VA secretary to meet workers, leaders of embattled Reno office

WASHINGTON — New Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald will meet on Tuesday with employees of the VA’s embattled Reno regional office whose performance has been challenged by critics in Congress.

McDonald, confirmed by the Senate three weeks ago to lead the troubled veterans agency, will talk with workers and leaders of the Reno outpost after speaking to the national convention of the Blinded Veterans Association in Sparks, the agency announced Monday.

McDonald is scheduled to meet separately later Tuesday with Senator Dean Heller, R-Nev., according to Heller’s office.

It is part of a swing McDonald is taking to introduce himself to veterans service organizations and to take measure of the VA in the field.

A former Procter & Gamble chief executive, Airborne Ranger and 1975 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., McDonald spoke to 4,000 members of the Disabled American Veterans in Las Vegas on Aug. 9. That day he also toured the VA Medical Center in North Las Vegas.

McDonald’s first stop as VA secretary was at the VA medical center in Phoenix, where whistleblower reports that hospital workers were manipulating appointment data to disguise long wait times for patients to see doctors exploded into a national scandal and led to the resignation of former VA secretary Eric Shinseki.

McDonald’s visit to the Reno outpost fulfills a promise he made during his Senate confirmation hearing last month, after hearing complaints from Heller about its performance in processing disability claims.

Heller is co-leader of a Senate task force that produced a report earlier this year confirming the Reno office, which handles claims from Nevada veterans and some in Northern California, had the slowest rate of handling benefit requests.

A separate audit by the VA Office of Inspector General found errors in more than half the disability claims processed by clerks in Reno.

Heller, along with Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., has called for the VA to replace Ed Russell, Reno executive director.

Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., has defended Russell, saying no one person can be held responsible for problems at the office. In an interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal last week, Amodei said Reno is not getting the resources being steered to other VA regional offices.

“If you compared that to other places that are meeting mission, that analysis would tell you that the folks at the regional and national VA have been setting up the Reno office as a stepchild,” Amodei said.

The congressman, who represents Reno in the U.S. House, added the VA medical center in Reno has avoided being lumped with other VA centers being investigated for altering appointment data.

At least the Reno hospital is not “cooking the books,” Amodei said.