CVA Reacts to Obama Phoenix VA Visit: Glad to See White House is Finally Taking the Phoenix VA Seriously
Arlington, Va. – The Obama administration today announced that on Friday, March 13th, the president will be visiting the Phoenix VA medical center that was the epicenter of VA wait list scandal. Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) called on President Obama to visit the facility during a trip to Phoenix in January of this year, but at the time his motorcade merely drove by the location without stopping- even though he was speaking less than a mile away.
Dan Caldwell, Legislative and Political Director for CVA, issued the following statement in reaction to the announcement:
“Concerned Veterans for America welcomes the news that President Obama has finally decided that it’s worth his time to visit the Phoenix VA hospital, where the VA scandal first broke and dozens of veterans died while on secret wait lists.
“We hope that this is a sign that the president will begin to take VA reform seriously—something he has thus far only paid lip service to. While it’s encouraging that he is finally taking the time to visit the facility, we can only hope that the he gets an unvarnished view of the myriad of problems at the Phoenix VA hospital, and not a whitewashed tour choreographed by hospital administrators there – many of whom remain under investigation.
“To our knowledge, this is President Obama’s first public visit to a VA facility since 2010, and we urge him to use it as an opportunity to send a clear signal to VA leadership nationwide that it is the needs of the veteran – not the VA bureaucracy – that are paramount. It is past time for this White House to embrace real VA reforms that ensure veterans receive the care that they deserve and to address head on the problems that have caused the undue suffering of hundreds of thousands of veterans across the country.”
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To schedule a TV interview with Dan Caldwell or other CVA experts, please email booking@guestbooker.com. For other media inquiries, contact Emily Laird at elaird@cv4a.org or 571.302.0973.
Concerned Veterans for America is a non-partisan, non-profit, 501(c)(4) organization that advocates for policies that will preserve the freedom and liberty we and our families so proudly fought and sacrificed to defend.