Launch of veterans complaint hotline delayed two months
Donald Trump holds a list of charities during a news conference he called to discuss money he pledged to veterans' causes at Trump Tower in New York City, May 31, 2016. (Damon Winter/The New York Times)
Just a few days before President Donald Trump's initiative to create a 24-hour White House complaint hotline for veterans was set to launch, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced it would push back the opening by two months.
The reason? The VA said it wants to stop using a third-party vendor to operate the the hotline service and instead staff the service with veterans and VA personnel, according to an Aug. 11 news release.
"The message we've heard loud and clear is veterans want to talk to other veterans to help them solve problems and get VA services," VA Secretary David Shulkin said in the release.
In the meantime, a pilot hotline that launched June 1 is still available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Mondays through Fridays. It can be reached at (855) 948-2311.
But since its rollout, the hotline has been criticized for not meeting the initiative's original goal — to ensure complaints about the VA don't go unresponded to by creating a "private White House hotline." The goal is among Trump's 10 steps to address the VA's history of problems. Trump has said he would answer phone calls if no one else was available to address complaints.
One veteran, Thomas Fant, told the Military Timesthat his experience with the hotline led him to feel that the hotline was just another VA hotline rather than a way to reach out to the White House. His complaint was passed on to VA staff and later marked "resolved," even though the complaint was not addressed.
"My impression is it turned out to be another layer of bureaucracy instead of simplifying things," Fant said.
Haley Scott, deputy director of communications for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said she hasn't heard any feedback about the hotline from the organization's members.
The hotline cost $190,000 to launch. The department estimated it would take $5,700 per month to operate. The latest estimate to staff the hotline is $150,000 a month.
Given this hiccup, it appears we may have jumped the gun on our previous rating of Promise Kept. As we wait to see how things develop, we're moving this promise to In the Works.
Editor's note: This entry was updated 4:45 p.m. ET, Aug. 23, to reflect the agency's latest cost estimate for staffing the veterans hotline.
