{"id":27225,"date":"2015-11-04T08:05:33","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T13:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=27225"},"modified":"2015-11-04T08:05:33","modified_gmt":"2015-11-04T13:05:33","slug":"cong-costello-philadelphia-va-official-pleads-the-fifth-in-congressional-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=27225","title":{"rendered":"Cong. Costello: Philadelphia VA official pleads the Fifth in Congressional Hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Costello: \u201cIt\u2019s time for accountability and to get back to business\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"RACofficialphoto2015\"<\/a>

Congressman Ryan Costello (PA-06); Member, House Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee,<\/p><\/div>\n

WASHINGTON, D.C.\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 Monday evening, the House Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee held a hearing to receive testimony from the subpoenaed witnesses on the findings of the Inspector General’s (IG) report regarding Department of Veterans Affairs\u2019 officials alleged misuse of its relocation program and incentives. Diana Rubens, Director of the Philadelphia VA Regional Office, and Kimberly Graves, Director of the St. Paul Regional Office, invoked the Fifth Amendment due to the criminal referrals made by the IG.<\/p>\n

Following the hearing, Congressman Ryan Costello (PA-06) released the following statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cLast night proved that a handful of VA officials, despite the issuance of subpoenas, are not committed to bringing transparency to VA Regional Offices,\u201d said Congressman Costello. \u201cAccording to the VA Office of Inspector General, they inappropriately used their positions to create opportunities for their own personal and financial gain.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere in Southeastern Pennsylvania, hundreds of thousands of veterans rely on the Philadelphia VARO. \u00a0While I do believe many of those VA employees are making great strides in reducing the claims backlog, these examples of VA officials gaming the system only causes more damage to the reputation of the facility and to the VA.\u00a0 It is time for certain officials, particularly Diana Rubens, to be held accountable so that we can reform the facility and get back to the business of caring for our veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n

WITNESS LIST<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Mr. Danny Pummill*<\/strong><\/p>\n

Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Benefits<\/p>\n

Veterans Benefits Administration<\/p>\n

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Accompanied by:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Ms. Diana Rubens*<\/em><\/p>\n

Director, Philadelphia and Wilmington Regional Offices<\/em><\/p>\n

Veterans Benefits Administration <\/em><\/p>\n

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Mr. Robert McKenrick*<\/em><\/p>\n

Director, Los Angeles Regional Office<\/em><\/p>\n

Veterans Benefits Administration<\/em><\/p>\n

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Ms. Kimberly Graves*<\/em><\/p>\n

Director, St. Paul Regional Office<\/em><\/p>\n

Veterans Benefits Administration<\/em><\/p>\n

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Mr. Antione Waller*<\/em><\/p>\n

Director, Baltimore Regional Office<\/em><\/p>\n

Veterans Benefits Administration<\/em><\/p>\n

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ms. Linda Halliday<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deputy Inspector General<\/p>\n

Office of Inspector General<\/p>\n

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Honorable Allison Hickey**<\/strong><\/p>\n

Former Under Secretary for Benefits<\/p>\n

Veterans Benefits Administration<\/p>\n

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

*Appeared under the order of subpoena because VA refused to make them available for a previous hearing. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

**Invited to appear but did not attend the hearing.<\/em><\/p>\n

On the House Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee, Congressman Costello serves on the Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs\u00a0(DAMA) and the Economic Opportunity Subcommittees.<\/p>\n

Contact: Johanna Persing, Communications Director – Congressman Ryan Costeelo, (202) 225-4315<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Costello: \u201cIt\u2019s time for accountability and to get back to business\u201d   WASHINGTON, D.C.\u00a0\u2013 Monday evening, the House Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee held a hearing to receive testimony from the subpoenaed witnesses on the findings of the Inspector General’s (IG) report regarding Department of Veterans Affairs\u2019 officials alleged misuse of its relocation program and incentives. Diana […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7228,7702,7701,7703],"class_list":["post-27225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-congressman-ryan-costello","tag-philadelphia-regional-va","tag-us-house-of-representatives-veterans-affairs-committee","tag-veterans-benefits-administration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}