Forty-four years after the legendary May 1970 Life magazine cover story first exposed the disgusting and shameful mistreatment of our nation’s Vietnam-era veterans in government medical facilities, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is once again in desperate need of reform. Courageous whistleblowers have exposed systemic corruption and exposed falsified records, secret waiting lists, and delayed care — representing yet another scandalous and unconscionable neglect of our nation’s veterans.

Over the years and decades since the reforms of the 1970s, the VA’s calcified bureaucratic culture has undermined and eroded all accountability within the department. But despite the scandals throughout VA finally gaining mainstream media attention and appropriate outrage, the VA and its allies on Capitol Hill are working behind the scenes to sabotage much-needed accountability and patient choice reforms proposed by Congress.