The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing lifelong healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers and outpatient clinics located throughout the country. Non-healthcare benefits include disability compensation,vocational rehabilitation,education assistance,home loans,and life insurance. The VA also provides burial and memorial benefits to eligible veterans and family members at 135 national cemeteries.
The Trilateral Commission is a nongovernmental international organization aimed at fostering closer cooperation between Japan,Western Europe and North America. It was founded in July 1973,principally by American banker and philanthropist David Rockefeller,an internationalist who sought to address the challenges posed by the growing economic and political interdependence between the U.S. and its allies in North America,Western Europe,and Japan. The leadership of the organization has since focused on returning to "our roots as a group of countries sharing common values and a commitment to the rule of law,open economies and societies,and democratic principles".
Ifor Huw Irranca-Davies is a Welsh Labour and Co-operative politician who has served as Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs since 2024. He has been the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Ogmore since 2016. Irranca-Davies was previously the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ogmore from 2002 to 2016.
The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the component of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) led by the Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health that implements the healthcare program of the VA through a nationalized healthcare service in the United States,providing healthcare and healthcare-adjacent services to veterans through the administration and operation of 146 VA Medical Centers (VAMC) with integrated outpatient clinics,772 Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC),and 134 VA Community Living Centers Programs. It is the largest division in the department,and second largest in the entire federal government,employing over 350,000 employees. All VA hospitals,clinics and medical centers are owned by and operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs,and all of the staff employed in VA hospitals are federal employees. Because of this,veterans that qualify for VHA healthcare do not pay premiums or deductibles for their healthcare but may have to make copayments depending on the medical procedure. VHA is not a part of the US Department of Defense Military Health System.
Ladda Tammy Duckworth is an American politician and retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel serving as the junior United States senator from Illinois since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party,she represented Illinois's 8th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2013 to 2017.
Achim Steiner is a Brazilian-born environmentalist who currently serves as the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and vice-chair of United Nations Sustainable Development Group.
James George Stavridis is a retired United States Navy admiral and vice chair,global affairs,and a managing director-partner of The Carlyle Group,a global investment firm,and chair of the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation. Stavridis serves as the chief international diplomacy and national security analyst for NBC News in New York. He is also chair emeritus of the board of directors of the United States Naval Institute and a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
David Grier Martin III is an American politician and attorney. He served several terms as a Democratic member of the North Carolina General Assembly,representing the state's 34th district. His district included the northern part of Raleigh in Wake County.
Douglas Alan Hartwick is a business and NGO consultant,lecturer,and former senior U.S. diplomat and U.S. ambassador to the People's Democratic Republic of Laos (2001–2004).
Brett P. Giroir is an American pediatrician. He was formerly the U.S. assistant secretary for health,a four-star admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and an acting Food and Drug Administration commissioner.
Mark A. Weinberger is an American businessman. He is the former global Chairman and CEO of EY. Weinberger currently sits on several boards of directors,including those of Metlife,Johnson &Johnson Saudi Aramco. and JPMorgan Chase. Earlier in his career he has also held several posts in the public sector in Washington,D.C.,including time as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy.
The 2014 Veterans Health Administration controversy is a reported pattern of negligence in the treatment of United States military veterans. Critics charged that patients at the VHA hospitals had not met the target of getting an appointment within 14 days. In some hospitals,the staff falsified appointment records to appear to meet the 14-day target. Some patients died while they were on the waiting list. Defenders agreed that it was unacceptable to falsify data,but the 14-day target was unrealistic in understaffed facilities like Phoenix,and most private insurers did not meet a 14-day target either. By most measures,the VHA system provides "excellent care at low cost," wrote Paul Krugman,who believes that the attacks on the VHA system are motivated by conservatives who want to discredit a government program that works well. Conservative legislators have proposed privatizing the VHA,and legislative reforms that will make it easier for veterans to go to private doctors.
The Veteran Access to Care Act of 2014 is a bill that would allow United States veterans to receive their healthcare from non-VA facilities under certain conditions. The bill is a response to the Veterans Health Administration scandal of 2014,in which it was discovered that there was systematic lying about the wait times veterans experienced waiting to be seen by doctors. By June 5,2014,Veterans Affairs internal investigations had identified a total of 35 veterans who had died while waiting for care in the Phoenix VHA system. Another audit determined that "more than 57,000 veterans waited at least 90 days to see a doctor,while another 63,000 over the last decade never received an initial appointment."
The Veterans' Access to Care through Choice,Accountability,and Transparency Act of 2014,also known as the Veterans Choice Act,is a United States public law that is intended to address the ongoing Veterans Health Administration scandal of 2014. The law expanded the number of options veterans have for receiving care and granted the United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs more power to fire senior executives. The Veterans Health Administration scandal of 2014 began with the discovery that there was on-going systematic lying by the Veterans Health Administration about the wait times veterans experienced waiting to be seen by doctors. By June 5,2014,Veterans Affairs internal investigations had identified a total of 35 veterans who had died while waiting for care in the Phoenix VHA system. Another audit determined that "more than 57,000 veterans waited at least 90 days to see a doctor,while another 63,000 over the last decade never received an initial appointment."
LaVerne H. Council,MBA,DBA was the Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology and Chief Information Officer for the Office of Information and Technology within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Council assumed this role in July 2015. President Obama nominated Council to the role in March 2015. Council was confirmed by the 114th Congress on June 23,2015,making Council the first female CIO of a Cabinet-level federal agency. She managed a $4.2B Information Technology (IT) appropriation,the first centralized and only IT appropriation in the federal government.
Danny Ray Brouillette is an American government official,lobbyist and businessman who served as the United States Secretary of Energy in the Donald Trump administration from 2019 to 2021. He previously served as the deputy secretary of energy from August 2017 to December 2019. In 2023,Brouillette was named president and chief executive officer elect of the Edison Electric Institute.
James Michael Byrne is an American lawyer who served as the United States Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs from August 2018 to February 2020. He previously served as the general counsel for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.
Robert Anthony Paduchik is an American political advisor who served as the co-chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2017 to 2019. He was also a senior advisor for the Donald Trump 2020 presidential campaign. He was also the campaign's Ohio state director in 2016.
In April and May 2020,United States President Donald Trump dismissed the inspectors general (IGs) of five cabinet departments in the space of six weeks. The inspectors general removed were Michael K. Atkinson,Intelligence,on April 3;Glenn Fine (acting),Defense,April 7;Christi Grimm (acting),Health and Human Services,May 1;Mitch Behm (acting),Transportation,May 15;and Steve Linick,State,May 15. In four of the cases the announcement was made late on a Friday night in a classic Friday news dump. In several cases the fired IGs had taken an action which Trump disliked,so that the dismissals were widely described as retaliation. In two other cases,questions were raised about whether the dismissals related to ongoing IG investigations into the conduct of the cabinet secretary in charge of that department. The cumulative firings were often described as a "purge" or as a "war on watchdogs".
The One Hundred Fourth Wisconsin Legislature convened from January 7,2019,to January 4,2021,in regular session,though it adjourned for legislative activity on May 13,2020. The Legislature also held two extraordinary sessions and six special sessions during the legislative term.
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