk (R-GA). The group met in Israel with Prime Minister N...
Read more
By Robert Harding Auburn Citizen U.S. Rep. John Katko has joined with two Democratic members of the House Homeland Security Committee to address a security vulnerability in the Transportation Security Administration's PreCheck program. U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, introduced the Securing Expedited Screening Act after a report found an individual who served prison time for crimes committed as a member of a domestic terrorist organization was provided expedited screening by T...
Read more
By Anthony Rifilato Long Island Herald U.S. Rep. Kathleen Rice joined Long Beach officials on Monday to unveil the city’s new federally-funded trolley, one of eight vehicles replaced after the city’s public transit fleet suffered severe damage during Hurricane Sandy. Rice and U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced in February that more than $2.7 million in Federal Transit Administration Sandy Emergency Relief funds would be provided to reimburse the City for the purchase of ...
Read more
By John Daley Colorado Public Radio Members of Congress denounced the Department of Veterans Affairs on a variety of fronts regarding the agency's handling of the long-delayed and over-budget new medical center under construction in Aurora. Members of the House Veterans Affairs Committee grilled VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson about problems with oversight, designs, contracting, record-keeping and possible reforms. They criticized the VA for not punishing top executives overseeing the project b...
Read more
The Washington Post When Christian Head testified before Congress last year in an effort “to improve the health care provided to our country’s heroes,” his bosses at the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System (GLAHS) were not pleased. Not long after returning to Los Angeles, the head and neck surgeon was moved from an office in the chief of staff’s suite to a former storage room two floors below — “a tiny, dirty, poorly furnished closet-sized” space with a cracked ...
Read more
By Emily Wax-Thibodeaux The Washington Post Some whistleblowers at the Department of Veterans Affairs say they were demoted, then moved into windowless storage rooms, or basements. Others found their medical backgrounds scrutinized, and even their mental health and personal lives investigated. Even after their cases were cleared, those who retaliate against them were rarely if ever punished, they say. This is the tortured life described by whistleblowers in the VA. The agency has the highest num...
Read more
By Tom Brune Newsday WASHINGTON -- A longtime advocate for first responders and cleanup workers ailing from exposure to toxic debris at Ground Zero threw down the gauntlet to Congress Tuesday to renew the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, whose components begin to expire this October. "I'm challenging Congress to pass this bill by Sept. 11 of this year," said John Feal, a former construction worker who was injured and founded the FealGood Foundation to help 9/11 workers and survivo...
Read more
