By Phil Hegseth
Concerned Veterans for America’s #DailyVAFail – our way of keeping the VA reform drum beating loud and strong.
CVA’s Story: Pillow-talk is indeed profitable…
What we’re looking at here is a methodical and devious plot to get rich at the expense of jobless veterans.
Veterans used to have access to a highly successful online platform to find jobs, but ever since Rosye Cloud took the reins – first at the White House and next at the VA as Senior Advisor for Veterans Employment – they’ve seen those resources dismantled and compromised. Today, Cloud has replaced a previously successful system with a new program that doesn’t work—and just so happens to rely on her husband’s software company.
We wish this #DailyVAFail ended on a more positive note by telling you Rosye Cloud was fired for her selfish actions at the expense of veterans, but as is the norm with this past year’s VA scandal, she remains in her position with no indication that disciplinary action will be taken.
The US Department of Veterans Affairs has had better days. Plagued by scandals involving long wait lists for veteran patients, exaggerated claims by their own Secretary’s military service, complete administrative incompetence, and Congressional reporting fraud, the agency may soon be consumed by another: a husband and wife scam.
She works for the department and runs a multi-million dollar community-focused project; he’s a private consultant selling services to the same communities. Worse: he applied for a patent experts say was written to read directly on the program his wife designed.
How the power couple works separately in the same space has caused quite a ruckus – and a US Navy combat vet was fired for trying to blow the whistle on it.
Rosye Cloud, Senior Advisor for Veteran Employment at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), helped Secretary Robert McDonald announce a new VA initiative in May to reconnect veterans to their communities, focused especially on employment. A close associate of Michelle Obama with very limited experience with veterans issues before she joined the White House in 2012, she has been assembling this program since she first left the First Lady’s office for the VA in 2013.
And, let’s face it: the focus is well placed, because unemployment leads to terrible things – especially among returning combat vets.
Unfortunately, the grand announcement came after Cloud disassembled a successful jobs program and rebuilt one that doesn’t work. It is also troubling that her new initiative requires the expertise of private sector software experts like her husband, Chad Cloud, president of Washington, DC-based Software Performance Group.
…
Read the full story detailed in this #DailyVAFail via This Ain’t Hell.
| She works for the [Department of Veterans Affairs] and runs a multi-million dollar community-focused project; he’s a private consultant selling services to the same communities. Worse: he applied for a patent experts say was written to read directly on the program his wife designed. |
Veterans used to have access to a highly successful online platform to find jobs, but ever since Rosye Cloud took the reins – first at the White House and next at the VA as Senior Advisor for Veterans Employment – they’ve seen those resources dismantled and compromised. Today, Cloud has replaced a previously successful system with a new program that doesn’t work—and just so happens to rely on her husband’s software company.
The new program—a sterile website where applicants submit resumes into the void, receiving only the occasional response–doesn’t allow veterans face-to-face contact with employers, as the previous program did, and drastically reduces their chances of finding employment. This
new online resource designed for vets looking for employment also
requires vast and intricate computer programming and processes.
Cloud’s husband just so happened to file a patent
fulfilling the very specifically tailored software needs of Rosye’s
program. A patent attorney even confirmed, “Without question, in my view, the VA program requirements and the patent claims were drafted to read on each other.”
|
Monetizing the Cloud patent with the VA through the life of
Rosye’s program would make their descendants rich for generations – but
only if all other VA employment programs were killed in their infancy. And they were, by his wife, who designed and launched a program covered by his patent. It would also help if other successful solutions outside the VA were starved to death. And they are. Today, no non-VA programs appear on the agency Web site; they never even get a mention in VA programming. |
Rosye Cloud has constructed a monstrous VA-funded online-recruiting program, and her husband built and patented the software to support it. Now, all the Clouds have to do is sit back and watch massive checks roll in while the program fails to put veterans back to work.
But the scheme didn’t stop there – the Clouds have attempted to effectively monopolize the market and reap even greater rewards at the expense of veterans’ well-being and taxpayer dollars. David Bellavia’s investigative reporting with This Ain’t Hell shows how Cloud leveraged her power within the department to do just that. (See text box –>)We wish this #DailyVAFail ended on a more positive note by telling you Rosye Cloud was fired for her selfish actions at the expense of veterans, but as is the norm with this past year’s VA scandal, she remains in her position with no indication that disciplinary action will be taken.
We can’t let this status quo continue. Join CVA in spreading the word to expose
this scandal and hold accountable selfish bureaucrats who do nothing
but fill their pockets while veterans continue to languish.
The FAIL:The US Department of Veterans Affairs has had better days. Plagued by scandals involving long wait lists for veteran patients, exaggerated claims by their own Secretary’s military service, complete administrative incompetence, and Congressional reporting fraud, the agency may soon be consumed by another: a husband and wife scam.
She works for the department and runs a multi-million dollar community-focused project; he’s a private consultant selling services to the same communities. Worse: he applied for a patent experts say was written to read directly on the program his wife designed.
How the power couple works separately in the same space has caused quite a ruckus – and a US Navy combat vet was fired for trying to blow the whistle on it.
Rosye Cloud, Senior Advisor for Veteran Employment at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), helped Secretary Robert McDonald announce a new VA initiative in May to reconnect veterans to their communities, focused especially on employment. A close associate of Michelle Obama with very limited experience with veterans issues before she joined the White House in 2012, she has been assembling this program since she first left the First Lady’s office for the VA in 2013.
And, let’s face it: the focus is well placed, because unemployment leads to terrible things – especially among returning combat vets.
Unfortunately, the grand announcement came after Cloud disassembled a successful jobs program and rebuilt one that doesn’t work. It is also troubling that her new initiative requires the expertise of private sector software experts like her husband, Chad Cloud, president of Washington, DC-based Software Performance Group.
…
Read the full story detailed in this #DailyVAFail via This Ain’t Hell.
Think you have a better VA fail than what
we’ve chosen? Tweet us a link to your story and use the hashtag,
#DailyVAFail, or email our writers directly at philhegseth@cv4a.org
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Concerned Veterans for America is a
non-partisan, non-profit, 501(c)(4) organization that advocates for
policies that will preserve the freedom and liberty we and our families
so proudly fought and sacrificed to defend.
