Veterans Affairs Spent $5K for 'Floor Cleaning' For Obama's Visit

    A year after news broke of the waiting list scandal at the Veterans Administration medical facility in Phoenix, AZ, President Obama finally visited the facility in March. And while they didn't quite roll out the red carpet for the president, they did clean the floors - and spent $5,000 to do it.
    A record of the contract is posted at the USASpending.gov website, and included in the details is the description "FLOOR CLEANING SERVICE FOR POTUS VISIT."

 
    The contract posting also indicates that "urgency" required a non-competitive contract award, and "only one source" was investigated to complete the work. News of the planned visit came out just days in advance of the president's trip.
    While at the Phoenix medical center, the president held a roundtable discussion where he heard from veterans, and also announced the formation of the MyVA Advisory Committee:

The MyVA Advisory Committee will advise the VA on additional ways the VA can work to improve customer service delivery and veterans’ outcomes. President Obama also charged the new committee with assessing what progress has already been made at the VA to improve veterans’ access to quality medical care.

Note: A version of this post first appeared at The Weekly Standard.