Senator Warren's Illegal Fundraiser at Los Angeles VA

LOS ANGELES - Eric K. Shinseki, Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), has allowed the Los Angeles VA to be used as a political fundraiser for U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) while the Vietnam Veterans of America, Region 9 service organization (VVA-9), has been denied a permit to host their 4th Annual Veterans Summer Celebration & Picnic on these same sacred grounds. Here’s the published e-mail that was sent to Secretary Shinseki on April 30, 2014, regarding the Veterans Summer Celebration Permit. More than 125 years ago, this land was deeded exclusively to the United States Government to be permanently maintained as a National Home for war-injured and impoverished Veterans.

Today, the property and facilities have been mismanaged and misappropriated for non-Veteran use while disabled Veterans are forced to live homeless and hungry in back alley squalor. In fact, Secretary Shinseki has a Federal Judgment entered against him for engaging in nine separate VA real estate deals that were adjudicated in U.S. District Court as "unauthorized by law and therefore void." On Friday, May 9, Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is not a Veteran or a California resident, held a fund-raising engagement and book signing at the Los Angeles VA’s Wadsworth Theatre. Attendance to Senator Warren’s campaign fundraiser required a $48 per person fee and included a signed copy of her new book, "A Fighting Chance."

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Her book is an autobiography and begins with “I’m Elizabeth Warren. I’m a wife, a mother, and a grandmother.” She’s also a U.S. Senator and the VA bureaucrats know it’s against the law to hold a political fundraiser on Federal VA property. In VVA-9's permit application with the Los Angeles VA, it states specifically that "Use of VA property for partisan events/demonstrations is prohibited by law."  Senator Warren's event was unquestionably a partisan political fundraiser. The Los Angeles VA requires use of this land and facilities to be a "Direct Benefit for Veterans." Senator Warren’s fundraiser was a direct benefit to herself.  What's going on at the Los Angeles VA is criminal, reprehensible and an International embarrassment. The House Veterans Affairs Committee recently voted to subpoena Secretary Shinseki over allegations of delays at VA hospitals that may have caused as many as 40 deaths of patients waiting for care at the Phoenix VA and others.  This is tantamount to human rights violations of Third-World countries and it’s an insult to every American citizen and an International disgrace. At the Hearing, Members of Congress need to ask Secretary Shinseki why he appealed the Federal Judgment entered against him at the additional cost to the American Taxpayer and the prolonged misery to tens of thousands of homeless Veterans who need immediate housing and care in Los Angeles Congress also needs to ask the Secretary why his Department allowed Senator Warren to violate the law with a political fundraiser while Vietnam Veterans of America, Region 9 is denied legal access, and why Los Angeles remains our nation's capital for homeless Veterans when this is the largest VA in the nation, etc. Vietnam Veterans of America’s national organization is a major Plaintiff in the ACLU lawsuit that led to the Federal Judgment against Defendants Shinseki and his Los Angeles VA Director, Donna Beiter. It should come as no surprise that Ms. Beiter, who is not a Veteran, approves or disapproves all applications to use Los Angeles VA property and facilities and that she readily approved a partisan political fundraiser while steadily denying Vietnam Veterans to hold their 4th Annual Summer Celebration and Picnic. Over recent years, Veteran advocates have called for Secretary Shinseki to fire Donna Beiter for her discrimination, malfeasance and mismanagement of the largest VA in the nation, but he has refused. President Obama needs to fire Eric Shinseki posthaste and save America from more International embarrassment. God Bless America and the Veterans Revolution!