The Nation - News from Aug. 30, 1988

The Veterans Administration has taken more than 13,000 beds at VA hospitals out of use while telling Congress that budget cuts have not hurt service, the House Veterans Affairs Committee charged. “It is amazing the dramatic contrast between what we are learning from the field and what we are told officially” by VA officials in Washington, said Rep. G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery (D-Miss.), chairman of the panel. The committee will hold a hearing on the matter Sept. 7. A VA spokeswoman declined to respond to Montgomery’s statements because she said she had not seen the survey.