Report: Veterans Affairs Spending Binge Fueled by Unethical Behavior and Irresponsible Leadership

Press Release

In conjunction with a full committee hearing, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today released a staff report entitled "U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs 2011 Human Resources Conferences: A Culture of Reckless Spending." The report is a product of the Committee's year-long investigation of two conferences held by the Department of Veterans Affairs in July 2011 and August 2011 in Orlando, Florida. These two conferences, which were purportedly organized to train human resources professionals, cost taxpayers approximately $6.1 million.

"The Committee's investigation has revealed that this massive price tag was the direct result of spending mismanagement, unethical behavior by federal employees, and irresponsible leadership," the report states.

"The Department of Veterans Affairs core mission is to serve the nation's veterans and their families. Congress considers the Department's mission so important that we exempted it from sequestration and provided it an additional $300 million in the most recent spending bill," said Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif. "Despite this, the Department wasted millions on these conferences while wounded veterans have waited months to receive the help they deserve for their service to our Nation."

The number of pending veteran benefit claims currently stands at 700,000, with more than half of veterans backlogged- meaning they are waiting over 125 days for their case to be resolved.

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