WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) released the following statement today after a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) detailed recommendations for improved oversight by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) of State Veterans Homes (SVH) across the country. In 2017, Durbin and Duckworth asked GAO to review VA oversight of SVH’s after a deadly Legionnaires’ outbreak at the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy.
“While SVHs is owned, operated, and managed by States, they receive financial support from the VA. This report makes crystal clear that the VA needs to improve its oversight of State Veterans Homes in order to provide transparency and accountability. VA support is critical to ensuring that issues such as the deadly Legionnaires’ outbreaks that occurred under the previous Illinois Governor’s watch never happen again.”
