Guest commentary: FOIA is a tool for VA reform

Guest post by Kristina Brown, Hilary Dockray and Paul Sullivan
The Department of Veterans Affairs has already treated a staggering 537,000 Iraq and Afghanistan War veteran patients since their return home from combat. The situation grows more ominous every day: One new, first-time Iraq/Afghanistan war veteran patient walks into a VA medical facility every five minutes.

These facts are now public because Veterans for Common Sense regularly requests information from VA under the Freedom of Information Act. 

VCS is the only organization regularly sending FOIAs to VA about Iraq and Afghanistan. Over the past eight years, VCS has made hundreds of FOIA requests to VA and other agencies. Many resulted in the discovery of vital information casting new light on the devastating human and financial consequences of the wars.

The array of VA information obtained by VCS (or by reporters and academics with the assistance of VCS) ranges from hard numbers about new patients to how top VA leaders paid themselves undeserved bonuses of $33,000 per year as more veterans waited longer for benefits.

In one poignant example, VCS obtained VA documents showing some veterans, distraught over VA delays deciding disability benefit claims, called VA's suicide prevention hotline. These facts were reported by the New York Times in the summer of 2009. Congress has held many hearings and passed legislation to reduce suicide.

Our advocacy efforts also helped pave the way for our veterans to receive billions of dollars in healthcare and disability benefits. VCS showed Congress, reporters and VA leaders that only half of our Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans diagnosed by VA with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder were granted VA disability benefits for PTSD--a shocking discrepancy we believe paved the way for streamlined PTSD claim processing announced by President Barack Obama and VA last month.

Requesting information through FOIA from VA is easy. VA's FOIA offices are generally cooperative. However, VA's often troublesome "don't look, don't find" attitude when responding to FOIA requests can be frustrating because the agency doesn't want to release embarrassing information.

Often other VA offices preparing documents unduly delay releasing reports to VA's FOIA office in the hope VCS might give up our search. Such VA tactics include failing to answer FOIA requests or attempting to narrow the scope of our requests. In one case, VA denied the existence of reports about disabled Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans that Paul Sullivan, the executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, prepared while he worked at VA.

VCS currently has more than 40 pending FOIA requests awaiting action at VA. VCS has had to clarify more than a dozen FOIA requests--even after providing VA with the date of the document, the name of the document, the document report number, and the office that produced the document. Sometimes we wonder if we should tell VA the exact room number and filing cabinet location. 

After several years of extensive efforts, VCS believes we will persevere in our efforts to learn more about the human and financial costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Veterans, Congress, reporters and the public have a right to know the full human and financial costs of the wars.

The numbers, obtained exclusively by VCS under FOIA, reveal the price of war truly is high and escalating sharply. As of December 2009, more than 537,000 of our Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans were already treated at VA hospitals. Budgeting experts, including Harvard's Linda Bilmes, estimate the long-term costs in the hundreds of billions of dollars--and rising every day as the wars continue. 

Every day, VCS advocacy and publicity efforts are intended to make sure VA is ready, willing and able to assist our veterans. FOIA remains a highly successful tool to publicize VA's programs and seek reform. 

Hillary Dockray and Kristina Brown are FOIA Research Assistants at Veterans for Common Sense. Paul Sullivan is the Executive Director at VCS.

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