Posted on 04/23/2015 5:04:42 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
In a voice choked with emotion, Rustyann Brown told lawmakers Wednesday how the Department of Veterans Affairs routinely turned its back on veterans and their families, even in death.
Mrs. Brown, a former employee in the VAs Oakland office, was assigned one day in 2012 to a special team given the job of reviewing more than 13,000 veterans claims dating back to the mid-1990s that had never been addressed. As they sorted through the mounds of papers, she said, they often discovered that the veterans had long since died without receiving the requested benefits.
In those cases, Mrs. Brown testified, VA managers instructed employees to mark the files NAN for no action necessary. But she said taking that step also prevented a veterans survivors from receiving benefits.
If the widow ever came in to file a claim theres nothing there, she told the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, her voice breaking. Theres no information about her husband. On a daily basis, we were seeing piles of [claims] set aside. It was our obligation to contact that family. We didnt do that. We should have.
A VA official from Oakland assured lawmakers that the agency has since taken care of all the old claims, but Mrs. Brown called that a lie.
VA Assistant Inspector General Linda Halliday testified Wednesday that as recently as last month, her office discovered another 1,300 old documents in the Oakland office, including claims that still require action.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Exactly.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.