President Trump signed a proclamation designating November as “Veterans Month,” Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.
Shulkin said the VA would hold events every day of the month to highlight its progress in reforming the agency. Some of those events, Shulkin said, would focus on the roll-out of new veteran identification cards and the launch of the 24-hour veterans’ complaint hotline Trump promised to establish during the presidential race.
“The Department of Veterans Affairs has significant issues that span back multiple decades and multiple administrations,” Shulkin said.
“Our approach has been [being] open to what those problems are,” he added, noting the administration has sought “bipartisan” solutions to the agency’s issues.
Under the Obama administration, the VA suffered the largest scandal in its history after whistleblowers exposed a widespread scheme to cover up delays in veterans’ care by creating fake patient waiting lists.
Trump seized on criticism of the VA during his campaign and made overhauling the agency a central plank in his platform.
