VA blasted over veterans’ suicides
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The chairman of the House Veterans Committee blasted the Veterans Affairs Department on Tuesday, accusing the agency of criminal failure to respond to evidence of rising suicide rates among former soldiers.
This is a matter of life and death, said Chairman and Democratic Rep. Bob Filner, of California, and I think there was criminal negligence in the way this was handled.
In a follow-up hearing on the veteran suicide issue, Filner insisted that the VA has either ignored critical suicide data or covered up the numbers.
The pattern is deny, deny, deny, Filner told Veterans Secretary Jim Peake, then when facts seemingly come to disagree with the denial, you cover up, cover up, cover up.
The committee was reacting to a December hearing in which Ira Katz, the VA’s chief for mental health, insisted that suicide data reported in the media had been exaggerated.
Three days after his testimony, Filner said, the agency indicated some alarming statistics could, in fact, be correct.
Peake responded with a list of statistics by age and gender, insisting that such data can be incomplete and easily manipulated.
