Yesterday the House Veterans Affairs Committee held a hearing to try to get answers from VA bureaucrats about the outrageous spending by the agency on conferences and travel in 2011 – $86.5 million worth. After continually being blocked by federal bureaucrats, Rep. Jeff Miller, Republican of Florida, had enough according to the Federal Times. He told the VA officials to expect more investigations.
“I had a nice conversation with Deputy Secretary [Scott] Gould yesterday on the phone, and thought we could work together, but it appears not,” Miller said. “Frankly, I’m tired of waiting for them to answer basic questions and tired of their excuses. If they don’t like getting more and more questions from us about conference spending and travel, maybe they could answer some of our questions.”
Gould conceded during the hearing that VA was lax on controlling spending, and said new safeguards have been put in place so that senior agency officials have a bigger role in approving expenses. “I apologize to veterans and this committee,” Gould said. “It is unacceptable this money was wasted.”
Outrageous. So as you work harder and harder to support yourself and your family – and as you hear the Left claim that cutting spending just isn’t possible — remember how your hard-earned tax dollars are being spent.
