ICYMI: Walorski Questions VA Officials on Waste & Abuse of Bird Sanctuary, Baseball Diamond

Press Release

Today, Rep. Jackie Walorski (IN-02), a member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, questioned Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials on how the operation of a hotel laundry facility, a university baseball diamond, and a bird sanctuary achieved the goal of housing injured and homeless veterans, during the Oversight and Investigation's Subcommittee hearing titled, "An Examination of Waste and Abuse Associated with VA's Management of Land-Use Agreements".

In the exchange, Walorski said, "With the massive population of homeless veterans...there's a baseball diamond and a bird sanctuary; how in the world does that achieve the goal of housing veterans... the homeless population in this country is at the highest it has ever been and with the influx of Veterans coming and the pleas that we hear from all the associations…it seems to most Americans who are going to hear this story that it is an atrocity that veterans have to sleep outside in the cold while the VA, again, has to stop what they are doing and readjust with no employees and go back and correct many, many years of wrongs…I just think that it is such an outrage that we all have homeless Veterans in our areas and we are all trying to make every single tax dollar accountable to be used for what it was given for in the spirit of being good stewards which is what the American people ask of you as well."

The hearing highlighted some of the serious problems surrounding the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center (VAMC), including the tremendous number of homeless Veterans located around the campus -- a population the West LA VAMC was designed to house. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has substantiated these problems, which continue to result in extreme loss of revenue, waste of taxpayer money, and compromised services provided to Veterans.

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