{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.warren.senate.gov/oversight/letters/warren-schatz-renew-call-for-va-inspector-general-investigation-of-mar-a-lago-cronies-undue-influence-over-dept-of-veterans-affairs-decisions", "Warren, Schatz Renew Call for VA Inspector General Investigation of \"Mar-a-Lago Cronies'\" Undue Influence over Dept. of Veterans Affairs Decisions", "2018-12-19", "2018", "2018-12", "Democrat", "House", "MA", "Elizabeth Warren", "W000817", "www.warren.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 19, 2018\n\t\t\t Warren, Schatz Renew Call for VA Inspector General Investigation of \"Mar-a-Lago Cronies'\" Undue Influence over Dept. of Veterans Affairs Decisions \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n        \n\t\t\t\t Letter Follows New Reports of Trio's Widespread Interference in VA Contracting and Budgeting\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t Text\r\nof the Letter (PDF) Washington, DC - United States Senators Elizabeth Warren\r\n(D-Mass.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) sent a letter to the Inspector General\r\n(IG) of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to reiterate their request\r\nfor an investigation of the alleged interference by three members of President\r\nTrump's Mar-a-Lago club in decision-making at the VA. The letter, which\r\nfollows a recent new report on the scope of undue influence on VA contracting\r\nand budgeting by Mr. Ike Perlmutter, Dr. Bruce Moskowitz, and Mr. Marc Sherman,\r\nfollows a similar\r\nrequest made by the senators in August 2018. The new report\r\npublished by ProPublica this month revealed more disturbing details on\r\nthe scope of the influence that Mr. Perlmutter, Dr. Moskowitz, and Mr.\r\nSherman, each a member of President Trump's Mar-a-Lago's private club, have\r\nwielded over decision-making related to the VA. According to the reports,\r\nthe \"Mar-a-Lago cronies\" were significantly involved in a\r\n\"multibillion-dollar effort to overhaul electronic health records for\r\nmillions of veterans,\" which included reviewing a confidential draft of a\r\n$10 billion government contract for the electronic-records project and\r\nattempting to persuade the VA and Apple to accept Dr. Moskowitz's app to carry\r\nout the project - even though it largely replicated the VA's existing tools and\r\n\"VA officials identified major problems with the app's usability and\r\nfunctionality.\" Senators Warren and Schatz initially requested\r\nan investigation by the VA Inspector General and Government Accountability\r\nOffice (GAO) in August when ProPublica first reported on this matter.\r\nLast month, the GAO announced that it had accepted\r\nthe senators' request for an investigation into the Mar-a-Lago trio's\r\ninterference in VA decision-making, but the IG declined to open an\r\ninvestigation, informing the senators that it would \"continue monitoring\r\nthe situation\" and that \"as more information becomes available, we\r\nwill determine the need to take action.\" In their letter to VA Inspector General Michael J. Missal, Senators Warren\r\nand Schatz cited the recent ProPublica report and repeated their\r\nrequest for the IG to investigate the undue influence of these unqualified and\r\nunaccountable private citizens over VA decisions. \"We believe this new information detailing the Mar-a-Lago trio's access\r\nto, and pernicious influence on, key VA functions should compel your office to\r\nreconsider,\" the senators wrote in their letter. \"The\r\nVA is supposed serve the health care needs of America's veterans - not the\r\nbusiness interests of President Trump's Mar-a-Lago cronies.\" The senators' letter also noted that while the GAO has agreed to investigate\r\nthe matter, the VA Inspector General may also conduct its own parallel\r\ninvestigation due to its detailed knowledge of the VA, and access to documents,\r\npersonnel, and other sources of agency information that may not otherwise be\r\navailable to GAO. ###\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t  \n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n    \n\t\n\t\n    \n    \n    \n    \t\n    \t\n\t    \t  \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tPrevious Article", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.warren.senate.gov/oversight/letters/warren-schatz-renew-call-for-va-inspector-general-investigation-of-mar-a-lago-cronies-undue-influence-over-dept-of-veterans-affairs-decisions"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4641410671174526, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}