Veteran’s Administration

Despite significant outcries from veterans’ organizations, the general public, and a number of elected officials, the Veterans Administration continues to underperform.

Some issues have received widespread coverage. In June, a Military Times study found that “Wait times for veterans seeking medical appointments at the VA have remained stubbornly stagnant in the past five months, with the number of patients who have waited more than a month to see a doctor topping 505,000, according to newly released data. Of the nearly 6.7 million medical appointments at Veterans Affairs Department facilities nationwide, 92 percent — roughly the same percentage for the past year — were scheduled within a 30-day standard set by Congress in 2014…Although VA has implemented the Veterans Choice program, which allows veterans to see a private physician if they can’t get an appointment at VA in fewer than 30 days, some clinics and medical centers still struggle to provide patients with timely medical care…”

In 2014, The VA’s Inspector General issued a report revealing that officials falsified records about waiting times at the Phoenix center.

The latest issue involves the veterans crisis hotline. According to Rep. David Young (R-Iowa) “In 2014, a number of complaints about missed or unanswered calls, unresponsive staff, as well as inappropriate and delayed responses to veterans in crisis prompted the VA Office of the Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office to conduct an investigation into the Veterans Crisis Line. Both investigations found ‘gaps in the quality assurance process,’ and provided a number of recommendations to address the quality, responsiveness, and performance of the Veterans Crisis Line and the mental health care provided to our veterans. Despite promises by the VA to implement changes to address problems facing veterans who use this Crisis Line these problems are still happening.”

If you forget some day, no problem at all. sildenafil side effects But remember that you need to be taken with both the branded and generic drugs which are used these days in the United States. india pharmacy viagra With all these prescription cialis underlying constituents incorporated in this capsule, it facilitates men defeat with his sexual dilemma and going through hard time of their life. Medicinal help to treat men’s erectile dysfunction has online sildenafil india developed as the most common sexual disorder among the men. A General Accounting Office (GAO) h study found that the “Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) did not meet its call response time goals for the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL), …. VA officials said they do not monitor or test the timeliness and performance of the VCL text message system and instead rely solely on the VCL’s text messaging provider for these functions. VA officials told GAO that the provider had not reported any issues with the system, but the provider told GAO that routine testing of the VCL system is not conducted. Without routinely testing its text messaging system or ensuring that its provider does so, VA cannot identify limitations to this service…”

In response, Rep. Young introduced the “No Veterans Crisis Line Call Should Go Unanswered Act, H.R. 5392,” which requires the VA to create and implement documented plans to improve responsiveness and performance of the crisis line. The legislation requires the VA to develop and implement a quality assurance process to address responsiveness and performance of the Veterans Crisis Line and backup call centers, and a timeline of when objectives will be reached. It also directs the VA to create a plan to ensure any communication to the Veterans Crisis Line or backup call center is answered in a timely manner, by a live person, and document the improvements they make, providing those plans to Congress within 180 days of the enactment of the bill.

The bill has unanimously passed the House, and now resides in the Senate, where a fight is brewing. Republicans have blasted Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for blocking efforts to pass the legislation by a voice vote or unanimous consent before the Senate left Washington on recess until mid-November. Reid, in turn, blames Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) for allowing the Senate to leave on its scheduled break before a deal could be reached.

Getting complete and accurate data from the Veterans Administration has proven to be an ongoing problem, leading the House of Representatives to develop a “VA Honesty Project.” The goal is “to highlight the Department of Veterans Affairs’ lack of transparency with the press and the public about its operations and activities.… Unfortunately, in many cases VA is failing in…[its] responsibility, as department officials – including 54 full-time public affairs employees – routinely ignore media inquiries. VA Honesty Project documents many recent instances in which VA has failed to respond to reporters’ requests for information or refused to answer specific questions. The department’s apparent disregard for the press has become an object of reporters’ scorn, leading some to openly accuse VA of “thumbing their nose at us” and others to write entire articles focusing on VA’s stonewalling tactics.”

