VA improperly approved almost $11M in bonuses to senior executives, watchdog says

Well, the Department of Veterans Affairs was recently able to get $3 billion in additional funding, making sure veterans’ disability payments didn’t get shut down on October 1st. At first glance, I know that reads like a positive thing, right? Of course, we want disabled veterans to continue to get their payments.

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Why this extra $3 billion was needed to begin with speaks to the failure of the VA to manage their budget and resources appropriately. VA was warned that with the passing of the PACT Act, they would see a large influx of veterans becoming eligible for care at the VA facilities across the nation. Presumptive conditions are now the basis for care eligibility. This cast a large net, and so millions of veterans enter a broken system that can barely take care of the millions of veterans that it already has. On top of this, the VA chose to roll out PACT eligibility faster than originally planned, but they didn’t adequately take this into account during their budget request this year.