Woke V.A. Official Has a Questionable Past When It Comes to Taking Care of Veterans

Assistant Under Secretary for Health Operations RimaAnn Nelson issued a memo to all VA healthcare facilities that the iconic WWII-era photo of a sailor kissing a nurse in New York's Times Square on Victory Over Japan (V-J) Day in 1945 had to be taken down in those facilities because Nelson claimed that the photo violated, “the VA’s no-tolerance policy towards domestic violence, sexual harassment, and assault.”

The move caused such an intense backlash that Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dennis McDonough promptly went over Nelson's head and took to X to rescind the order. His tweet read, "Let me be clear: This image is not banned from VA facilities — and we will keep it in VA facilities.”

In keeping with Biden administration officials' patterns of incompetence, this was not RimaAnn Williams's first go-around. The curiosity over who would have issued something so inane forced a look into Nelson's history.

It's not only like you would expect, it's worse. Williams served as acting director of the John Cochran VA Medical Center in St. Louis from 2009-2013. In 2010, a whistleblower came forward and reported that the Medical Center had exposed roughly 1,800 veterans to diseases like HIV, Hepatitis B, and Hepatitis C due to improper sterilization practices. In 2011, Cochran was forced to stop performing surgeries for over a month when rusty surgical trays were found.

Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) and Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), in a letter to Secretary McDonough, have both called for the firing of Williams. But so far, McDonough is reluctant to do so. He responded to the letter by saying, "Rima has dedicated her career to serving Veterans. We are fortunate to have her at VA, and she will remain at VA."

For now, RimaAnn Williams is in Washington D.C. — failing up, pushing papers — and is not directly responsible for the safety and well-being of any of our nation's veterans.

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Senate Passes $460B 'Minibus' Spending Bill, Which Now Heads to White House

The United States Senate has passed the spending bill sent over by the House, which passed in the lower chamber on Wednesday with Democrat votes. The package carries a $460 billion price tag.

The Senate voted 75-22 to pass the six-bill, $460 billion package on Friday evening, approving full-year funding for the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Interior, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Commerce and Energy, among other offices. The Senate’s approval caps off weeks of tough bipartisan, bicameral funding talks, which began to pick up at the start of the year, only after a months-long stalemate over how to fund the government for fiscal 2024.

House and Senate negotiators have agreed on the Agriculture-FDA, Energy-Water, Military Construction-VA, Transportation-HUD, Interior-Environment, and Commerce-Justice-Science bills.

These bills will receive a vote on March 8. The rest of the government, including the more contentious Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, will receive a vote on March 22.

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