Thread by @reveal

1/ NEW INVESTIGATION: Jeff Miller used to lead the powerful committee overseeing America’s promise to its veterans.

Now he has an outsized role in the push to privatize VA health care. revealnews.org/article/how-ex…

2/ For years, Miller was chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, which oversees the VA and produces legislation affecting veterans’ lives.

3/ In 2014, he helped draft the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act, the law that first embraced wide-scale funding of private-sector health care for veterans.

Former President Barack Obama signed it into law that August: obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2014/08/0…

4/ After leaving office, Miller registered as a corporate lobbyist. Since then, he's facilitated a gravy train of gov’t 💰💰💰 to his clients, including:

*A disgraced hedge fund magnate pushing unproven treatments
*A troubled disability evaluation company
*Major VA contractors

5/ Twenty years ago, fewer than two dozen corporate interests lobbied the VA. But as the system strained under the weight of returnees from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, private interests saw an opportunity.

6/ By 2018, the year after Trump took office and Miller entered the lobbying force, it was 230.

7/ In one sense, Miller laid the groundwork for his own success. As the head of the House VA Committee, he helped write the very privatization legislation that opened the door to his lobbying operation.

8/ He also appears to be benefiting from an unusual loophole: Although current lobbying rules would forbid him from lobbying Congress directly in his first year out of office, he’s still allowed to lobby the VA, which is part of the executive branch.

9/ Miller did not respond to multiple email messages and telephone inquiries. And his lobbying partner declined to discuss his clients.

10/ But veterans advocates said his quick embrace of corporate lobbying is unprecedented for a former chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

They also voiced alarm at the development.

11/ “If you can so quickly go from committee chairman to hired gun, it’s not good for democracy, and it’s not good for veterans,” said veteran @PaulRieckhoff, founder of @IAVA.

12/ The story of Miller’s rapid trip through the revolving door is a striking illustration of just how loopholes, laws and outside interests come together in modern Washington.

More here: revealnews.org/article/how-ex…

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