White House's Veteran's Hotline Goes Live
The White House’s promised veterans complaint line goes live today.
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By: Leo Shane III, June 1, 2017 (Photo Credit: Evan Vucci/AP)
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s long-promised hotline for veteran complaints officially launches on Thursday, but questions remain about the long-term plans for the new resource.
The phone line — live now at 855-948-2311 — is designed to “collect, process and respond to the complaints of individual veterans in a responsive, timely and accountable manner,” according to Department of Veterans Affairs officials.
VA Secretary David Shulkin on Wednesday described the initial rollout of the line as a soft launch, with “live-answer agents” receiving and processing some of the calls. He promised that by Aug. 15, the hotline will have continuous coverage from a live operator 24 hours a day, every day of the week.
“This is something the president had talked about,” he told reporters. “We’re going to be testing that system starting tomorrow and fine-tuning it over the next several months.”
During the presidential campaign last year, Trump touted the hotline as a way for veterans to have a direct line to the commander in chief, and even suggested that he would answer it himself if the opportunity arose.
“This could keep me very busy at night, folks,” he told a crowd of supporters during a July 26 rally last summer. “This will take the place of Twitter.”
Calls to the line will be kept confidential, but information will be shared with VA officials, and in some cases veterans will be asked to give personal information for responses to specific problems.