The Department of Veterans Affairs has long been viewed as a labyrinth that the nation’s vets have to navigate to get what their country owed them for their military service. In recent years, things have gotten better, due in no small part to a huge increase in its budget. It has soared from $53 billion in 2002 to $125 billion in the current fiscal year (which started a week ago).
Then something like this happens — the Government Accountability Office declared this afternoon that the VA erred by failing to set aside certain contracts — for “service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.” Talk about a trifecta. Ouch.