VA Unveils Team to Study Racial Disparities in Benefit Payouts to Veterans – By Patricia Kime (Military.com) / June 23, 2023
The Department of Veterans Affairs has a new team and office responsible for helping it address health and benefits inequities among veterans as a result of racial, sex or gender discrimination.
VA officials announced Friday that the agency’s new equity team, directed as part of an executive order issued by President Joe Biden in February to address disparities across the federal government, will be responsible for helping “improve outcomes for historically underserved veterans” by creating and implementing a VA Equity Action Plan.
The panel, dubbed the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access Council, or I*DEA, also will strive to address disparities in recruitment, hiring, promotion and retention of VA employees, according to a department press release.
