VA needs $750M for staff: Chuck
The federal Department of Veterans Affairs needs a $750 million infusion to hire 45,000 new workers to fill critical positions, Sen. Chuck Schumer said Sunday.
Schumer is concerned vets will have to wait for months for basic care if the money isn’t included in a Senate appropriations bill.
“The point is a simple one – our veterans should not have to fight a war with the VA to receive the kind of health care they both need and deserve,” Schumer said.
In Manhattan there are 580 vacancies; the Bronx has 333; and Northport, L.I., has 175, according to VA records published by the department right before Labor Day weekend.
All told, roughly 11% of the department’s workforce is vacant.
Trump has vowed to improve medical care for veterans and has pressed to give them more private-sector options.
On Sunday, John Rowan, a Vietnam Air Force veteran who suffered from Agent Orange-related poisoning, appeared with Schumer to support his call for added VA funding.
“I have private-sector insurance,” said Rowan, president of Vietnam Veterans of America. “The reality is the private sector has no idea what to do with veterans. They don’t know anything about our illnesses. We have to train them.”
A ProPublica report in August revealed that a shadowy group of deep pocketed members of Trump’s Palm Beach resort are essentially running the department.
Those members are Marvel Entertainment Chairman Ike Perlmutter, Dr. Bruce Moskowitz and lawyer Marc Sherman. They are referred to within the department as the “Mar-a-Lago crowd.”