Senator Ernst blasts VA after report finds $20 million spent on art

One Iowa senator called on the Veterans Administration to eliminate its patient care backlog, following a recent report showing $20 million had been spent by the administration over the last decade on artwork for buildings.

“It is appalling that instead of using $20 million of taxpayer money to reduce the backlog and ensure quality and timely care for our veterans, the VA chose to spend that money on decorative artwork,” U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) said in a statement released July 29.

The nonprofit Open the Books, which purports to bring transparency to government spending, released the report. In an article for Forbes by the group’s founder, Adam Andrzejewski, the VA is further criticized for expanding its payroll by nearly 35,000 people in the last three years, but only adding 11 “medical officers.”

“All of this artwork comes with a long-term price tag in the form of diminished care for our veterans,” he wrote.

"This administration continues to neglect our veterans,” Doug Truax, founder of Restoration PAC, a national security oriented SuperPAC, and an Army veteran, told American Pharmacy News. “Members of Congress ought to have listened to Senator Ernst earlier this year when she attempted to halt the artwork purchases."

Truax refers to Ernst’s proposed amendment to a military appropriations bill, suspending all art procurement until the VA backlog had been eliminated. The amendment would have also suspended senior executive bonuses at the VA until the same backlog had been cleared. The amendment was ultimately not adopted by the Senate.

The VA came under fire again this past spring after an investigation by USA Today found evidence that employees in roughly 40 hospitals regularly "zeroed out" wait times for patients to manipulate numbers. The finding is only the latest in a scandal that broke following an investigation two years ago, in which hospitals were found to use manipulation to meet performance objectives as far back as 2010.

The 2014 investigation was followed by the resignation of the VA’s then-secretary, Erik Shinseki. He has since been replaced by Robert McDonald, an Army veteran and former CEO of Proctor and Gamble.

McDonald invited his own controversy in May, after making public comments in which he argued against the practice wait time measurements by noting that the Disney World theme park was not required to do the same.

In response to the Open the Books report, the VA told ABC News that the art purchases are part of a comprehensive system of care that “goes beyond just offering the most advanced medical treatments.”

“We want an atmosphere that welcomes (veterans) to VA facilities, shows them respect and appreciation, honors them for their service and sacrifice and exemplifies that this is a safe place for them to receive their care,” the VA said in the statement. 

In Ernst’s home state of Iowa,  the VA is actively completing roughly $16.6 million in construction on an Iowa City VA hospital, including a new 12,000-square-foot managed care facility, 400-space parking garage, and a 15,000-square-foot addition to the hospital, which was built in the 1950s. The project is expected to be completed in December. But for those like Truax, the VA still has a long way to go.

“I stand united with Senator Ernst in her ongoing quest to make sure we stop wasting taxpayer money at the VA on non-essentials like artwork when critical care is being neglected,” he said.