The Washington Free Beacon’s Ellison Barber appeared on Neil Cavuto’s Your World to discuss a Free Beacon report on excessive VA spending.
The report reveals that the Department of Veterans Affairs spent more than $1 billion on projects like ad campaigns, finance audits, and for green energy. This comes on the heels of the Veterans Affairs’ scandal that denied necessary and timely medical coverage to America’s most loyal patriots- our veterans.
The VA spent $1.3 billion in the past five years for "support" and professional services, which included millions of dollars aimed to project the VA in a positive light, as well as lodging and training of employees, and energy programs designed to make the VA facilities more sustainable. A lump sum of $18.1 million was allotted to "conduct surveys at state owned and operated veteran’s homes to monitor compliance with VA standards." A whopping $1 million was spent on a conference in 2012 to highlight "innovations toward patient care" and an additional $2.5 million on training employees. All of this spending occurred despite around 100,000 Veterans "experiencing long wait times for receipt of their VA health care," as found by a VA audit.
"It looks like…they’re essentially not managing the money appropriately and could be using it in better forms. It seems silly. That’s where someone inside the system should have been saying ‘Hey, we need to make sure we’re actually focusing on our first priority…’" Barber told Cavuto.