VA security failed all 30 covert weapons tests: GAO 

Department of Veterans Affairs staff did not detect a prohibited weapon that undercover Government Accountability Office investigators brought into any of 30 tested VA medical facilities — including two with metal detectors — according to a GAO report publicly released May 13. 

Nine things to know:

1. The GAO was asked to review security at VA medical facilities. The report examines the nature of reported criminal activity at VA facilities, the extent to which the VA has implemented federal security requirements and detected vulnerabilities, and VA processes for incorporating security and threat information into infrastructure planning. GAO reviewed VA policies, crime data and risk assessment data; conducted covert tests at a non-generalizable sample of 30 facilities; and interviewed VA personnel and veterans in Arkansas and California.

2. VA staff also did not confront an investigator drinking in plain view from a bottle labeled vodka in 25 of 26 covert tests, which is generally prohibited at VA facilities.

3. The roughly 74,700 crimes reported at VA medical facilities in fiscal 2024 and 2025 were overwhelmingly nonviolent, including disorderly conduct, theft and drug offenses, according to the GAO’s analysis. The average crime rate over the two-year period was about twice as high at urban facilities (214 crimes per facility) than rural facilities (123 crimes per facility) — consistent with a Department of Justice report on overall criminal trends.

4. The Interagency Security Committee, of which the VA is a member, developed a risk management standard that federal agencies are required to follow. The GAO found the VA has not fully implemented all ISC requirements, including documenting decisions on the security strategies it will adopt or measuring the performance of those strategies.

5. The VA has a performance goal to address security gaps through capital planning, and while it has met its overall security-gap planning goal, two of 18 regions did not in fiscal years 2023 through 2025, the report said. GAO attributed this to VA headquarters not communicating to the regions that they were missing the goal.

6. GAO made three recommendations to the VA secretary: Develop a plan with milestones for fully implementing the ISC’s risk management standard; assess the resources needed to fully implement it; and develop a mechanism for VA headquarters to communicate with regional officials on their progress in meeting the 95% security gap closure planning goal. 

7. A VA spokesperson told Becker’s in a May 20 statement that the “second Trump administration inherited from the Biden Administration a fractured VA police force plagued with problems,” adding that the VA identified many of the issues highlighted in the GAO report independently in early 2025 and has been working to fix them.

8. The spokesperson said successful efforts include establishing the Office of Security and Preparedness — led by its own assistant secretary — and consolidating VA police operations under that office. All VA police now report to a law enforcement professional with a direct line to the VA secretary’s office, an improvement from when VA police reported to nearly 150 different medical center directors, the spokesperson said.

9. The spokesperson also said the Trump administration worked with the Office of Personnel Management to reclassify VA police officers to qualify for higher pay, which is expected to improve recruitment, retention and upward mobility.

The post VA security failed all 30 covert weapons tests: GAO  appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.