Support For Secretary Mcdonald

[broncovet]

Lawmakers are upset with Secretary McDonald:

http://www.stripes.com/cordial-no-more-lawmakers-unhappy-with-va-s-mcdonald-1.344113

While I certainly agree that Mr. McDonald, being new on the job, has made some mistakes, and some of those mistakes hurt Veterans.

However, Secretary McDonald is the FIRST Secretary that I have seen who offers up his email address and, at least, attempts to actually solve Veterans issues.

The previous secretary's were mostly "unavailable" to even hear Veteran's complaints. On several occassions, Veterans on hadit have reported favorable outcomes by contacting undersecretary Hickey or Secretary McDonald about their personal issues.

I personally have contacted under Secretary Hickey, and Secretary McDonald in regard to my claims being trapped on a hamster wheel of delay and denial, mostly based upon VA's evidence they shredded in my file. While I am not happy with the outcome, this is the firs time my issues were even addressed and not swept under the rug.

For this reason, I support Secretary McDonald and undersecretary Hickey, as I see real results (tho not enough results) on individual Veterans.

[Philip Rogers]

I support him, also, even tho he's never responded to my 2 emails, over two months ago. I emailed Allison, 3 weeks ago, also, and she stated they would look into it and that's been 3 wks w/no response. jmo

pr

[Notorious Kelly]

I also support Secretary McDonald and think he is our best chance at real improvement at the VA in decades.

That being said, the VA is much bigger than 1 man can fix.

[jefmil50]

I second that support for Secretary McDonald and under Secretary Hickey. In just a matter of 2 weeks my problem was resolved and everything I asked for was granted. On April 20 2015 I sent 2 emails out, 1 to under Secretary Ms. Hickey and 1 to Secretary McDonald explaining my exact contentions and as simple as possible. On April 27th I recieved an email back Secretary McDonalds office that my email was forwarded to my RO for action to be taken on my claim. Then Sunday May 3rd I recieved a call from a rater who was assigned my claim due to my email I sent to Secretary McDonald. Now my claim has been resolved and just about finished.

Now before I have writen to Congressmen and Senators and although I have seen favorable results, I have never seen results this quick. So yes be short and simple and to the point, and lay out exactly what your asking for, if you have to state the 38 CFR that covers your particular case. That way they will not have do the research and tie your claim up any longer. I also believe it will make the VA realize that you know what the laws are and you plan on doing what is necessary to resolve your claim. JMHO

[broncovet]

PR points out that the "usefullness" of "Ask Bob" type of emails has waned. Years ago, you could contact your senator and VA would actually do something. Now, the VA waits until they have 52 "congressional inquires" then "scatters them over the room like a deck of cards" and the janitor disposes of the congressional inquiries when they sweep the floor. Most Vet advocates dont even recommend contacting your senator. They say its "at least as likely as not" gonna irk VA employees and cause them to retaliate against you.

In other words, the VARO's have found out they can "just plain ignore" congressional inquiries, and the congressmen can do nothing..nada..zip.

They will soon learn they can do the same thing when "Bob" or Allison contact them. Just blow it off.

Like PR, I contacted the secretary on Feb 20. The VARO bosses then call me and sound "all concerned" about my problem. So, what happens?

Same old same old. I still have ALL the problems I had before I contacted VASEC. Not one has been solved, but they did put in a "new claim" that was quickly denied. A better fix needs to occur. Kind of like the one in the military.

We had a "chain of command" we were required to follow. We had a problem? Talk to your supervisor. No response from him? Talk to his supervisor? No response from him? Talk to his supervisor. It ended at the pentagon, but things never got to the pentagon, and were always solved by the base commanding officer. Always.

The base commanding officer did not want his bosses asking why he could not handle base problems. So he fixed them. You may not like the fix, but it was fixed.

As so should happen with VA. VA needs to take a page out of the military playbook, with the chain of command, which, by the way, should be made public, so we know who to contact if RO employee "x" is rude and wont solve our problem.

Edited May 6, 2015 by broncovet

[add55p]

I agree with everyone above.

Secretary McDonald and Secretary Hickey have gone way out of there way to get long pending claims addressed immediately. I truly believe that because the way that the Veteran Affairs laws are written, in most cases, very ambiguous, they have their hand tied.

In some ways congress is part of the problem. For years, they have been having hearings on all sorts of Veterans Affairs issues, especially the claims backlog. But after the hearing and promises from past VA top officials that they would do better by the veteran, the same old hearing are just repeated.

The managers at the regional offices do not take an active role in the veterans claims until they are notified by higher ups (i.e. Secretary McDonald or Secretary Hickey). If the Regional Office Managers take the on hand approach as the two senior VA secretaries (accept Veterans email complaints directly and not through IRIS!!!), they would be able to identify the systemic problems at the respective agencies.

Secretary McDonald and Secretary Hickey should be commended for the progress that they have made to improve the Department of Veterans Affairs and regain the trust of the Veterans..

Add

[Berta]

I think you have to subscribe to S & S to get the whole article but it is also here:

http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2015/04/30/house-panel-issues-subpoena-in-philadelphia-va-probe

In part:
"WASHINGTON (AP) — A House committee voted Thursday to issue a subpoena of the Department of Veterans Affairs for personnel and complaint files at its Philadelphia office, part of an expanding probe into mishandling of veterans' disability and pensions claims.

Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs committee, said his panel has repeatedly asked for the information since last December with limited success from VA Secretary Robert McDonald and other officials as it digs into allegations of leadership misconduct and whistleblower retaliation. It was only the third time in the committee's history that lawmakers resorted to a subpoena, a sign of continuing impatience with a department still struggling after last year's health scandal involving the Phoenix VA medical center."

This is serious business.

Apparently a lot was redacted from what the VA gave the Committee (H VAC)

I dont know why.

VA violated the privacy of about 12 employees when I FOIAed the local VAMC for information on some job applicants for a EEOC case.many years ago .

I expected redacted info as to name, address, SSA number, etc etc and only was interested in their qualifications for a specific job and if they mentioned knowing any friends or had any relatives who worked for the VA.,on the applications.

The VA sent me their entire applications.SSA numbers, names, addresses etc etc.

Maybe I should do a FOIA for Chairman Miller.