Quick Analysis

Ukraine’s Frozen Conflict

As we approach winter in the northern hemisphere, the war in Ukraine is beginning to resemble a “frozen conflict” from many perspectives. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently told the media he hopes the war will end faster once President-elect Trump takes over in January. Opinions in Moscow, however, differ from that of the Ukrainian leader. Russian President Vladimir Putin argues that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) needs to exclude Ukraine from joining in “exchange” for peace. If it does not, he says, then no end to the war is in sight. So far there is no Christmas solution. Several NATO countries, according to Vladimir Socor of the Jamestown Foundation, are tentatively considering “coalitions-of-the-willing” to provide security for Ukraine outside of the formal NATO framework. There is, however, no collective mechanism today under which such an arrangement is viable. According to the NATO Charter, while Ukraine is a NATO partner country, it may not join as a full member since it has not fulfilled the requirements for membership. That has not stopped NATO and allies from continuing “to provide Ukraine with unprecedented levels of support, helping to uphold its fundamental right to self-defence,” according to the organization. Socor says that keeping Ukraine out of NATO will not advance peace with Russia. Waiting for a peace settlement, he suggests, would only serve to encourage Moscow to continue the war indefinitely. Although the Biden Administration officially withdrew its support for Ukrainian membership in 2021, NATO maintains an “open door” policy toward membership-seeking countries. The current White House position led the way for European states to oppose Ukraine’s membership saying that a decision should be delayed until “conditions are met.” Biden pushed for changing “open door” to a “bridge” metaphor. It is not intended as an across-the-board NATO policy and has been implemented in the past on a case-by-case basis, says Socor. “The alliance’s open-door policy was not fully insulated from Russia’s non-statutory blocking power, and NATO-aspirant countries’ path toward membership was not always irreversible.” Russia has successfully blocked states like Georgia from joining, first in 2008 and again after the war in Ukraine began in 2014. Russia recognizes the value add of Ukraine to NATO is enormous and that Kyiv has a better case than some other nations. Putin’s invasion was, in part, intended to foreclose that option. By 2021, Moscow was pushing hard to maximize its war objectives, which included further annexations of Ukrainian territory. A main goal for Putin was, and is, to ensure there is no Ukraine left to join NATO. As President-elect Trump prepares to assume office in January, he is faced with the historical challenges presented by the war. Post-conflict security guarantees were the center of several proposals made during the 2023 military stalemate. The incoming Trump Administration has yet to outline how it intends to handle the Russia-Ukraine war. Analysts in Washington believe that the new Administration will expect its European allies to guarantee the majority of Ukraine’s security needs. As we approach 2025, several European nations have acknowledged that they do not view Ukraine as eligible for NATO membership as it would draw the organization into the middle of the conflict. Others want to wait until the war is over or pending a “peace” settlement before considering Ukrainian membership. Socor reports that some “influential voices” are suggesting that “Kyiv should join NATO after “freezing” the war along a stable armistice line, de facto accepting Ukraine’s partition, with NATO security guarantees applying de jure to the government-controlled territory only.” This would mean starting accession talks soon with the actual talks to commence only after a ceasefire is in place. Trump arrives in Washington at a time when Putin’s hybrid strategies of war in Ukraine have eviscerated commonly-held differences between war and peace. “Absent a political consensus in NATO over Ukrainian membership, certain European allies, including France’s President Emmanuel Macron, are holding informal consultations about post-conflict security guarantees to Kyiv by NATO members outside of NATO’s framework,” according to the Jamestown Foundation. The Biden Administration downplayed the discussions on possible forms of military assistance and defense industry cooperation by sending only an Assistant Secretary of State. For a European peace to hold the Trump Administration would need to formally extend the United States’ nuclear deterrence to Ukraine. Options under discussion in Europe include a “coalition of the resolute” to deploy forces to Ukraine as part of a possible armistice package, deterring further Russian attacks, says Secor. European officials are also debating, without any agreement, whether its military forces could perform non-combat logistical roles to free Ukrainian forces to fight. None of the possible courses of action has moved forward as all eyes are waiting on the incoming Trump Administration for clues about its intended level of support for a NATO framework and other non-NATO proposals. Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept.