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Statement released by U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) on Oct. 30:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Mark Meadows (NC-11) questioned Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials today at the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s hearing on mismanagement and wasteful spending at the agency.
Watch Meadows during the hearing here (video via Meadows’ YouTube channel):
“It is unacceptable for the Department of Veterans Affairs to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on employee conferences while our veterans are forced to wait nearly two years for their claims to be processed,” Meadows said. “When VA conference planners asked their superiors whether there would be enough funding available for their extravagant events, they were told, ‘You don’t have to worry about a thing.’ Shouldn’t the men and women who bravely served our country be the ones receiving that assurance?
“My staff and I are actively working with veterans in Western North Carolina whose claims are trapped in the VA’s backlog. Since January, our office alone has received more than 300 requests for assistance from veterans having a difficult time dealing with the VA. We will continue to hold this agency accountable to make sure the selfless men and women who sacrificed to defend our nation are treated with the honor and respect they deserve.”
Tell us your story
Are you a veteran whose claim has been delayed? We want to hear from you. Contact Carolina Public Press Editor Angie Newsome at anewsome@carolinapublicpress.org.
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Pleeeaaassee! The government shutdown had nothing to do with VA funding. Let’s not forget that it was the great one himself who wanted our wounded to fund their own health care since they knew what they were signing up for. It cost the country billions??? Come on! Let’s get real here. over 85% of the government continued to operate. The President, the administration and other department heads put forth a concerted effort to make the whole thing as painful as possible. The instructions were to make life miserable for as many as they could and to use the media to convince the useful idiots that the sky was falling.
The shutdown was nothing more than a circus side show for the low information voters. It appears to have worked!
Meadows office won;t take calls if you are calling to voice opposition to his views. Further, as Len states above he was behind the government shutdown and then as the press called him out on it he denied it. Then after that he voted against opening it back up. It cost the country between 23 and 24 billion dollars, which is 3 billion more than the entire budget for our state. So after that unnecessary waste hearing him lecture an agency about conferences is just pore posturing by a man with no conscience and no goal but to further himself. Sad but true.
Meadows makes it seem as if it’s the VA that’s wasteful. That’s false becaue it’s Meadows and his obstructing, obfuscating GOP that withholds needed funds from vets. I know, because I’m a vet, and I know how the VA is having to make do with a reduced staff–all because tea-party scum like Meadows wants to “shut down the govenment.’ Meadows doesn’t deserve anything but scorn.