Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough unveiled a new reform effort to examine and reverse racial disparities inside the embattled agency. During a Thursday press conference in Washington, D.C., McDonough announced that he directed his senior staff to "immediately" form a new equity team, which would focus on investigating discriminatory practices at the VA that have long prevented certain Black veterans from collecting the housing, education, and financial benefits they were due.
"I would expect that team to consider policies across the VA -- to address these concerns, including changes related to organizational structure, training, quality, control, outreach, and more," McDonough said. "We won't rest until every veteran gets the world-class care and benefits they have earned."
The announcement comes the same week NBC Bay Area, NBC News Now, as well NBC stations in Philadelphia, Connecticut, San Diego, and Washington D.C., debuted a series of online and televised investigative reports, exposing serious racial disparities within the VA's benefits program.
"I commend the role that you're doing -- giving voice to veterans and holding us to account," McDonough said in reference to media reports highlighting the issue, including the joint NBC News investigation. "Thank you for that."
McDonough, the country's 11th VA Secretary, is the first head of the VA to acknowledge racial disparities within the agency's benefits program, according to McDonough's staff. He noted the timing of the announcement stems from the importance his office has placed on addressing the issue as well as President Biden’s executive order, issued last month, which required "embedding equity into government-wide processes" as well as developing “equitable outcomes through government policies.”
As NBC Bay Area reported Tuesday, a Yale University analysis of 20 years' worth of VA disability compensation records revealed denial rates for Black veterans were disproportionately higher than their white counterparts.
"We're asking the equity team to dig into why," McDonough said. "And not only dig into answering why that's happening, but then to put in place a series of policies and procedures going forward, that will allow us to address those differences to ensure that they don't keep happening."
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While there are more than 2 million Black veterans in America, the VA says it doesn't know how many of those vets may have been negatively impacted by discriminatory practices within the agency's benefits program.
During Thursday's press conference, Senior Investigative Reporter Bigad Shaban questioned McDonough about the VA's efforts to combat discrimination and the still lingering remnants of racism within the agency's benefits program that have resulted in Black veterans receiving disability claim denials as disproportionately higher rates than their white counterparts.
I'm here to fight like hell for vets.
VA Secretary Denis McDonough
"I'm here to fight like hell for all vets," McDonough said during the press conference. "So we are going to use all the tools that we have to ensure that every single veteran, every single veteran gets timely access to world-class care, and gets the kind of benefits that they have earned and so richly deserve."
However, when pressed on whether the VA's recent efforts have been successful in completely halting discriminatory practices, McDonough stopped short of offering a definitive answer.
"I'm saying that we are fighting every single day to get every vet everything that they have earned," he said. "I'm going to let veterans determine whether we've succeeded at that."
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